Pros: Solid Physical Build
Overall Physical Quality Exceptional
All Modern Ports Exhibited

Cons: Early Adopter Product
Memory Compatibility Issues
Terrible Terrible Customer Service
Shot Down by people who does not know how to properly configure the product.

Other Thoughts: SSD DOES NOT BOOT? That is because you need to adjust your SATA Controller type from IDE to AHCI within the BIOS. After of which you need to reinstall the system.

No matter what SSD you have, they all REQUIRE SATA operation mode to be set to AHCI. This can be found out through minimal research.

It is MSI's fault to default the mode to IDE, I have no idea why they would want to do that since almost everything today uses AHCI anyway.

Personally I had to RMA the board since it does not post properly with 8 lanes of RAM. Still waiting for it to return, so I'll keep you guys posted.

I gave this 4 stars because this board is still a pioneer product of LGA2011. Problems should be resolved through BIOS updates in the future.

Pros: Great set of features for this beast of a motherboard. Meets all of today's standards for features and hardware. HOWEVER...

Cons: It APPALLS me that this motherboard doesn't FULLY support MSI's own Radeon 7970 video card. Due to the length of the video card, you CANNOT install it in EITHER of the top two PCI 3.0 (16x) slots! This is due to the height of the SATA connectors along the right side of this motherboard being too high off the PCB. The video card cannot be inserted into the PCI slots far/deep enough to grab the latche or make a solid contact. You can only install the video card in the very bottom PCI 3.0 slot, which is only 8x! What's the point of buying a next-gen video card if its bus speed is going to be essentially limited PCI 2.0 speeds? VERY DISAPPOINTED that both MSI motherboard and GPU aren't fully compatible...

Other Thoughts: If anyone has a work-around, please message me. Otherwise I'm going to be forced to return my new $600 GPU. Ultimately, this is a failure on the motherboard design's part... hence the score.

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 "EAHX79A-GD65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Plenty of ports, pcie connection options, UEFI

Cons: not a fan of the memory slots (memory clicks into one side without a tab, while the other has a tab). I had some issues with fans getting stuck at 100% with the board. UEFI has some stability issues (although this could be my fault - read below)

Other Thoughts: Initially I set this up with an Corsair H60 cooler. Be warned that some of the Corsair coolers don't ship with the proper mounting hardware and instructions for socket 2011. If you replace the stock processor mounting hardware with the Corsair equipment your board will either not POST or only active single-channel due to insufficient pressure on the processor. I had to contact Corsair and wait 10 days for the screws that connect to stock processor mount for the board to POST correctly. I'm not sure if the other Corsair HXX models are shipping with the correct mounting hardware.

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 "EAHX79A-GD65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: 3 pcie 3 slots!!!! and no legacy pci slots.
Supercharger port, USB 3 header. and if your case doesn't support usb 3 than you can install the optional usb 3.0 rear bracket.
No rear bracket for heatsink installation.

UEFI BIOS with dual BIOS Switch.
And All the great other features.

Cons: The MSI Live update software is cr*p. I suggest going to MSI's website and download drivers yourself.

With this Mobo you have to be careful of heatsink clearance on both sides of the memory DIMMs. luckily for me i cleared IO panel side DIMMs by a few millimeters.

Other Thoughts: It Does take longer than other boards to post but nothing too problematic to me.

Since I'm yet sold on the durability of SSD's I'm using old fashioned HDD's. But I've heard of some weirdness aabout SSD with this board so i would look into that if you're planning on pairing this board with an SSD.

Pros: This board has everything I need from a motherboard. 8 dimms allow for faster less expensive ram installs.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: I really don't know why some have had bad experiences with this board. I didn't have a single issue. Two video cards, two solid state drives, and all ram slots populated.

Pros: Pretty, some nice features

Cons: Price
First MSI Board. Should have went with ASUS :( Dimms 5/7 not useable until after you flash bios for quad channel. PCIE1 Slot on my board video is pixelated to the point you can't tell what is on the screen? Have tried 3 video cards all the same. Cards work fine in PCIE4. We are talking nvidia gtx 460's. Since slot 1 is unusable SLI is unusable which one of the many reasons this board makes me sad. Support is no help what so ever.

Other Thoughts: Gonna have to rma it I guess... Wish I could swap it for an asus board.

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 "EAHX79A-GD65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Pretty and some nice features.

Cons: First purchase of MSI board over ASUS and what a mistake that was!
Price, dimm's 5/7 won't even work until you flash new rom :( Pcie configuration is awful and PCIE1 on my board will not work properly :( every video card I try ends up pixelated and screen is not readable. Same cards work in PCIE slot 4 but that makes it totally useless board for SLI since you can't use PCIE4 and 6 for SLI. I have installed several nvidia drivers same story only PCIE 4 slot will work. Terrible experience with MSI and the sad thing is best I can hope for is a better board through rma since I can't get a straight up refund.

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 "EAHX79A-GD65". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: 128GB memory, stable as a rock at stock speeds, solid build all around!

Cons: Using an LSI raid controller that bios could not be entered into (worked fine on an MSI X58 Big Bang). Had to load Win 7 onto storage drive/update raid FW, the reload Windows onto SSD's. Pain but it worked!

Other Thoughts: Can not get an overclock of any kind (auto or manual). Running I7-3960X w/ H100 cooler, LSI 9265 raid controller w/ 4 Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD's in RAID 0, 32GB (4GB x 8) Cas 7 1600 G.Skill Sniper memory, PNY Quadro 5000 workstation card. Hopefully BIOS fix will come soon!!!!!!

Pros: Worked with everything I bought and fired right up. Decent feature set

Cons: Feel like I should have went ahead and sprung for the Asus Rampage for the better software set.

Other Thoughts: For the price difference between this and the Rampage however, it is a solid board and I can't really find much else to nitpick about other than there doesn't appear to be a way to easily monitor fans and the such without third party software

Pros: none

Cons: Memory only works with slots 1 and 3. Can't put memory in 5, 6, 7 and 8. It won't post. RMA and still the same issue. MSI support has not helped yet. Just going around in circles with their help.