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AMD 790FX Mobo Shootout
[Abstract]
The Spider AM3 Makeover Launched initially along with the original AMD Phenom as part of the Spider platform, AMD's enthusiast chipset, the 790FX remains the only one capable of supporting quad...
[Content] PCDigitalMobileGame
Features and Layout - MSI
And on to our final AM3 AMD 790FX competitor, the MSI 790FX-GD70. We could sum it up as a more palatable compromise between the storage and networking emphasis on the Gigabyte and the enthusiast class quad CrossFireX capabilities on the ASUS. As you can see, the four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots for CrossFire are present, with sufficient space for dual-slot graphics cards, which is more than what we could say about the ASUS board.
MSI is very serious about the enthusiast class features on its AMD 790FX board, with LED indicators, automatic overclocking and even an overclocking guide included in the package. |
In terms of its features, the MSI board has a healthy mix of I/O ports. There's FireWire, eSATA/USB combo port, two Gigabit LAN ports, coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs. You get the idea. It just about trumps the ASUS while having all the right ports.
MSI has a rather full complement of I/O ports, from optical and coaxial audio outputs to FireWire, eSATA and of course lots of USB ports. |
This is reflected in the SATA ports, with MSI adding just two more for a total of eight SATA 3.0Gbps ports. Notice that the original six ports are aligned facing outwards, with only two oriented upwards.
With two additional SATA ports, this MSI board may not go as extreme as Gigabyte but still provides an above average number of ports. |
Even the expansion slots show a decent balance, with the remainder of the slots made up by two PCI and a single PCIe x1. Arguably, it's the right proportion of expansion slots, though of course, this all boils down to personal preferences (and the add-on cards that you plan to install).
This board is more than capable of quad CrossFireX, marked out conveniently in blue. |
As for the layout, MSI has nailed it with this board. To be fair, it's not so much about innovation as following the manual (if there's one) on motherboard layouts properly, with the connectors arrayed at the edges of the board and sufficient allowance and space reserved for the CPU socket and expansion slots. MSI uses a single, large heatsink in place of the two separate ones that we saw in the other two motherboards and this arrangement ensures that one won't find the CPU heatsink fan encountering installation issues, since the two latches for the socket have ample space. It also puts a huge chunk of heatsink cooling over the CPU power regulation bits, not to mention that it looks pretty unique.
Instead of having the heatsinks split into two and on two sides of the CPU socket, MSI has gone for a huge single design. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference in terms of thermal performance but it does make it easier to mount the CPU heatsink fan. |
Next, MSI boosts its enthusiast credentials with some new features that are geared towards PC tweakers. First, there are the convenient mini control panel of buttons onboard. While the other two brands have similar buttons, MSI impresses with its more extensive controls, reminding us a little of ASUS' Rampage series of motherboards. Besides the common Clear CMOS button, there's one to enable Green Power and the newest addition, the O.C Dial.
This needs to be enabled initially in the BIOS but upon doing so, you are able to use the dial and button to enable overclocking on the fly. The increment for each twist of the knob is set within the BIOS but once configured, you can use the dial to overclock the FSB in real time. We tried that and it worked, with CPU-Z showing the almost-instant change in FSB as it happened.
MSI has added quite a few switches and even a knob to its onboard panel here. The new O.C Dial feature is something you'll expect on an ASUS Rampage class board but MSI shows that it can do the same too. |
Besides this status LED indicators here that gives useful boot up information, there are other LED dotted throughout this board to show memory and CPU phase changes. |
The other addition is an auto overclocking feature that can be enabled in the BIOS known as Max FSB. Once you select it and restart the system, the motherboard will proceed to test the FSB so there could be further reboots. But it will eventually settle on a FSB, usually within a minute at most. In our case, the maximum FSB for this 790FX-GD70 board as determined by this feature turned out to be 313MHz. We also have to mention that MSI's M-Flash, a very useful BIOS flashing utility is on this board, bringing the company on par with its competitors' similar tool and removing one of our previous grievances with MSI motherboards.
Finally, taking a leaf out of ASUS' book, MSI has its own instant-on Linux-based standalone OS, Winki that will come with this board and which has its own built-in browser and IM client. This OS will also see action in its mini-notebooks. Together with other MSI technologies that we have seen from before, like Green Power and DrMOS, along with the new additions today, MSI looks to have crafted quite a competitive 790FX offering.
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