MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: -Hasn't crapped out after 2 years.
-SLI for Nvidia cards is exactly what I wanted.

Cons: -Had to buy a cheap processor so I could update the BIOS to accept my 6-Core.
-No USB 3.0

Other Thoughts: Seriously happy I got this board when I could. It was a great buy, and my computer has been chugging along with it for awhile now.

Pros: Had this board for over 2 years now, and loved it. Overclock very well. I had the Phenom II X4 945 w/ locked multiplier and was able to OC to 3.6GHz(Air) using EZ switch. Now I have the PHII X4 974BE and it's amazing, now I'm clock @ 4.1GHz (H60 cooler). Last upgrade was a month ago, got 2 Corsair SSD in RAID 0 and all I can say is WoW, what an improvement. The board come with 6 SATA II ports but only 4 ports are active when it's on IDE mode. In order to get all 6 ports to work, you have to go into BIOS and enable RAID or AHCI Mode. All I gotta say is I love this board and I have no complaint what so ever.

Cons: I wish it had SATA III and USB 3.0 and a BIOS reset button. Seem Like AMD is always a year behind Intel. :(

Other Thoughts: Layout is not that bad. I like it, able to fit 3 huge, powerful Video card and leaving you 1 PCIe-1x

Pros: Card has run well for the entire time I have owned it. Has an easy overclock switch on the board which works great and speeds up your computer a good amount. Everyone complains about MSI, but for the money, it works fantastically. I ran three MSI cards in tri-SLI and games worked flawlessly as well.

Cons: None.

Pros: I bought this board when it came out i am very happy with this board i do a lot of gaming and i can tell you this board is solid .No problems with this mobo i updated the bios using my thumb drive no issues .I have 8 gigs of ram quad core CPU and 2 Nvidia 250 video cards in sli.

Cons: it did not bring a bridge for tri sli

Other Thoughts: It would of bin good if it would of brought the bridge for the installation of 3 video cards.Why mobo company's fail to always do that.and its not easy to get one .And always New Egg rocks

Pros: 6 Core support.
Dualx16 SLI
I bought this 17 months ago and it still works great. I used MFlash in the bios to update bios, had ZERO problem doing so. Didn't require a different cpu in the socket to flash, flashed with my x6 1090T installed. You have to "Load Optimized Defaults" after flashing bios, I think many are forgetting to do this and then yes it does not work. after you load the defaults you can tweak to your needs.

Cons: Not SataIII, which I knew at the time and didn't need so no egg loss.
Not USB3, same thing as above.

Other Thoughts: You have to "Load Optimized Defaults" after flashing bios. I think many are forgetting to do this and then yes it does not work. after you load the defaults you can tweak to your needs.

Pros: befor attempting to update bios due to lack of support for all 6 sata ports was a good board.

Cons: only 4 of the 6 sata ports worked. flash utility for bios killed board and msi wount do anything about it. almost lack of support from msi for anything.

Other Thoughts: this will be the last thing i ever buy from msi. even if i have to spend more to get less msi support is a joke at best.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,

We would like to apologize for the issue you have experienced with this particular MB. Please email me directly via USUserSupport@msi.com or call us at 1-626-271-1004 Press 1 your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "MSINF980-G65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: It does work for people that don't need a 6 core or want to do something like overclocking...or play games.

Cons: 1. It claims to accept 6 core processors, but you have to do a BIOS update first.
a. The BIOS update isn't recommended by the manufacture!!! You will be on your own if it goes to hell. That's right. To get the specs it claims, you have to give up your warranty.
b. Doing the BIOS update by MSI instructions WILL NOT WORK. It is a PAIN IN THE REAR to update the BIOS. Google for instructions. Don't use the obvious update BIOS from USB option in BIOS. It WILL make your motherboard fail to post and you won't be able to flash it (and it makes a bad paper weight)
- Making minor changes in BIOS causes the mobo to fail to post. For example, shutting off AMD cool and quiet. That's it. If I shut it off, I have to flash this mobo to get it to post.
- "Auto" settings in BIOS don't work in several parts.

Other Thoughts: I've had this motherboard for over a year. It's a piece of junk.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,

We would like to apologize for the issue you have experienced with this particular MB. Please email me directly via USUserSupport@msi.com or call us at 1-626-271-1004 Press 1 your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "MSINF980-G65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: It works, looks awesome, bios is easy except for advanced mem timings, never heard of swizzle mode.

Cons: None yet...

Other Thoughts: I just wish mobo and memory manufacturers would shed a little more light on mem timings. I guess it's more the memory but all them settings in the bios under advanced sub categories takes a long time to figure out. I don't like leaving anything on auto unless it's the only way. 7-7-7-20 @ 1.65v just isn't enough info. Great Motherboard though, seems to be alot like my 780a sli diamond. I don't like cr*ssfire but I think the new amd chipset boards can do cr*ssfire or sli. I'll have to read more about it.

Pros: fast and easy over clocking for the high powered gamers...Ive had this mother board for 3 years now with no issues great for gaming

Cons: first 2 i got from newegg was doa (not a big deal too me stuff happens) called up newegg great help there they sent me new ones too replace olds

Pros: can run 3x sli
over clock capabilities
Runs my sli set up perfectly. (from gtx 7900 2x)
since upgraded to gtx 285 but waiting for more powerful power supply to add my second OC'ed card (and maybe a third?) Allows you to overclock memory

Cons: TO PREVENT CON, ALL NEW MOBOS SHOULD BE SEALED W/SAFETY SEAL/shrink wrap
so returns/refurbs are not sold as new.
bought new- only left side of speakers worked/
left speaker of headset (both worked in other electronics)
Sometimes OC setting and memory setting have to be reset-
auto reverts to minimal settings.
OC switch at best does not seem to allow boot half the time
w/ 965 AMD black edition so oc'ing is best manually from
bios. Mentions high overclock speed in specs for this AMD board but AMD specifies a max of 1333mhz or you risk damaging the processor (at the time this was the max for all amd boards, including 6 core)

Other Thoughts: Nice mother board fairly stable running w/ overclocked processor

however, when you buy something new you expect it to be fully functional. I purchased an aftermarket sound card Fatality champion and the problem was solved.

As i did not use the board for awhile after purchasing it from new egg w/ a rebate, which they tried to prevent me from getting even though i had all the information right, I could not return it. Everything else seems to work fine.
I did drop something on MOBO and lost a small cap. but the problem preexisted this. Other than that seems to work fine