Legit Motherboard Reviews
MSI 890FXA-GD70 AMD 890FX Motherboard Review
| Manufacturer: | Micro-Star International |
| Product: | 890FXA-GD7 |
| Date: | Thu, Jul 29, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Dan Stoltz - |
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Final Thoughts and Conlusion
Overall I am thoroughly impressed with the MSI 890FXA-GD70. Why you may ask. It does exactly what it is supposed to do with out complaining. Sure the performance was slightly behind that of the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, but it isn't the kind of performance difference you will notice on a day to day basis. What you may notice on a day to day basis, is the price difference. At the time of this writing the MSI 890FXA-GD70 is $179.99 after rebate. That puts the MSI 890FXA-GD70 thirty bucks below the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula. That's an extra thirty bucks you can invest into a better graphics card or processor. It should also be noted that at the time this was written, Newegg also has the MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard available as an open box item for $151. No, the rebate will not work on open box items.
Overclocking on the MSI 890FXA-GD70 was a breeze. The OC Genie Lite did a heck of a job with the automatic overclock. With next to no effort we were able to hit a rock solid overclock. It was able to raise the FSB up to 247MHz for a 658MHz overclock! When we used the automatic overclocking on the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula we were 200MHz short of what we saw with the MSI 890FXA-GD70. I was able to easily hit the 4GHz mark with the MSI 890FXA-GD70, and I don't have any doubts that the MSI 890FXA-GD70 will have much more to give with better CPU cooling and a bit more time.
The only issue that showed its head on the MSI 890FXA-GD70 was the same issue that I had with the ASUS Crosshair IV Formula. That is the placement of the seventh SATA port for the eSATA. It is going to be blocked when you have multiple graphics cards in place. While it's not a deal breaker, it is just a small bit of poor planning. I would have like to seen the eSATA port closer to the expansion slots or placed on the bottom edge of the board, in a similar fashion to the USB headers.
AMD 890FX chipset based ATX motherboards range in price from $139.99 to $209.99 on Newegg. The $199.99 before a twenty dollar rebate price tag places the MSI 890FXA-GD near the top of the price range for the 890FX boards. Once you subtract the twenty dollar rebate the price drops to the middle of the pack. The Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 takes the overall crown as having the most expensive 890FX powered motherboard with their extended ATX monster. The price of $179.99 after rebate makes the MSI 890FXA-GD70 a very attractive option especially considering that it is backed by a three year warranty.
Legit Bottom Line: The MSI 890FXA-GD70 is a great performing 890FX board that should make your short list if you are looking for a board that has the latest features!
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Page 1 - MSI 890FXA-GD70 Motherboard
Page 2 - MSI 890FXA-GD70 Retail Packaging Page 3 - MSI 890FXA-GD70 Board Layout Page 4 - MSI 890FXA-GD70 System BIOS Page 5 - Legit Reviews Test System Page 6 - PCMark Vantage Page 7 - 3DMark Vantage Page 8 - SiSoft Sandra 2010 Memory Bandwidth Page 9 - USB3 Testing Page 10 - Network Throughput Page 11 - Rightmark Audio Analyzer Page 12 - Aliens Vs. Predator Page 13 - MSI 890FXA-GD70 Overclocking Page 14 - Final Thoughts and Conlusion |
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