MSI 990FXA-GD80 Pro Reviews

The MSI 990FXA-GD80 is an excellent addition to MSI's lineup of AMD boards. It comes stacked to the brim with attractive features and high-quality components. We really liked the military class components on the board, and though there is no way to test if they are actually up to component standards, we never once experienced a component failure on our sample, even during overclocking. The board also has decent internal connectivity, with a full spate of SATA 6Gbps ports. This is encouraging to us, as solid state drives are now large players in the storage market, and can make full use of the 6Gbps bandwidth, where traditional mechanical hard drives cannot. We do wish the board came with better USB 3.0 connectivity, as more and more users are switching to the USB 3.0 standard. The board only has two rear panel USB 3.0 ports, and can fit an additional two through the included add-on. However, this add-on potential is conditional upon users having enough expansion slots on their case, and is in any case, inconvenient. The 990FXA-GD80 also has good overclocking potential, and its Click BIOS is an excellent tool, though for some reason, its included OS-based software did not work for us. We were able to overclock the board to 4.2GHz without any problems, and it performed wonderfully. The board's value also makes it an excellent choice for users who have just bought an AMD FX CPU, or who are looking to upgrade older AMD systems. It has a great component layout and overall design, and we are sure it will be a good choice for any user, gamer or enthusiast.

I would like to start by stressing that we reviewed the mainboard in alphabetical order, but we would like to draw our conclusions starting from the mainboard by MSI. MSI 990FXA-GD80 disappointed us, as we expected it to perform much more impressively. We were also a little upset with the manufacturer, because they failed to ensure that it comes with the current BIOS version. We were also upset about being unable to get better overclocking results. An additional SATA 2 controller instead of a SATA 3 can hardly be considered a serious drawback, but the COM-port support is hardly a big plus. There is one consolation though: MSI 990FXA-GD80 comes at a lower price than the competition,

In sum, the MSI 990FXA-GD80 stands out most for its support of legacy hardware. If you’re building a new AM3+ system but want to continue to use a subset of older equipment (say, a PS/2 keyboard, an amp that connects via coaxial audio, or a serial port for debugging), the 990FXA-GD80 has you covered. Yet it’s also well-equipped for modern equipment, including USB 3.0 peripherals, plus hard drives/SSDs that use the latest high-speed Serial ATA spec. It's also built around a UEFI BIOS that delivers support for multi-terabyte hard drives, an essential feature in any forward-looking board like this one. The accessory bundle is thoughtful, too—the USB 3.0 arrangement especially so. Few PC case makers are yet incorporating integrated USB 3.0 ports into their chassis, because the header-connection interface for USB 3.0 ports has not quite been settled upon by all. As a result, we appreciated the inclusion of MSI's backplate. It makes certain that whatever case you have, the additional pair of USB 3.0 connections from the mainboard's header won't go to waste. To be sure, we’d like to see MSI modernize the look of its UEFI BIOS to incorporate some of the user-interface design improvements of the last few years. It's a finishing touch that would make this cutting-edge board look and feel cutting edge. But overall, the 990FXA-GD80 is a reasonably priced, well-laid-out basis for an AM3+ system, whether you’re building a single-card basic performance system or a multiple-graphics-card extreme powerhouse.

While this board from MSI is not without its challenges, there is an upside to the 990FXA-GD80 in addition to overclocking. For one it really is a good looking motherboard. The blue and silver theme that MSI is using on its latest boards just looks right. The three year warranty gives the end user some piece of mind knowing that should anything go wrong MSI has it covered for what is the usual turn time on hardware. The Military spec parts should make any reliability concerns a moot point. At $179 it is competitively priced, leaving some room for the rest of the build using either the Last gen Phenom II or AMD's Latest FX series processors. Overall the board is easy to work with and would be a good addition to any AMD build.

Value-wise, this is a hard board to beat: AMD's top-end chipset, a smattering of enthusiast features, and great performance, all for well under a mere $174.99. Sounds like a deal to me!

You can take a bit more control over overclocking in this BIOS of course, and even change exactly how that OC Genie button works when you press it – how far it ramps up the FSB, or CPU clock ratio, let's say. The big issue though is the price. At £100-odd we could understand its feature set compared to the competition. At £135, said competition is just too close in price and too good – this board's capable, but out-classed by its rivals.

For now, it is nice to see that AMD has finally released the official chipsets and boards that will support Bulldozer. Asus took a big lead here with their SABERTOOTH product, but historically speaking MSI is not all that far behind. A few BIOS fixes and perhaps a revision, and we have a competitive part from MSI that actually costs $10 less than the rather lean and sparse TUF product.

Overall the MSI 990FXA-GD80 seemed like a work in progress rather than a finished product. At this point in time we really cannot suggest you buy this motherboard if you are looking at upgrading to a Zambezi processor later. The MSI 990FXA-GD80 simply has some growing to do.

The MSI 990FXA-GD80 brings several nice features, such as four PCI Express x16 slots, two FireWire ports, two USB 3.0 ports, six SATA-600 ports, POST diagnostics display, decent audio quality with coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs, a very high-end voltage regulator circuit, and a terrific set of overclocking options. In addition, the OC Genie button allows you to overclock your system without the need of manually changing any complicated settings. Of course it is not the cheapest motherboard around, but it comes with a fair price for its set of features.

Well at the end of the day what do we have on the table with the new MSI 990FXA-GD80? Okay for starters if you are looking for a faster solution for your current CPU you will not find that in the new 990FX chipset as it main features are better CPU support, both SLI and CrossFire support and a slightly faster Hyper Transport. This is not to say in any way the new MSI 990FXA is not of quality and desirable, but if you already have an AMD system up and running fine, changing motherboards will not give you much of a performance upgrade only more features. The drivers we used for this review were very early and improved performance will be seen as the chipset matures. Don’t look for miraculous performance gains with the new 990FX chipset, but get ready for whole new CPU in the form of the FX Unlocked Bulldozer series, and complete flexibility in your choice of VGA configurations unlike you have ever seen before.

The MSI 990FXA-GD80 motherboard proved to be a solid performing platform, but it really needs AMD's upcoming Zambezi processors to really show what it can do and those aren't out yet!