MSI Socket AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATI CrossfireX SATA3&USB3.0 A&GbE ATX Motherboard – 970A-G45
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- CPU: Socket AM3+/AM3 Support AMD Phenom II X8/X6/X4/X3/X2, Athlon II X4/X3/X2 and Sempron Processors; Support Unlock CPU Core Technology; Support HyperTransport 3.0; FSB up to 4.8GT/s
- Chipset: AMD 970 & SB950 Chipset
- Memory: 4x 240pin DDR3-2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066/800 DIMMs, Dual Channel, unbuffered; Max Capacity up to 32GB
- Slots: 2x PCI-Express 2.0 x16 Slots(Support ATI CrossfireX); 2x PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slots; 2x 3.3V/5V PCI Slots
- SATA: 6x SATA3 Ports, Support RAID 0/ 1/ 5/ 10
- Form Factor: ATX
- LAN: Realtek 8111E PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
- Ports: 12x USB 2.0 Ports(6 rear, 6 by header); 2x USB 3.0 Ports; 1x PS/2 Port; 1x Serial Port; 1x Optical SPDIF-out; 1x RJ45 Port; Audio I/O Jacks
MSI 970A-G45 Socket AM3+/ AMD 970/ DDR3/ ATI CrossfireX/ SATA3&USB3.0/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard
Msi motherboard
MSI Socket AM3+ AMD 970 DDR3 ATI CrossfireX SATA3&USB3.0 A&GbE ATX Motherboard – 970A-G45
List Price: $ 120.97
Price:
All I can say is wow!,
Customer Video Review Length:: 0:21 Mins
I am a noob especially when it comes to building a computer from scratch. I have been “playing” around with them like swapping hard drives, adding video cards and accessing the BIOS (even though it wouldn’t let me do anything). So here is what I did and what my experience was.
First off, I did quite a bit of research before I pulled the string on anything. I originally was going to get the Phenom 555 and saw last minute that there was a 560 out there. I liked what I saw in the comment section and that is why I am commenting myself. To help other people make a decision. I purchased the phenom II X2 560 in hopes that I could unlock the extra 2 cores and ultimately have a Phenom II X4. IT WORKED!!
But back to what I did…
In my first build I purchased:
AMD Phenom II X2 560, processor
MSI 970A-G45, motherboard
Corsair XM3 2X4gig, ram
Corsair A70, cpu fan~~ huge heatsink with 2 120mm fans
OCZ ModXStream-Pro 600W, power supply
I reused my:
320g HDD Sata II, which had a copy of Windows 7 installed
Nvidia 7300, graphics card~~~ I know its really crappy but works for now
2 DVD/CD drives, both burn DVD and CD
Case, full tower with 5 80mm fans for air movement
wireless network card
I received everything I ordered from amazon very quickly and put together. First time my motherboard was toast so I sent back in the mail and the next day I got the new one! Once put together, powered right on. First thing I did was to see if my CPU would unlock the extra cores and sure enough. It is now a Phenom II X4 B60! Whoop Whoop. Then came the overclocking just to see what I could do. Remember I am new to all of this. My MSI motherboard is so sweet. I highly recommend to everyone. It has something called Overclock Genie. So I let it do its own thing and it put it to 3.712GHz. I then tested with Prime95 and I got a blue screen right away. So from my reading online, I tried upping the voltage. I changed it from 1.256V to 1.305V which was 2 steps higher. Whala, Stable with Prime95. Then I got greedy and started changing everything to a higher value. Bam Bam and then it shutdown and wouldn’t even start to get to the BIOS. I got 3 beeps from the motherboard. I found how to reset the CMOS and started over. This time I got myself back to the stable 3.712GHz and slowly tweeked to a bit higher. I changed the ratio to 17 from 16.5 and upped the volts to 1.3504V. This leaves my processor at 4 cores running stable at 3.825GHz. Not bad huh?!?!
Overall I am completely satisfied with all of my purchases especially the CPU and motherboard. They made me one happy camper. The money I saved overall by buying the X2 560 may seem small, but I am very happy with the turnout. I highly recommend this product and Amazon.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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|Nice Motherboard.,
Bought this with the knowledge it may not come with the correct BIOS for my AMD FX-4100, but I had a Phenom II standing by to allow me to flash it. Fortunately the motherboard came preloaded with BIOS v1.48 (the newest version, which is not even available on the MSI website). Put the 4100 processor in and booted right up. So far have been able to OC it to 4.5GHz with no problems on the stock cooler. Motherboard seems to have plenty of features. Only qualm I have is the fact it seems to boot slowly. The MSI slash screen takes about 30 seconds to show up. Otherwise, no other problems. Do not have any USB 3 devices to test with it yet. Works great with my Kingston DDR3 1600MHz RAM (although it reads it at 1333MHz until its overclocked).
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|Love these MSI boards,
Just plugged the baby in and ran it. It over-clocked using the genie II setting without any configuration needed and popped a quad-core 3.6GHz up to 4.2. I put this in with a power supply that only had a 4-plug CPU instead of the 8 this board asks for and no complaints at all from the board, all voltages and temps are fine. USB 3s and SATA 6GBs make this baby purr. MSI wants to download a lot of extra software, but that’s optional. These are good boards.
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