- AMD A78 (Bolton D3)
- Athlon/A- Series
- DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333
Solid Motherboard
11/13/2014
This review is from: MSI A78M-E45 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A78 (Bolton D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Pros:
- Solid construction
- Nice blue color
- Stable
- Plenty of room for expansion
- 4 USB 3.0 ports on back panel
- Plenty of on-board video options if you use it
- Straightforward layout
- Most drivers were easy to get set up
Cons:
- 24-pin ATX power was a little tough to get connected
- One of the USB 3.0 drivers was problematic (see notes)
Overall Review:
Overall, this has been a great board. It looks, feels, and works nicely. The construction is solid, setup was straightforward and easy, and the room for expansion this board offers makes it a good choice for the price (getting it on sale is better though :D). There are only two minor cons I found...
The motherboard power connector was a little difficult to get connected. I tend to have an issue with this anyway for some reason, but it was very time consuming to get the cable to clip onto the pin housing.
Other than that, after installing the board and the system (running Win7), I decided to go online and get the latest drivers instead of pulling the driver CD out. Perhaps I just wasn't looking in the right place, but I actually never managed to find one of the USB 3.0 drivers on MSI's support site, and I had to resort to using the driver CD (which ended up working perfectly anyway) for that one driver. Maybe I just missed it, though...
Overall, it's a great motherboard, and I look forward to seeing how it does in the long term.
Build:
CPU: Athlon X4 860K
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2x4GB, 1600Hz on CAS9)
PSU: CX500
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB
HDD: WD Blue 500GB
GFX: Sapphire Radeon HD 7950
DVD: Random DVD Drive
CASE: Rosewill Galaxy-03
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- Aaron F.
-
Verified Owner
-
Owned For:
1 week to 1 month
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