MSI Z77A-G41 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: --Cheap
--Decent overclocks
--Supports Crossfire

Cons: --4+1 Power phase
--No mosfet heatsinks
--Not for extreme overclocks

Other Thoughts: Overall I'm very satisfied with this motherboard for the price. It overclocked an i5 3570k cpu to 4.5ghz with ease. The bios is very easy to understand and has the basic CPU and DRAM voltage settings. But it lacks detail voltage settings; combined with the 4+1 power phase design these factors will limit the ultimate overclocking capability. But if you're look for a budget board that supports moderate overclock and crossfire, this is a good choice.

Pros: Great Price. Sounded great.

Cons: RMA'd the blasted thing twice. Ruled out everything but the board both times. Extremely dissatisfied that I had to pay return shipping.

Other Thoughts: Have had other components for a new rig for a month now while I go through the RMA process x2. Really irritating.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Please contact us directly at usreview@msi.com with your previous RMA# and we will be gladly to pay for the 2-way shipping.

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: I contacted tech support, via phone, and told them about my issue with the USB 3.0 They were very knowledgeable, and didn't treat me like a criminal when I told them I had done some overclocking. The tech sent me a the latest BIOS update by e-mail and it fixed my issue right away. Thanks a ton MSI; great motherboard, great service; what more can you ask.

Cons: They didn't come to my house and give it to me for free.

Pros: Decent price, supposedly a board that will work with the computer I'm building.

Cons: Dead as soon as I got it. Ruled out all other possibilities except the board, so I did an RMA. A few days later while they processed the board I received an invoice saying that the board had physical damage to it. Then I got the 'new' board in the mail, tried everything again, ruled out everything but the board. In fact, they sent me the same faulty board I sent them.

It had the same packing paper I used, same static bag, the black cover over the CPU slot was missing (I took it off the other board before RMAing it), and it didnt have the driver disk (because I have it). Its like they opened up the box, looked in it, and closed it back up.

Now going to try and get a refund for this board. This board is garbage, the RMA service is worthless. Avoid this board at all costs.

Other Thoughts: They didn't even send an invoice with the second board.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Bent pins were caused by improper installation, if you've a defective replacement (refurbished) then you can contact us at usreview@msi to get 2nd RMA arranged 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: Enough room for SOME larger coolers, but not many. Make sure to do your hw or order the mobo first so you can measure the space for a cooler ( about 4").

High speed ddr3 support.

Fast pci slot

Supposed High quality components

Cons: DOA

Could use more room between the chipset and ram for many types of coolers

Case connectors are not clearly labeled or well understood, I've had better labeled mobos than this.

Other Thoughts: Given the shipping time for the faulty ram it took me a while to find out that the board was dead as well.

If newegg can't help me now then I have to hope that the mfr is actually going to address the issue.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
The space between chipset and memory needs to be close to provide better internal signal.

Case connectors are also clearly labled on the motherboard, see below image, if you are not technical then please seek assistance from professionals.
http://www.msi.com/pic/product/five_pictures2_2625_20120531170552.jpg

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: Great price, features and very user friendly.

Cons: The description indicates that you can run 2400 MHz (OC) memory if your CPU has 22 nm architecture. However, if you are planning to use the i5-3570 (22 nm), you may have some issues. I enabled the XMP profile with Team 2400 MHz memory and it ran great for a couple of weeks. All was fine in the world until I set up the power configuration for my computer and allowed it to go to sleep. Upon trying to wake my computer, the power began to cycle on and off at about 8 sec intervals, but would not even post. I did some research online (with my laptop) and found that others had encountered the same issue. I had to pull the plug and clear the CMOS to get into the bios and disable the XMP profile before the rig would boot. I am under-clocking my RAM at 1866 MHz for stability. The speed difference is not noticeable; however, if your going to shell out the extra dough for "extreme" performance memory, countless hours of research are recommended. I don't think the same problem exist with the i7-3770. If you read the description on the Team extreme memory, it states, "based on the memory architecture evolution on Intel Core i7, Team raises the frequency of the Xtreem LV DDR3 by 20% from 2000MHz to 2400MHz." Then perhaps the max frequency with an i5 is 2000 MHz?

