MSI 880GMS-E41 (FX) AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Great value after rebate, good set of features. Auto OC Genie is very cool, and MB can unlock 4th core on x3 Rana processor.

Cons: My board showed an incompatibility with the video driver (Catalyst Control Center), computer crashed on driver install, both using the driver from the supplied CD, driver from MSI website, and driver directly from AMD.

The 95W max is somewhat limiting, especially when you try to unlock cores or overclock (which are useful features of the board). There just aren't too many low wattage AMD CPU's out there.

Other Thoughts: Still trying to get this to work without installing CCC. Using it with a Rana x3 CPU like many here. Unlocking to x4 goes over the 95W spec of the board so I undid that.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
These driver packages currently don't have any issues. Have you looked into the possibility of a corrupted operating system? Or unstable memory?

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: Solid Capacitors, great price, onboard HDMI, sata3, great OEM replacement

Cons: HDMI Jumper, only 2 slots for ram, no USB3 bracket, 3-pin fan always runs at 100% (pretty common thing on AMD boards i've noticed, they adjust fans using PWM not voltage.. seems to me anyway?) either way, nothing that was a deal breaker, it was a great price for a pretty solid looking board... time will tell!

Other Thoughts: I bought this to replace a board on a commonly-failing HP desktop model that came with an Athlon II x4. Everything runs so quick now, much quicker than when the HP was new! The only drawbacks are minor, you can either use HDMI or DVI at a time, but can switch between the two with a jumper on the board. And I did have to replace the fan on the heatsink with a 4-pin (PWM) one because no amount of adjusting the BIOS seemed to make a difference, but the 4-pin worked perfectly.

I have had nothing buy success with MSI products and this is right in line with my previous experiences.

Pros: Been using MSI motherboards for about 6 years now and have never had a problem, infact my vaery first MSi mobo is still running smooth and stron to this day. Got this one to replace an ASRock motherboard that I had to RMA and the replacement board was also bad lol....Will continue doing business wit MSI for a long time and would highly recommend this brand of board....THANKS MSI!!! :)

Cons: None

Pros: Works quite well with cheap hard ware and the onboard video is amazing compared to some older boards I have. I was able to use the unlock core and overclock features of the board quite easily and reseting the bios is simple using the jumper on board. Using the unlock core feature, I was able to turn a Sempron 140 (stop laughing :D) into a Athlon II X2 4400e and then overclock it to 3.1GHZ stable. Not bad for a cheap board that I picked up for only $45. Comes with 2 SATA 6Gbps cables, and a Molex to SATA power adaptor. (Thanks, but I don't think it has much use...) I would buy more of these, but they are now discontinued. (Wonder why...?) :( Overall great board and it brought life into a useless AMD Sempron 140 I had laying around.

Cons: This board gets WARM. The southbridge chip heatsink is not terrible and stays pretty cool, but the northbridge can get very hot at times. Because the processor that is installed in the board stays so cool, the fan does not rev up a lot making the passivly cooled heatsink become hot... :(
I also filled for a $15 rebate when I first got it (Feb 10th) and the only thing I know is that they have it and are "processing" it. They also were kind enough to send a scanned pdf file of the whole thing to me which can really assist me if they try to scam me out of it. The rebate has been processing since the 15th and I think I am going to give it one more week and then contact them to see what is up... Hopefully I can get my money, which will make this board an even better deal for a grand total of only $30. The manual is in so many languages and only a small section is in English and it does not cover a lot of features. (I have not looked yet, but there might be a full manual online for this) The driver disk is also pretty bad. I found a couple typos in it, but I don't care, not worth taking an egg off. Also the BIOS boot time is not the best. If you are looking for a very fast boot time from BIOS to windows or whatever it may be, this may not be the board for you. I found that the BIOS may appear that it is hanging, but if you wait it does not.

Other Thoughts: MSI is not the first company I go to for motherboards as I have had bad experiences with their products in the past. Mainly a old Socket 478 board where almost all the CAPs are looking like they will explode any second but never do... I have heard some good things about this company since such as they have changed their ways and make much better products now. So I decided I would make a gamble on this board and try it out. I must say I am pretty amazed with it so far.

