MSI X79MA-GD45 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: -It's a cheap intro into X79

-Nice overclocking opportunities. Currently have my i7-3820 sitting stable at 4.4GHz @ 1.296v (round it up to 1.3v)

-Two PCI-E slots for taking advantage of one of the key features of X79: 40 PCI-E lanes

-SATA ports that are parallel to the motherboard! I didn't realize how valuable this was until I threw in a graphics card into a motherboard that had the SATA ports sticking straight up. Now, I have 4 drives to connect, so even 90 degree SATA cables didn't cut it.

Cons: -The BIOS can be finicky, not allowing you to change the values of certain fields sometimes. This can be mitigated by using the CLICKBIOSII program that MSI provides.

-Not a con to the motherboard itself, but it doesn't seem to want to supply power to the USB ports while the computer is off. This is really handy for when you have a rechargeable mouse (Logitech G700) and want to plug it in while you go off to school or work.

Other Thoughts: Please please please, I don't understand the bad reviews for this board! Yes, some receive bad batches. That's inherent in any product. My biggest concern is if the motherboard is going to die down the road from something.

It's rock solid. To those worried about their BIOS not supporting the processor, don't worry. I have used two of these boards: one for me, one for a friend. My friend's came with the very first BIOS. We popped in a 3820, and updated the BIOS through a USB stick. Not a huge deal. He was installing Fedora, so BIOS 1.0 gave him some trouble. No problem on the newest revisions.

I love this little board. All the right features to let you take full advantage of what X79 has to offer, and at a really nice price. If you can look past some of what the other reviews are saying, there is some beauty to have in this board.

i7-3820 @ 4.4GHz
Zalman CNPS20LQ
EVGA GTX 670 SC 4GB
8GB (2x4GB) Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600RAM (Forgot what it's OC'd to)
128GB Crucial M4 SSD
1TB WD Caviar Black
2TB WD Caviar Green
Corsair TX550W
Windows 7 Home Premium

Pros: These boards do exactly what they were designed to do, budget internet surfers and light gaming .... So you bought the board, put a Massive CPU and GPU on it .... Stacked it to the gills with OC'd ram and then stuffed it all into a micro atx case with no ventilation to speak of and Blame MSI for your ignorance.....F'in Wake up and Do some research, Ask people that actually have a clue .

Cons: The cons are this .... people are cheap, and with that they try to build high end systems with entry level components ..... MAN UP, drop the coin on the stuff thats designed to do what you think you want it to do and Quit FLAMING Reviews on products that were never and never will be designed to stuff all that into a small space.

Other Thoughts: I'm actually surprised that no one has complained that they cant run a quad SLI or quad Xfire on this board .....simply hilarious if you ask me

Pros: overclocks extremely well,easy set up,runs cool. This is used with a 3930k and overclocked it without a problem as this is my own gaming rig...4.5ghz at 3.45v cpu and 2.05 sa volts while using 4x4 dimms (16 gig) at 1.65v. Idles using h100 pull from case config at 39-46 ( dif per core as always)

Cons: None really but if I had to say one it would be bios load time under overclock---pretty slow,non overclocked it's normal but all mfg's have that issue

Other Thoughts: I did o.c. to 4.9 so yes the board performs but the h100 was stressed so I keep it at 5.5 for all around.
I build and maintain many systems from basic business to gaming rigs and chose this board for me because I got tired of bells and whistles costing more and having more issues. This is my 1st msi purchase and must say I am more impressed than any other board I use and it beats the big A brand for oc,fps,volts.
From what I have seen most people were having problems with the 3820 cpu because of older bios but I think they have that resolved. P.S. software was strange for bios update but it worked great.
I did not play with oc software as I just do it in bios.

Pros: mATX form factor, this board is fairly easy to overclock compared to many of the other brands of X79 board I have used recently. Runs my 3930k stable at a lower voltage for the same OC as compared to the Gigabyte and Asus boards I own. Nice feature set, good looking color scheme.

Cons: The only issue I have had with this board was that it DOES NOT support C2 stepping LGA2011 CPU's with the BIOS version it shipped with. I ended up having to go to a friends house with a USB stick to download the newest BIOS and update it since I had no idea this would happen before I disassembled my only running machine.

This is not going to subtract a star as the board probably shipped long before the C2 stepping CPU's came out, just pays to check these things before you start building.

Other Thoughts: Overall very solid for the price. The USB 3.0 header is awkwardly located and you will not be able to use it if you choose to crossfire/SLI.

