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Are MSI boards to be avoided?

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chrisjames61

Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Location
Holed up in Branford, CT
Are MSI motherboards as bad as their reputation on these forums? I was thinking of getting a MSI A88X-G45 GAMING FM2+ to pair with a A10-7850K. I also was toying around with the idea of getting a MSI 970 Gaming AM3+ because I have a 6300 and 8320 both sitting around collecting dust. I like the way these boards look. But not enough to buy them if the power delivery isn't up to task. Overclocking isn't important. But I don't want thermal throttling at stock speeds at 100% load either. Thanks.
 
do you see many in this forum? that should be the first clue.
for am3+ the asus sabertooth is the standard, if your pushing for max clocks the pre R2.0 is the choice.
 
Best APU board with quite good power section ( not overheating without fan ) is probably ASRock Extreme6 ( also price is good ). I'm running one in my daily PC right now.
I would sell these AM3 chips and get something from Intel if you wish to buy cheaper and pretty solid platform. Cheaper AM3 boards are total mistake. You will have or problems with power section or problems with cooling. Cheaper MSI boards are bad idea and their quality is also one of reasons why almost no one is recommending them on OCF.
 
Best APU board with quite good power section ( not overheating without fan ) is probably ASRock Extreme6 ( also price is good ). I'm running one in my daily PC right now.
I would sell these AM3 chips and get something from Intel if you wish to buy cheaper and pretty solid platform. Cheaper AM3 boards are total mistake. You will have or problems with power section or problems with cooling. Cheaper MSI boards are bad idea and their quality is also one of reasons why almost no one is recommending them on OCF.

My Intel rigs are my Mac Pro's. I just like to tinker. I already have nice ASUS and Gigabyte 990 chipset boards. I was looking for something different to play with. I do have an ASRock FM2A85X Extreme 6 and its not bad.
 
Has MSI's quality really slipped that badly?

My first PC build had an MSI board, and I used it for nearly six years. Never had a problem, until three of the capacitors went bad in its sixth year.
 
I rock one in my gaming rig, No complaints other than it is less then stellar handeling memory
 
The Sabertooth or Crosshair are the only boards anyone recommends for AM3+ here. Maybe the occasional Extreme 9.

I have seen plenty recommend the UD3, as long as it's the right Revision. Certainly in a better price bracket for the budget-minded than those you listed. And seeing as both ASUS boards you listed are completely out of stock at Newegg, chances are they aren't really an option anyway.
 
in the ud3 gigabyte boards I think it was the rev. three boards that gave all the issues, I think it's the rev 4 boards that most are using with good service.
 
in the ud3 gigabyte boards I think it was the rev. three boards that gave all the issues, I think it's the rev 4 boards that most are using with good service.

The issue with those boards was some of the revs were the first to change to UEFI from BIOS for Gigabyte.
Once they figured out UEFI, the new rev was solid again.

But yes, avoid MSI for AMD at all costs.
 
was it the rev4 that got it put right?

Yep.

And the same with the 970A-UD3. If you have a Rev 1.X of the 970A-UD3 you're good. Or if you get the UD3P.
The ones that switched to UEFI from BIOS (after 1.X) had the same issues as the early 990FXA-UD3.
 
I have a 1.1 with BIOS (figured that out the hard way trying to install SteamOS). But I have had zero issues with mine.
 
Well you are at a real delimna.

I have a 6300 and 8320 both sitting around collecting dust. Overclocking isn't important. But I don't want thermal throttling at stock speeds at 100% load either. Thanks.

After helping with FX processor since they showed in REtail in 2011, I have come to really like my FX-8350 8 core heat monster that I 'have' enough cooling to keep from going toasty on me. BUT there is n0 way I would want to run it at stock speeds since it gives too much away to the Intel cpu at the slower speeds.

Now here is where I almost lineup with Woomack, if you are not interested in overclocking either the FX6300 or the FX8320 so that they can really do some work...then sell them and get an Intel i3 or i5 non-K version and just run 'em.

If you aren't going to get a board AND cooling good enough to run some performance enhancing numbers with the FX's you have, then it is just about even with a non-fun-non-adjustable i3/i5 non-K cpu in my mind.

In the actual real scope of things, that is just about how it really all works out.
RGone...
 
Has MSI's quality really slipped that badly?

My first PC build had an MSI board, and I used it for nearly six years. Never had a problem, until three of the capacitors went bad in its sixth year.

For me MSI looks like:

Socket A - pretty good VIA based boards
A64 754/939 - problems with random deaths, I made at least 4 RMA for top 939 board and in all cases they couldn't fix it so I got new as replacement
AM2/AM2+ - average boards, nothing special and not many overclockers were using them for some reason
AM3+ - some had good BIOS and ASUS CHVF modded BIOSes were actually based on RAID ROM from MSI but also for some reason there are not many good results on these boards and not many overclockers were picking them
Cheaper AM3+ should work on stock but many of them have issues after OC
775 - some were good , some were bad, still power section was weak
1156/1366 - Dr.MOS issues, simply many boards were burning at longer higher load, bad option for OC
1155 - cheaper boards = junk , problems with PCB, sometimes new boards had broken traces near memory slots and in some other places, also weak power section
more expensive 1155 boards were pretty good but were not overclocking memory as high as other brands
1150 - more expensive series seem good for CPU OC but I had no chance to test them, cheaper ... well I'm simply not touching cheaper MSI series
2011 - pretty good boards but are not overclocking memory above ~2600, actually can stick to 2400 , My X79A-GD45 Plus had some Dr.MOS issues and I got new from RMA

There are good reviews of new gaming series boards that are also in reasonable prices but I won't tell you how solid are they. I would pick Gigabyte, ASUS or ASRock over MSI anytime.

Looking at all MSI boards, you can pick single good models but in general all their boards were always pretty average.
MSI graphics cards were always one of the best but for last 2 years I see they are cheating customers and are releasing badly designed series. Also every card has warranty sticker even Lightnings what is kinda sad. Cards for overclocking where you can't even change cooling without losing warranty.
 
After helping with FX processor since they showed in REtail in 2011, I have come to really like my FX-8350 8 core heat monster that I 'have' enough cooling to keep from going toasty on me. BUT there is n0 way I would want to run it at stock speeds since it gives too much away to the Intel cpu at the slower speeds.

Now here is where I almost lineup with Woomack, if you are not interested in overclocking either the FX6300 or the FX8320 so then sell them and get an Intel i3 or i5 non-K version and just run 'em.

If you aren't going to get a board AND cooling good enough to run some performance enhancing numbers with the FX's you have, then it is just about even with a non-fun-non-adjustable i3/i5 non-K cpu in my mind.

In the actual real scope of things, that is just about how it really all works out.
RGone...

RGone, question for you. On the boards that I have without any serious tweaking I got both my 6300 and 8320 to run at 4.3 GHz. Prime95 stable with good temps for 6+ hours while I surfed the web. I am not a gamer nor do I do anything besides surf the web, listen to iTunes, watch Youtube videos. At what speed do you feel these cpu's need to be "so that they can really do some work..."? And not give too much away to an i5 or i7? By the way I love reading your posts. Wish you posted more lol!:)
 

I don't trust web sites that aren't in English. Lol! It looks more like an advertisement than a real review of the motherboard. I really dislike the "military grade" crap in advertisements. "military grade" can easily mean "lowest bidder"! Another thing I don't like is you can't get real specs for the MSI boards like you can for Gigabyte and ASUS. No info on if its 6+2 or 8+2?
 
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