Pros: Easy Set Up, Worked well same for divers and ever thing

Cons: Windows 7 Ultimate did not want to install the lan drivers

Other Thoughts: I got this to replace a cheep motherboard I got a while back and the Sata ports went out on it I do not know a thing on the vid card because I put my own into it and worked great would rec-amend it to other people

Pros: Supports AMD AM3+ CPUs, good onboard sound with sufficient onboard video for video streaming & everyday computing (but not gaming, of course). Easy install with included drivers/BIOS (although you might want to upgrade to the newest versions just because)

Cons: For some reason it takes close to 10 seconds to POST, but once the Windows 7 load screen comes up, it boots quickly. The long POST time might have something to do with the rest of my setup, but I don't know enough about it to comment.

Other Thoughts: Used one of these for my very first DIY PC build. Worked from the first boot with no issues. The onboard Radeon 4200 seems to be sufficient for everyday computing, and even though MSI advertises that the onboard VGA & HDMI do not work simultaneously, I set the jumpers to D-sub/DVI, and both are working at once for me. I can run extended or duplicated desktop with two monitors, and have been streaming excellent quality video from the Internet (TV shows).

Anyone complaining about video problems with this board should double check the jumper settings if they haven't already.

If it matters, my build is as follows:

MOBO: This one. Duh.
CPU: AMD FX 6300 Vishera 3.5 gHz (95W)
RAM: 16 GB (2x8) Corsair Vengeance LP
HDD: WD Blue 1TB 7200 10EZEX
DVD Burner: SH224BB
PS: Corsair Builder Series CX430 (430W)
OS: Win7 Professional
Case: Antec New Solution VSK-4000

Also, MSI doesn't advertise this as having USB 3.0 ports, but for some reason, the words "NEC USB 3.0" (or something to that effect) are printed on the board. Drivers are available for USB 3.0 on MSI's product page, but it doesn't appear that any of the USB ports are capable of 3.0. But again, I didn't expect them to be. Just thought it was weird.

All in all, very pleased with the performance. Hard core gamers might want a 125W board, but for a high-medium range AMD system for office/productivity, it seems to be a good value.

Pros: After rebate- was under 40 bucks, has pci-e x16 x1 and legacy pci, onboard hd graphics, supports any AMD cpu (wattage-wise)

Cons: It's a budget board, could've used a little more thickness to the pcb, didn't know if I'd break it when plugging in the 24 pin.

Other Thoughts: Dropped an egg for the thin pcb, and also had a problem with the usb. Not exactly sure what it is, but any wireless mouse has the sketchy/flickery problem where it moves by dissapearing and reappearing an inch away so navigating nearly got the 2nd mouse to land in the austrailian outback...lol. Just going to use a wired mouse and it'll be fine. For the price, it runs good and it's worth making a couple minor adjustments to things to have 180 bucks and a complete AM3+ system.

Pros: If it works it is a great board for a 95 w CPU

Cons: Haha. If it works it is a great board for a 95 w CPU

Other Thoughts: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/880GMS-E41--FX-.html#/?div=CPUSupport

Pros: Good features at a very reasonable price.

Cons: No video output

Other Thoughts: Appears to be a fairly common problem with this board

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.

Please note that Athlon CPUs do not have integrated GPU core in them there
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/880GMS-E41--FX-.html#?div=CPUSupport

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: Good specs for the price. Best "bang for buck" at the time i was shopping for a micro atx board. Advanced bios features. Another quality board from MSI.

Cons: I cant find any cons.

Other Thoughts: The case I put this board in didnt have standoffs for the right side corners. When I installed the ram and power the board would bend pretty heavily which is always a concern. Yet the board loaded fine on the first boot without a hitch. Im always on the hunt for the best bang for your buck, MSI has earned that award a few times now, and I still have never had a technical problem with MSI hardware. This board had a $10 promo code and a $10 rebate. $40... score!