Other Thoughts: This is an awesome motherboard. Easily deserves 5 eggs; however, due to this mishap, Some of the drivers were corrupted on my system and I ended up doing a fresh OS install. My USB 3.0 still hasn't been fixed, even after a new install of the Intel USB 3.0 drivers included on the disk that came with this MB. I fear the USB 3.0 may have been damaged during this ordeal.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Not all processors were made equal, there are better ones and there are worse ones therefore your overclocking result can vary to what others have.
You should also utilize strong internal cooling to help to dissipit the heat to allow better stability.
A failed overclocking will cause system to become instable and corrupt data in your system and this is normal because it's failed overclocking.

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: nice layout / colors - pretty good overall performance
will update this post once I get new/repaired board back from MSI

Cons: USB 3.0 ports all dead!
tried everything including MSI tech support, MS hot fixes

Other Thoughts: board comes in a bag loose in the box - no foam/packing material - no wonder so many users run into problems - board probably incurred damage during shipping!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Can you tell us about the settings you've used in the BIOS? Did you activate OC genie? Have you tried updating the BIOS to the latest version?

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: Great bang for the buck, lowest cost Z77 board (at the time I bought it)from a reputable manufacturer. Room for expansion.

Cons: DOA, tested with 2 power supplies, several memory sticks, and even took the CPU to a friends house and it checked good. Awaiting RMA sent back several days ago to get Newegg blessing and get replacement board. Once it works I'll revise my review accordingly. MSI support (via email only which kinda sucks by itself) was pretty responsively take that as a positive. Lost interest when they learned it was being RMA'd to Newegg but that's understandable.

Other Thoughts: Building this system for a co-workers son as a graduation present...didn't expect a bad component but it happens, so long as the next one works this wil be a great gaming system without some of the pricier non-essential bells and whistles.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

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

Please kindly visit the URL below to set up a RMA with the following information.
http://service.msicomputer.com/msi_user/rma_form_new.aspx

1. Full name (first, and last)
2. Telephone #
3. Physical address
4. Email address
5. Serial number (located on the box, or underneath the motherboard, eg 601-xxxx-xxxBxxxxxxxxxx)
6. Symptoms you are having onto the Special Remark section (as detailed as possible)

Once your information and warranty coverage are verified then we can proceed with this RMA for you.
Our turn-around time is typically two weeks and our system will notify you automatically at every stage of your RMA process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, received the unit back from RMA but are still having issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

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

Pros: set right up. recognized my cpu, mem and all hardware right away. booted up on my first attempted without me having to tweak anything. Very easy setup

Cons: none

Pros: Like the Blue/Black appearance

Cons: Packaging is terrible, the Mobo is just in a bag, no foam protecting it from moving all over the place. Called costumer support, and they basically told me my 1000 watt PSU was bad, which I told them it wasn't, because I'm just doing a cpu mobo swap. Tried a new PSU anyway, reseeded the cpu, tried everything twice. I'm pretty sure the circuit from the cpu power socket to the cpu failed, sent as a return, because I don't have time to wait for a RMA.

Other Thoughts: When deciding on a new motherboard, it was between this and the ASRock extreme4. Ordered the latter and couldn't be happier.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
If there's any bent pins on the board then it's user damage and the board will be returned to you.

Please kindly visit the URL below to set up a RMA with the following information.
http://service.msicomputer.com/msi_user/rma_form_new.aspx

1. Full name (first, and last)
2. Telephone #
3. Physical address
4. Email address
5. Serial number (located on the box, or underneath the motherboard, eg 601-xxxx-xxxBxxxxxxxxxx)
6. Symptoms you are having onto the Special Remark section (as detailed as possible)

Once your information and warranty coverage are verified then we can proceed with this RMA for you.
Our turn-around time is typically two weeks and our system will notify you automatically at every stage of your RMA process.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, received the unit back from RMA but are still having issues, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

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