MSI 990FXA-GD80 Motherboard

[Al pacino]

In past AMD was very uncomfortable with market share of desktop processors. After introduction of more new technologies and manufacturers shifting to many new products like Intel's Core architecture which delivers other high-performance systems can be a matter for AMD to develop more new products. Now to stay in the race it is better to follow the trend. This time AMD plans to deal with the mid range systems. And the best part to begin is providing mid range product under low prices. Prices play a major role in demand and success of a product. By providing low price products allows AMD to capture a higher share. Currently Sandy Bridge processors are significantly outperforming the competition in performance. On that behalf the new architecture Bulldozer came in existence which can beat the current products. It is found that the level of performance is clearly insufficient for success in the market. There is nothing new in this chipset. The only thing that you can benefit is a better performance. It is just a new version of old models. Although more accurate to say is that 990FX - 890FX is the next version with minor changes that do not affect consumer qualities. As for the latter it is worth noting that the technological "reserve" AMD has, and the company would be able to easily increase the functionality of the chip. AMD's 990FX can be the base of your high end system.

The CPU socket has changed somewhat to new which can help to use Bulldozer based processor on it. AMD has not provided exact information on the coming 9-series chipset, preferring to delegate the task to the motherboard manufacturers and not directly managing any kind of presentation. There is no official reason for this, but we think it all depends on the presence of non-family processors Bulldozer that should have accompanied the launch of the first socket AM3 + motherboards. AMD 990FX is a kind of top range chipset with PCI Express memory controller which is capable of handling high end video support. You can configure upto 4 Radeon cards on it. And implemented them with CrossFire support. MSI as a partner has implemented the AMD's 990FX chipset on its current MSI 990FXA-GD80 Motherboard. AMD's 990FX chipset is considered as a boom in the market for high end boards.

Advantage of AMD 990FX Chipset boards:

• Good functionality and support equipment
• High-quality processor node
• AMD CrossFireX technology support and NVIDIA SLI configuration in x16 + x16 + x8
• Availability of technology OC Genie II with the function of core unlocking.
• The presence of buttons «Power», «Reset», «OC Genie» and an indicator of the POST-codes
• Support six ports SATA 6.0 Gb / s
• Support USB 3.0
• CPU support AMD FX.

AMD's 990FX chipset Features:

• With support for up to 4 AMD Radeon Premium Graphics boards with AMD CrossFireX technology and advanced technology like SATA 6Gb/s to accelerate your connectivity, the AMD 990FX chipset is ideal fit for your FX processor and your ultimate PC.
• Full socket compatibility for AM3+ and AM3 processors with Hypertransport 3.0 interconnects means you can upgrade your components when you’re ready to, and help ensure you get the most performance.
• PCI Express 2.0 technologies enable 2x16 or 4x8 configurations to enable higher levels of performance on your graphics applications. The AMD 990FX enables our best scalable platform for game-dominating performance with support for 2,3, or 4 graphics cards.
• Customize your PC by getting full control of your different AMD components.
• Enjoy the latest in performance benefits on your multiple RAID configuration support and enhanced SSD configurations with motherboards built around AMD 990FX.

[Al pacino]

All motherboards under the 990FX series support the current generation of processors and traditionally supplied a large set of features. Considered today motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 relates specifically to this class of highly functional solutions - being based on chipset AMD 990FX , it provides support not only ATI CrossFireX, but also NVIDIA SLI, which, given the presence on board immediately four slots PCI-Express x16 , would create a very powerful gaming configuration. Motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 is packaged in a very high quality and nicely decorated cardboard box. On the front side of the box provides information about the most significant features of the product: performance electronics board in accordance with the concept Military Class II and the requirements for military electronics, support standard USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb / s, the availability of technology OC Genie II.

Furthermore, the relevant icons declare their readiness to work with multiple payment cards in ATI CrossFireX mode as well as NVIDIA SLI and future processors, AMD FX. The arrangement of elements and connections considered fortunate enough to board - memory slots quite far from the top slot PCI Express 2.0 x16, so he installed a large-size video clips did not block RAM. All vital ports and connectors are located on the edges of boards rationally - to work with them comfortably. SATA ports are a horizontal arrangement, which allows them to use when several long graphics cards. Another advantage of linking MSI 990FXA-GD80 can be assumed that being for PCI Express x1 slot radiator cooling system has a special form, which should allow establishing a long slot and expansion board with an appropriate interface. In addition, the bottom of the board was a place for the functional to facilitate the work in the open stand - its buttons Power, Reset and OC Genie.

Motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 has seven expansion slots, including possible to find just four PEG-slot PCI-Express x16 to build high-performance configurations with multiple graphics accelerator with support of multi-GPU technology ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI. True potential for building such systems, the configuration of the motherboard allows you to use only three slots PCI-Express x16, as the fourth slot is likely to be blocked during the installation of three dual-slot graphics cards with cooling system. In addition to the fourth slot PCI-Express x16 allocated to only four bus lines PCI-E, which is clearly not sufficient to realize the potential of modern video cards. The work is appropriate for use with three slots PCI-Express x16 possible modes x16/x0/x16 or x16/x8/x8.

The motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 has four 240-pins DIMM Dual Channel RAM for standard DDR3, maximum volume is limited to 32 GB. The maximum guaranteed rate of memory can be up to 2133 MHz in overclocking mode. For the organization of the RAM in dual channel mode, you must first install the memory modules in the black slots. Passive system for cooling the motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 consists of two aluminum heatsinks. Passive system for cooling the motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 consists of two aluminum heatsinks.

BIOS

To get into the BIOS traditionally should press Del, and then goes to a page that opens the Main tab top menu bar. At the bottom you can see information about the BIOS code is based on AMI. The page consists of a single paragraph PCI Latency Timer. It is set to delay bus PCI. This is followed by the item ACPI Settings, behind which two lines to select and display sleep. Motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80 as preloader uses a variation of EFI BIOS, which is based on the interface design Aptio AMI. Aptio interface differs from the skins of other manufacturers in that it is most similar to the BIOS, which we used to see before the EFI, at the same settings can be done with the mouse. All the necessary settings for overclocking are gathered in the Overclocking. Since this section is sufficient volume, all available to change the settings in the table below. Among the most interesting features of this section, we note the presence unlock hidden cores, which can be activated in paragraph «Unlock CPU Core», as well as the function of OC Genie II. To increase stability during acceleration can serve as a stress management setting on the CPU, memory, north and south bridge, and in most cases, setting the voltage step is small enough that it is convenient to fine optimization of the system.

Overclocking Profile allows you to store up to six different BIOS settings and easily switches between them. Access to system monitoring can be found in Advanced. Here you can control the fan and watch the current speed of rotation, as well as the temperature of the CPU. The menu item M-Flash makes it comfortable to flash BIOS from the hard drive, USB-drive or CD-ROM. A small bonus for the user becomes a set of buttons to facilitate experiments on board. One of them is to reset the BIOS and is located on the rear panel. As a general rule, reset the settings necessary when a fairly serious problem or an incompatibility with components, or with overclocking. To determine what exactly the problem lies, seven-segment display will set next to the Southbridge

[Al pacino]

Layout

Standard layout for the proposed MSI are sockets for the processor, memory slot and the chipset north bridge in the upper half, with expansion slots, SATA connectors and various buttons and connectors Accessories relegated to the lower half. The overall design does not lend itself to particular criticisms and observations: from the first memory slot and PCI Express 16x there is a considerable distance, which facilitates component installation, the SATA connectors are rotated 90 degrees so as to be accessible even with two video cards installed. The only component that suffers from a non-ideal positioning is the ATX power connector 8-pin, wedged between the heat sink and PS / 2 ports.

Compatibility with socket AM3 processors allows us to analyze even motherboards with AM3 +, although not to the point of being able to take advantage of the specific innovations introduced just thinking about the combination with AM3 + processors. For this reason, in the course of performance we have adopted a Phenom II X6 1100T, currently the fastest among the proposed solutions for AMD desktop systems. To support DDR3 memory has four corresponding slots. They are made of blue and black plastic, and alternate. As usual, placed them at a distance from the socket that the use of modules with high cooling elements can be combined poorly with a large heatsink the processor itself. So be careful when selecting components.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the motherboard MSI 990FXA-GD80, using the most advanced core logic ADM 990FX, focused mainly on future processors AMD Bulldozer, it is already available on the market and, importantly, also compatible with the current generation of processors. But is there any sense to buy this motherboard at a time when processor family AMD FX, for which it is intended, still not on sale? If you are just now caring for high-performance system based on the logic of AMD, it does make sense to pay attention to today tested fee MSI 990FXA-GD80. This product embodies the most advanced technical and functional solutions, and setting the currently available powerful six-core AMD processor can get very good performance for home gaming computer thanks to the four slots PCI-Express x16, support multi-GPU configuration AMD CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI .

On the MSI 990FXA-GD80 is home to four PCI Express x16 slots, but they are not all tied up with the full lane. However, such extensive CrossfireX and SLI setups are possible. There are six SATA-6-GB/s-Ports, four USB 3.0 ports, two e-SATA connector, Gigabit LAN, 7.1 audio (including THX Studio Pro), power, reset, and OC button and debug LEDs. The support of the board architecture processors AMD Bulldozer in the near future will further increase the performance of your system by exchanging a small surcharge on the latest available processor series AMD FX.