Legit Motherboard Reviews

Asrock AM2V890-VSTA & MSI K9A Platinum Motherboards

Manufacturer: Multiple
Product: AMD Socket AM2 Motherboards by VIA and ATI
Date: Tue, Aug 22, 2006 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Jason Petermann -
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A Look at the Boards

We have a couple of socket AM2 boards on the bench today, each with a different chipset and different features.  The purpose of this review is not to compare the features of the boards, as they are certainly in two different price points, this review will show the difference in performance in the chipsets though, and give you a look at the overclocking capabilities of them.  The ATI 3200 express chipset is a proven socket 939 overclocking monster, so we have the rare opportunity of seeing how one chipset performs on two different sockets.   Let's take a quick peek at the boards:

Image Description

The Asrock AM2V890-VSTA is a small form factor board, and because of that, you will see that there are not a whole lot of extras on the board, such as extra SATA connectors and the such.  It sports the VIA K8T890 CF Northbridge and the VIA 8237A Hybrid Booster southbridge. 

Image Description

The MSI K9A Platinum is an ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 and SB600 Chipset board.  This is a high end board from MSI that is geared toward the enthusiast and gaming crowd.  With its ability to run Crossfire, there are no limitations on this board at all as far as hardware upgrades are concerned.


Next Page - A Closer Look: The Asrock AM2V890-VSTA Specs


Review Index
Page 1 - A Look at the Boards
Page 2 - A Closer Look: The Asrock AM2V890-VSTA Specs
Page 3 - A Closer Look: The Asrock AM2V890-VSTA Layout
Page 4 - A Closer Look: The Asrock AM2V890-VSTA Bios
Page 5 - A Closer Look: The MSI K9A Platinum Specs
Page 6 - A Closer Look: The MSI K9A Platinum Layout
Page 7 - A Closer Look: The MSI K9A Platinum Bios
Page 8 - The Test Setup
Page 9 - The Tests: Overall System Performance - World Bench 5
Page 10 - The Tests: Overall System Performance - World Bench 5 Continued
Page 11 - The Tests: Overall System Performance and Memory Bandwidth
Page 12 - The Tests: 3D and Gaming Performance
Page 13 - The Tests: Overclocking
Page 14 - The Conclusion