Unboxing MSI Bulldozer?s 990FXA-GD80

[gzhil]

So here it is - MSI 990FXA-GD80. The chipset 990FX is actually not new and it is a rebranded 890FX chip with a minor change to support version 3.1 for the HyperTransport Bus. One good thing also is that this board now supports NVIDIA SLI ? So good news for those AMD fanboys out there who wanted to go for a NVIDIA SLI, 3-Way or Quad-SLI setup.  Aside from SLI , you will still able to do Crossfire in 2, 3 and 4-Way configurations.

Let us talk about now some hefty features of the MSI board. With the OC Genie Button that MSI introduced before which is just for pure auto overclocking of processors. Now with the same button, it can both unlock and overclock AMD processors ?  (Way to go MSI!!!) . MSI also started a new marketing campaign which states ?CERTIFIED MILITARY STANDARDS? on their high end motherboard boxes which you will see later.  This Military Standard ?MIL-STED-810G? consists of 7 tests including temperature, pressure, humidity, vibration and shock tests. This is why MSI implemented board components like Super Ferrite Chokes, Solid Capacitors and Hi-C Capacitors to withstand these tests.

For the rest of the features I will just enumerate them below.
? Super-Charger ? charges USB devices quickly
? Lossless Audio ? better HD audio playback
? APS ?Active Phase Switching? ? help saving energy on MSI boards.
? Winki 3 - free Linux-based O/S

Main Specifications

?CPU ? AMD AM3/AM3+ Processors
?Chipset ? AMD 990FX / SB950
?BIOS ? EFI AMI Bios
? Memory ? 4x DDR3 DIMMS max 32GB
?Expansion Slots ? 4x PCIE 2.0 x16 (1 x16, 1 x8, 1 x4)
?SATA ? 6x SATA 6gb/s Ports, 2x eSATA 3G ports
?USB- 8x USB 2.0, 4x USB 3.0

Box

Back side of the box. Some information about the features of the board

So far, MSI did a good job for the box design. Very informative, it has a tendency to make any possible mobo buyer to purchase their board hehehe

Bundled accessories

The board has a very nice and clean layout. Chipset heatsinks are silver and blue which I really like.

The Easy Buttons ? OC Genie, Power and Reset. Check out the THX plate and underneath it is the Realtek Audio Chip

SATA 6GB/s ports and this is the first MSI board that I saw a USB 3.0 Front Panel Header which has the same orientation with the SATA Ports. Another point for MSI

Complete I/O Terminal Ports. USB 2.0/3.0, Firewire, SPDIF, ESATA and 2x PS2 Ports-YEHEY!!!!

That?s it for my share. I will test the board once I get a hold of the new AM3+ processor. Hope it will be a beast

 

[Svet]

Thanks for sharing gzhil, you always make a nice qiuck reviews of the latest MSI's hardware.
I would suggest to use a better photographic cammera. The images quality doesn't look good

 

[lostdude]

drooooooling on my keyboard...

Where do i get these here in the US , cant find it at microcenter or the egg , I would love to get my hands on one of these

 

[MegaX]

Its you post the performance of the motherboard with SATA 3?

 

[colson79]

Looks like a solid board.  If your lucky AMD might actually release a Bulldozer CPU this year.  I was extremely disappointed AMD didn't announce a release date at E3 this week.

 

[MegaX]

Videos that I found the motherboard I want to see her performance in SATA 3

[youtube]ZSJDYg6P3zY[/youtube]

[youtube]gt5zH3x9UWw[/youtube]

 

[HU16E]

SATA III or SATA 6Gb/s. SATA 3 is a mainboards number 3 SATA port.

 

[MegaX]

SATA III or SATA 6Gb/s. SATA 3 is a mainboards number 3 SATA port.

LegitReviews

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1626/12/

 

[Darren W]

AM3+ release pushed back to atleast September 

 

[colson79]

I hadn't heard the September date but that is an Epic failure on AMD's part.  Intel will have there sandy bridge E series out around that time.  If the performance of bulldozer was good, this summer would have been the time for AMD to gain some ground.

 

[Darren W]

I read about that in a business report. it was the only current info I could find.
I own both AMD and NVIDIA stock (losing my shirt on both, hoping the that  bulldozer would bring AMD around)

 

[colson79]

At least Llano is looking strong for the mobile market.  Won't help me for my next build but hopefully it will help AMD's stock price.   

 

[Darren W]

It broke my heart when Nvidia stopped making ship sets for MB's.
Hopefully when they finally release the AM3+'s they will work on the first try (unlike someone elses chips) )

 

[MegaX]

Its you post the performance of the motherboard with SATA III 6Gb/s ?

 

[Henry]

There is not a rotating disk HDD that can reach the limits of S-ATA ll as it is. SSD can barely do it. S-ATA lll is more hype than it is useful at this point in time.

 

[colson79]

The new Vertex 3 and other current gen solid state drives are easily saturating the old Sata 2 ports.  There are huge performance gains when connecting them to the new Intel sandy bridge native sata 3 ports.  I have seen the same performance numbers form the AMD 850 SB so I expect this board to perform just as well.

 

[ex_forum_user_3]

I have seen it too, SSD is the only "drive" that can use those busses to the max.

 

[Stu]

Agreed, SATA 6Gb/s spec is only really useful for SSD drives, as mechanical hard drives are still limited by the physical speed at which they can rotate, so SATA 6Gb/s is pretty pointless for these, as there is very little performance gain.

 

[MegaX]

The question is whether we see it run better than that, as in P67 chipset mobo was better than AMD SB850, and the test I posted the result look worse, I have an OCZ SSD Vertex 3, wanted to see working well

[youtube]pMniLsz_s28[/youtube]

 

[colson79]

Base on the video you posted there is a very minor difference in the speed of the AMD 850 VS the P67 series Sata 3 speeds with the intel SSD.  I have seen some benchmarks with the Vertex 3 drives that actually show the AMD 850 slightly ahead of the P67 chipset.  If you are focused on SSD Sata 3 performance you will be good with the AMD or intel.  Just stay away from the marvel Sata 3 controllers as they are junk.