MSI Computer Corp. 7693-020R Motherboard North Bridge AMD 970 & South Bridge AMD SB950 Chipset ATX DDR3 800 AMD AM3+ Motherboards (970A-G46)

I love this board have always been a fan of msi I have owned asus, ecs and biostar I would probably put this board up there with asus nothing wrong with other brands I just personally like msi do to it's design, features and esthetics. I purchased this board as an upgrade to my rig along with a kingston v+200 ssd sata 3. The first thing I noticed as I went into the bios to switch my ssd to ahci mode was it wasn't your regular bios rather a gui type which you navigate with your mouse. It took some time getting used too but eventually I managed, not sure if I like it yet. On occasions when I would be in the bios and not move my cursor for some time cause I was reading the manual the cursor would lock up prompting me to restart. Another thing I noticed was the inacurate cpu temp reading in bios showing 44c when after windows 7 install the program core temp showed 26c possible bios update no biggie for me I know the motherboard sensors are off anyway they obtain there reading from the back of the motherboard behind the cpu. Overclocking was easy I have a black edition amd 1090t so I just bumped up the multiplier and now I am running at 3.6ghz might push that up later to 3.8 I don't like messing with voltages so definately not 4.0ghz. Other than that with my ssd installation of windows 7 took about 10 minutes or so, sata 3 is fantastic! This board also comes with usb 3.0 which I can't wait to test out. Lay out is great both sata 3 connectors are facing up and the remaining 4 are at the edge of the mother board and are angled. You have 2 system fan 3 pin headers on board and the best part CROSSFIRE although at x16 x8 the difference between the two x16 x16 is less than 10% performance that's right you won't miss out on much. Also you can add up to 32gb of ddr3 ram not that you'll use that much. The board comes with 4 small blue led's that indicate the cpu power phase which I don't mind but are sort of bright. MSI warranty I think is 3 years comes with solid caps which should extend the life of the board MSI boasts military class components not sure how true but have been tested to work under low pressure, high & low temperature, humidity, shock and vibration since I don't sit my case on top of a running dryer I can't comfirm or deny these claims :)another thing to note is the north and south bridge run hot to the touch kind of worrisome but that was also the case with my other msi board (msi 880gm-e43) but nothing ever became of it that board ran great until I got rid of it and I expect the same for this one. Although I did list serveral things that probably do need attention that's only because I wanted to give you a unbiast review. I am completely satisfied and all an all I will still look to msi FIRST for all my motherboard needs. My pc is strictly for gaming I am currently running Battlefield 3 like nobody's business, I am always one of the first players to spawn in multiplayer games. I posted one pic of motherboard already installed I was to anxious installed the minute I got it so I didn't take a picture of it by itself. Now to my specs:am3 1090T cpu 3.6ghzHIS iceQ turboX 6950 2gb vramG.skill 8gb 4x2gb's ddr3 ripjawsCorsair H60cpu coolerKiller nic 2100 gaming network cardKingston v+200 ssd 120gbWestern Digital 250gb back upQuick couple of notes this motherboard does NOT have onboard video and I tried using winki which is a small operating system that you can use from the bios to access the internet or even back up your hard drive does need work but can see myself using it for a quick look at the net or offload a quick picture on to facebook. I actually uninstalled winki due too to many issues like for example the right click selections due no register and I have not found a way to actually set my language so some times at the back up your hard drive option in the bios it asks for your language since the mouse selections don't register I find myself trying to figure out in spanish or chinese how to get back to the language settings. Also the mini operating system looks very sleek but for example setting your internet could be difficult for beginners. So I just went ahead and uninstalled I'll take my chances with windows 7 system image back up.

I was not able to install the Linux OS using this motherboard (MB) after trying three variants of the OS. Finally I gave up and bought an ASUS MB, which is working just fine with Linux Mint 17 installed (no problems encountered at all.) I will, hopefully, use the MSI MB to build a Windows OS system in the future. Another extremely disappointing aspect of the MSI purchase is that the MB requires use of a special "block" to attach wires from front panel controls to the appropriate group of pins. The pins are placed too close to one another to attach the wires without the special block. The installation manual for the MSI MB refers to this block, which one naturally assumes would be included in the box with the MB, but it was not. Just unbelievable. The only place I could find where one could obtain this needed part was from the MSI "support" center. Not even Amazon carries it. It was an additional cost, of course, even though the special block is described in the installation manual and is necessary to attach the header pins to the MB. It was beyond the capacity of the "support" staff to understand that the part should have been inside the MB box. However, the most irritating issue was the system construction delay incurred waiting for the part to arrive, and to ultimately find that the MB is incompatible with the Linux OS. I should say the the ASUS MB I eventually bought (again from Amazon) requires a similar block to connect the front panel header pins, and that this part was included with the MB. If I could assign a zero-star rating to this product I certainly would. I will definitely never again buy anything with the MSI name on it. I strongly urge any readers of this review to follow suit. Caveat emptor.

Purchased this mobo along with the following parts from Amazon:WD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MBHIS 7850 Fan 2 GB GDDR5 PCI-E DVI/HDMI/2x Mini DP Graphics Card H785F2G2MWindows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (OEM) System Builder DVD 1 PackCorsair XMS3 8 GB (2 x 4GB) 1333 MHz PC3-10666 240-Pin DDR3 Memory KitAMD FD6300WMHKBOX FX-6300 6-Core Processor Black EditionLite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS124-04 BLACK/BULK (Black)My old desktop was about 6 years old (I upgraded the video card a couple of times) and it was time to upgrade it all.I am an IT professional. Been in desktop support for almost 20 years. I've built many machines. This was probably the easiest one yet. (I kept my Thermaltake 700 watt PS (TR2 series) and my CoolerMaster caser)I did not use the stock cpu heatsink and fan that came with the processor. I have an Zalman CNPS9900A LED.No problems with any parts. Posted just fine with everything connected first time. Windows installed just fine. No problems. Updated motherboard drivers using the MSI Live Update. Everything runs just fine, perfect.I mainly surf the web. Use Office 2007 for very light personal stuff. I do play a lot of games. I have never been one for needing to squeeze out every frame per second I can get, I just want to play. I used Steam for my games. Skyrim downloaded and installed in less than 30 minutes. (I have Comcast Blast). Skyrim runs in ultra high settings and runs great, smooth. Played for 45 minutes last night no problems. (I don't do much else, no photo or video or music editing).Just set it up last night. So, I only have about 4 hours of use so far. Most of that was driver install, updates, Windows updates, install office, update, etc. From turning on the power, I can login, load the Windows desktop and be surfing the web in under 60 seconds. (still don't want to go to SSD...I want this one to last me another 6 years.)I think this is great for about $600 worth of parts.