MSI B75A-G43 LGA 1155 Intel B75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: -Great Budget Board
- SATA III port
- USB 3.0
- Able to auto-powerup on an alarm

Cons: - Only one SATA III port, but not a big deal
- Only two rear USB 3.0, but not a big deal

Other Thoughts: - Used it for a personal server (2008 R2)
- Used my old ATX tower
- added G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x4GB DDR3 1066
- INTEL Pentium G645 (Reviewed)
- SanDisk SSD 64GB SATAIII 2.5"(reviewed)
- LG Retail CD/DVD Burner
- CoolMax ZX-700 PSU
- BYTECC Card Reader

Pros: Bought for a client's new i5 gaming (re)build since none of the features of the more expensive chipsets were needed. (And, the client was moving a Nvidia GTX 295 from old system to new, so no CF or SLI was needed.)

Board setup and install was flawless, and software install using the client's new SSD worked well. (All provided/installed software from the MB disk worked with Win 7 Home Premium Retail.)

Cons: When (re)building the system, ran into an issue where it would "randomly" reboot. Prime 95 found that one pair of ram sticks was bad, and a successful RMA corrected the issue with the Prime 95 stability. However, the "random" reboots continued.

In summary, the ram used for the rebuild (Crucial Ballistix Sport, Model BLS2K4G3D1609ES2LX0, Newegg Item#: N82E16820148662) that I received came from two different "manufacturer batches" from Crucial. The lower serial numbered batch worked on the board fine. The newer set, however, required that the board's bios be updated from its shipped A10 to the (as of this review) latest A80 via MSI's LiveUpdate software. (The software working flawlessly.)

Other Thoughts: In short, if have "random reboot" issues, update the board's bios via the MSI LiveUpdate software to see if it corrects the problem. (And, if have older DDR3 ram about, install Windows using it. Update the bios, then try your purchased ram.)

Intel Core i5-3570 (with bundled cooler)
4 x 4 GB DDR3 1600 9-9-9-24 1.35v Ram (via XMP Profile)
Corsair Neutron 256 GB SSD
Nvidia GTX 295

Pros: Looked like a great Mobo, got it with a i5 bundle from Newegg.

Cons: Unpacked and assembled, got no video. Tried 3 different PSU's (430 watt, 550 watt, 650 watt), 2 different brands of DDR3, even breadboard-ed and still no video. Called MSI/Newegg. Newegg couldnt RMA it because I had used the box it came in as a breadboard platform for a "out-of-the-case" troubleshooting. Neither could figure out why i received no video. Newegg RMA'ed my i5, and I received notifications every step of the way (should be here in the next week). MSI however, received my board, then told me "they had no record of it coming in". When attempting to use their online Cust. Service, got nowhere. Tried their phone support, got hung up on 3 times. Pretty sure I got swindled out of a motherboard, and I will most likely never purchase from MSI again. I wish I hadn't tried to use the box the Mobo came in, so that Newegg could've just RMA'ed and the process would have been flawless.

Other Thoughts: Extremely disappointed in MSI's Cust. Service, their "online" support, and their motherboards. I've built computers for about 13 years, never had a problem, but this is one the worst experiences I've ever had.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
If the board has just been delivered then it will take about 1 to 2 days to unpack, and then scanned into the system.
Once scanned, then you will receive notification.
Please provide your RMA# to usreview@msi.com and we can check the status for you.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 9am to 6pm Pacific Time.
Or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: It has all necessary features for a standard desktop without all the bells and whistles for extra money that people usually do not even use! Recognized Ivy Bridge G1610 cpu without bios update.

Cons: dimm2 slot was DOA. Would not boot 4x4gb Corsair ram. Would boot 4,8, or 12 gigs, but not all 16, so I installed 8 gigs and moved the remainder to a different computer. Didn't want to RMA the board based on this, as I needed to deploy immediately and couldn't wait for replacement.

Other Thoughts: if dimm2 were functional, this would be the perfect board for any standard computer that does not require the additional capabilities of a Z77 chipset board. Consider buying this $75 board instead of a $125-200 Z77 board if you aren't going to use all the extras.

Pros: Well I've had the board for just under a month and it's working as expected. For the price I can't complain and it has everything I needed. Videocard, RAM and CPU went in without a hitch and have plenty of room. I haven't been able to get the front sound outputs to work but I'm guessing that is something I did wrong (or just forgot to plug in). Overall I'm pleased.

Cons: It is a large board but that is in the description. I have a full size case so it didn't matter, I just had to scrounge up some more screws.

Other Thoughts: Newegg packed the baby jebus out of it. I guess better more packing than less!

Pros: Turns on. Bought two of these boards on the shellshocker deal. Both boards do the same thing, so it is consistently bad.

Cons: Will. Not. Overclock. The settings will not save properly. Even when I (sometimes) get the option to set the default multiplier to above the default of 34, the max it goes is 38. By the time I boot to windows it is stuck back to 34 or sometimes 36. That is assuming I can get to windows because the BIOS will not remember the boot order. I have two hard drives and it wants to boot from the completely blank one regardless of port positioning or even disabling the drive in the bios. The ClickBios software has more options than the actual BIOS, but restarting to apply the changes also resets the boot order causing you to need to go into the BIOS which resets the ClickBios settings. Updating the BIOS from 10.2 to 10.8 did nothing to solve these problems. All this frustration to get my 3570K overclocked to 3596mhz... sometimes... when the board feels like it..

Other Thoughts: Ive been overclocking since the first gen Pentium days. The last time I owned an MSI board was socket 939 which did not have overclock settings at all.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Overclocking is an expert area where there are infinite possibilities, and B75 is not a good chipset for overclocking due to its limitation.
You should try getting a Z77 motherboard in order to put this 3570K processor into more use.

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 9am to 6pm Pacific Time.
Or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Has plenty room for expansion. Have not installed unit.

Cons: Rebate Company does notaccept proof of purchase for $!0 rebate they insist I send the Invoice. The same info is on both. Called Newegg they can't do anything I must download Invoice & resend to rebate co. Have not experienced such rebate scam.

Pros: i have before same board but small verion 1

Cons: only the sata connection i dont like it way they putted on the board

Pros: -Sturdy
-Works
-uh, blue?
-All a cheapo budget builder could possibly wish for

Cons: None as of yet. Took one heck of a long time to ship, though, but there was some weather at fault so no hate towards FedEx.

Other Thoughts: Be aware that this board will not POST or enter BIOS without a drive attached. Instead it'll throw you a cryptic error message. I ran into this when I did an external boot. This is apparently normal behavior for this board, so don't flip out like I did.

Pros: Excellent compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion.

Absolutely no issues whatsosever with OS X.

I do my own DSDTs for maximum OS X compatibility.

Cons: Slight con: USB 3.0 header for the front panel ports is somewhat loose. Removing the cable can result in the plastic header receiver becoming detached from the motherboard and going with the cable itself. This occurred on a Corsair 'Carbide' 200R case, upon which I had decided to standardize because of its USB 3.0 front panel. This did not occur with generic USB 3.0 font panel cables.

Other Thoughts: After VERY positive results with my first MSI B75A-G43 on OS X Mountain Lion with all software updates, I decided to consolidate several smaller Hackintoshes onto the second MSI B75 G43.