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

Pros: clean i3 / Win 7 / Kingston 120Gb SSD install - decent documentation - pretty fast on stock settings
can somebody at MSI Please send me a fully operational mobo!

Cons: No USB 3.0 again! RMA'd the first one for the same reason
I have check 9again) all drivers 7 settings which indicate the ports should be working

Other Thoughts: appears MSI did nothing but re-box the malfunctioning mobo I sent & shipped it back in another box!
huge waste of my time & postage!
I have never had USB problems before - now close to 20 builds: Gigabyte / Asus / MSI / Intel / ECS / Asrock

Pros: Pretty nice except for the cons...

Cons: Wouldn't boot because i was using a pair of XMP ready sticks and a pair of of non-xmp sticks (both Gskill). would boot with either pair, just not both. so now i have 8 gb of ram just sitting around with no use.

would be nice to have either all 3 prong sys fan headers or all 4 prong. don't see the point of having both.

Pros: CHEAP! but you get what you pay for

Cons: Got board ran fan until BIOS update....apparently there is a problem with updating board and processor you may have. Have found numerous issues with bios updates and MSI boards. Wish I had looked into this before updating...assumptions make azzes of us all...FIX THE BIOS update issue MSI...Will be the LAST MSI board I EVER BUY. Despite running two others in my house..Very disappointed in the board.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
BIOS update is always risky and the system should not be overclocked if you are going to update the BIOS.
You can send the board directly to us and we will recover the BIOS for you free of charge, be sure to send us a tracking # at usreview@msi.com.
Attn: MSI TSD
901 Canada Court
City of Industry, CA 91748

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: at this point NOTHING

Cons: Flashed board with new update and board DIED....apparently problem with bios and certain Intel chips...DO NOT BUY this board....or any other MSI board for that matter....been building for almost 15 years...and to have this happen on a weekend doing a bios update is total garbage.....GARBAGE support MSI total garbage.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
BIOS update is always risky and the system should not be overclocked if you are going to update the BIOS.
Which version did you originally have? And which versions did you update to?

You can send the board directly to us and we will recover the BIOS for you free of charge, be sure to send us a tracking # at usreview@msi.com.
Attn: MSI TSD
901 Canada Court
City of Industry, CA 91748

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 motherboard, will get what you want, CrossFire, a bit of overclocking (not much) and is a good starter motherboard if your are on a budget. If your not then don't buy this motherboard. Reasons not stated in Cons

Cons: The big thing for me was the USB 3.0 it doesn't work at all. At least for me. If you are running Windows 8 then there are no drivers for USB 8.o meaning you just lost about 4 of your USB slots. If you have Windows 7 and you download the driver. same thing. They just don't work for whatever the reason for me.

Other Thoughts: Like I said good starter motherboard. I got when I got my 3770k.

Specs :
i7 3770k
HD 7850 (Crossfire)
8gb @ 1333 RAM
750w PSU
WIndows 8

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
USB 3.0 is native support by Windows 8 therefore it does not require drivers.
Perhaps you can retest the USB 3.0 ports by taking the board outside of chassis on top of a non-conductive surface and see if any of them works or not.
If problem persists, then we will issue you a RMA# to send the board back.

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: UEFI Bios (first experience with UEFI and I love it)
Fairly simple overclocking
Price

Cons: By no means the best motherboard on the planet, but for $100 you can't really complain.

Pros: -Good for the price
-OC gen II for OCing
-supports 1600mhz RAM
-allround nice Motherboard

Cons: -Dont get all the bells and whistles

Other Thoughts: Its a very good motherboard if you dont want all the bells and whistles. Also its cheap, but has good quality.

Pros: I can't think of any anymore.

Cons: They mentioned that the instructions clearly label the case connectors, this is true. They fail to address my point. The mobo has no clear labeling on it. It uses obscure codes and many don't even correlate to my case, resulting in a lot of back and forth between the mobo, case, and instruction book that isn't necessary.

Oh and it is dead after RMA and no longer am I able to return it to newegg. I only hope come morning I'll have a mobo that actually works.

Other Thoughts: After needing to pull so many core components in and out of this case I might have to RMA more products through the Mfr instead of newegg. Ram? No idea if it works yet, and may not after 3 installs. Chip? No idea if that works yet either after a few installs. Graphics card? I might need to ship that back, but at least I know it is getting power.

Basically for a "highly rated" "quality component" board, it ships dead twice and has the potential to cost me nearly a thousand dollars in other parts that may no longer work after being handled and stored for so long in between RMA's.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Please provide your previous RMA# to usreview@msi.com and we can take care of this issue 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: --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