Question 1

does this motherboard have USB3.0 on board connectors for USB ports on the front of the CASE?

Accepted Answer

Sorry that take me some time to answer, the reason I was buying  1 piece at the time for a new build.....to answer your question, "yes" is a USB3 connection in the bottom of the motherboard, is the little blue box with 2 rows of pins on it.

Question 2

You can do SLI/Crossfirex with this motherboard right?

Accepted Answer

Crossfire only, SLI requires at least two PCIe 3.0 8-speed slots. Though, since it is cost-ineffective to crossfire with anything less than one of the more powerful cards, and at this price range, you really shouldn't be looking for a dual-card configuration.

Question 3

Does this motherboard support sli or crossfire x?

Accepted Answer

It supports Crossfire and Dual Graphics, but not SLI

Question 4

Does this have a USB 3.0 connector on the MOBO so I can connect the 2 two usb 3.0 ports on the front of my case to it?

Accepted Answer

It has one USB 3.0 on-board connector. Are your USB 3.0 ports a dongle, as in two ports that share one connector? If so, you'll only need the one connector, but if your ports require two separate connectors, you can add a USB 3.0 Controller Card in the PCI-Express expansion slot pretty cheap.

Question 5

Does this board have multi-monitor support with just an APU in it?

Accepted Answer

I have not tried multi monitor as it is used for a HTPC.  I can't find the manual atm but just download it from the MSI website.  My projector won't start, it needs to cool down.  Had it on for a long time today.

Question 6

Can you do crossfire with 2 discrete gpu's?

Accepted Answer

I had intended to do just that, but found with the two HD7870 I was going to use that there was only an eighth inch of clearance between the fan on the top card and the board of the second so I went with a single GTX770.

If you went with single slot cards it would be fine. The higher end cards are all double slot though and I just was not comfortable with the lack of space between.

Question 7

Does this work with 2133 RAM using any CPU or is it CPU specific?

Accepted Answer

The A88XM does not support 2133 natively - it supports 2133 by overclocking through bios settings.  On automatic detect memory settings, the motherboard set my 1866 DDR3 to 1600.  I had to change the settings in bios and the memory ran fine at 1866 using manual settings.  I did not have any 2133 DDR3 to test at the time.

The A10 APUs support 2133 and the A8/A6 APUs support 1866 or 1600 depending on number of slots on motherboard.  That being said, with good memory, you should be able to overclock the memory through bios memory settings and run stable at 2133 with either the A10 or A8.

I have an AMD FX-8350 on ASUS motherboard and I cannot get the system to run stable on memory speeds over 1866 or CPU speeds over 4.1Ghz.  Many have had success with overclocking the FX-8350 to 5.0Ghz and DDR3 2400.   It depends a lot on CPU and other components.  I am happy with my FX-8350 but I sure was disappointed that it would not run stable on memory speeds above 1866.  AMD replied that the memory controller supports DDR-1866.  The good news is I was able to lower and tweak the timings and the 2133 DDR runs at 1866 with low CAS latency.

Question 8

I would like to know if this will be a good budget choice for gaming. CPU: AMD x4 760K, GPU GTX 660 OC'd, RAM: 4x2 1800mhz?

Accepted Answer

Did a little testing with this board on a customers build.  Used Kerbal Space Program for my test.  And used only the onboard video.  KSP ran smoothly (even better than my home system) with no frame rate drop from launch, to orbit, to reentry, to landing.

Question 9

Kind of a stupid question but..  This motherboard will fit in a Mid Size Tower Case right..?

Accepted Answer

Not a stupid question, and the answer is yes, it should. Most mid tower cases will accept a full atx motherboard, which is even larger than this "Micro ATX" motherboard. As long as the motherboard tray in the tower is flexible with where you can put motherboard supports, it should easily fit. Most mid towers have a completely customizable motherboard tray so you can put the stands anywhere there is a hole in this motherboard. I'm sure you will be surprised how easily it will fit. Hope your build goes well!

Question 10

can i put wifi adapter on this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

I used a usb adapter in one usb port and it works great. I'm not fond of mini's cause their range can be iffy. Get a decent adapter for optimal range.

Brand	MSI
Model	A88XM-E45

CPU Socket Type	FM2+ / FM2
CPU Type	Athlon/A- Series

Number of Memory Slots	4x240pin
Memory Standard	DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333
Maximum Memory Supported	64GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16
PCI Express 2.0 x16	1 (running at x4)
PCI Express x1	1 x PCI Express x1
PCI Slots	1 x PCI Slot

Serial ATA (SATA)	8 x SATA 6Gb/s
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

MSI A88XM-E45 FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

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Back I/O Ports	1 x D-Sub / 1 x DVI-D / 1 x HDMI / 2 x PS/2 / 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 / 4 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 / 6 x Audio Jacks
PS/2	1 x PS/2 keyboard port 1 x PS/2 mouse port
Video Ports	1 x DVI-D 1 x D-SUB
HDMI	1 x HDMI
USB 3.0	4 x USB 3.0
USB 1.1/2.0	2 x USB 2.0
Audio Ports	6 Ports

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.0 + 4 x USB 2.0
Other Connectors	1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 1 x 4-pin CPU fan connector 1 x 4-pin system fan connector 1 x 3-pin system fan connector 1 x Front panel audio connector 2 x System panel connectors 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector 1 x TPM module connector 1 x Serial port connector 1 x Parallel port connector 1 x Clear CMOS jumper

Form Factor	Micro ATX
Dimensions (W x L)	9.6" x 9.6"
Power Pin	24 Pin

Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset	Realtek ALC887
Audio Channels	7.1 Channels

Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset	Realtek 8111G
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps

Item#: N82E16813130745