MSI RMA works fine, I don't know why people complain about it. I RMA'd a GTX570 of theirs a few weeks ago and had a brand new one at my door within 4 days (granted, I live in Cali so the RMA center is close). Seems like a lot of people like to bag on this brand based on internet heresay but I have had no particular problems with them over the years.

Pros: none

Cons: At first power on, I heard a pop and smelled smoke and now, no post and no BIOS is present. Returning.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,
“Please contact MSI customer service representative Jane at janegao@msi.com, or call Jane at 626-913-0828 ext 221 with your case details. Thank you.”
Best Regards,
Customer Service Team

Pros: You don't have to mess with a pesky warranty like other products because MSI doesn't have a real warranty. Their digital RMA webpage has been unable to process any orders for end users for 4 years now, but MSI refuses to acknowledge that they have it that way on purpose.

Cons: DOA. If you finally get a hold of the RMA department, (takes about a month, keep trying everyday) AND they manage to approve your RMA, MSI will send you a refurb mobo with a warranty up to 30 days (depends on how soon you receive it, my warranty was 24 days) When my refurb board died after 38 days, Henry at MSI told me they had fulfilled all obligations of their warranty; When I found that unnacceptable and became angry, Henry at MSI told me to take it up with legal and hung up

Other Thoughts: I used to work at a PC shop where only 3 out of every 10 motherboards worked on average so we stopped carrying MSI products altogether

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,
“Please contact MSI customer service representative Jane at janegao@msi.com, or call Jane at 626-913-0828 ext 221 with your case details. Thank you.”
Best Regards,
Customer Service Team

Pros: NONE

Cons: THIS BOARD IS JUNK. STAY AWAY! MSI HAS A LOT OF NERVE SELLING DEFECTIVE GARBAGE LIKE THIS. I WILL NEVER TOUCH ANOTHER MSI PRODUCT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

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 your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHX79MA-GD45". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: makes a great over priced paperweight

Cons: shipped with bent pins.
after straightening them out with a pin and magnifying glass, the core i7 3820 booting problem occurs. Sent to MSI for rma and still waiting back on new board.

Other Thoughts: If you need a lga 2011 matx board, go for the asrock/asus board. They might be more expensive but at least you get to use the product you bought

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,
“Please contact MSI customer service representative Jane at janegao@msi.com, or call Jane at 626-913-0828 ext 221 with your case details. Thank you.”
Best Regards,
Customer Service Team

Pros: Booted without issue with Intel's new i7-3820 (something that seems to be an problem on some boards--including those of other manufacturers--before flashing to the most recent BIOS). RAM is running in proper quad-channel (had an old X58 board that wouldn't run in proper tri-channel, which required a replacement board to get it working). MSI's UEFI is far more user-friendly than BIOSes of old, and I was able to flash from 1.0 to the newest 1.5 within the UEFI's MFlash utility (just need a FAT32 flash drive).

Cons: Presently none, and it's been running for nearly two weeks now. I'm not sure why the board I received works fine with the new i7-3820 (despite shipping to me with the original BIOS 1.0), while another Newegg reviewer of this board *and* a friend of mine running a completely different X79 board can't boot with aforementioned CPU, but perhaps I got a revised board (it says version 1.1 on the PCB, though that's what Newegg's stock photos also show).

Other Thoughts: There are presently just three mATX X79 motherboards, and this build was for a friend that wouldn't be overclocking (thus, the +$70 for the Asus ROG seemed wasteful), and his Antec Mini P180 (side note: love this case, wish Antec would update these) case's top hard drive cage looked like it might have had issues with the ASRock's high and tight 24-pin ATX power connector. This left the MSI, which I've been very happy with, but I wish I knew what set my rev1.1 board running BIOS 1.0 apart from the others that are experiencing issues with the i7-3820.

Pros: Specs are impressive on paper.

Cons: Defective, and it appears other people are reporting the same issue. System typically attempts to boot for 10 seconds, then resets as it fails to post. It appears that this batch of motherboards are defective right out of the gate. I hope MSI is listening and corrects the issues.

Other Thoughts: This is the first time in many many years I have used something other than ASUS motherboards, and I immediately regretted it. I made the decision to get this board because of its support for 64GB of memory and its mATX footprint and I had just purchased an i7-3820 CPU. Lessons learned I guess.

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 your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHX79MA-GD45". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support