Question 1

Does it support DDR3?

Accepted Answer

Nope. DDR4 only. Aside from the electronic compatibility, DDR3 and DDR4 have a different number of pins and the physical size is different, so it wont even mount into the socket at all.

Question 2

Does this fit a mid tower?

Accepted Answer

It should, it really depends on the mid-tower.  It is a full size ATX pcb with 9 mounting holes. IE 3 across top, middle and bottom.  Go to MSI's website for the manual/board dimensions, then check your case for corresponding mounting studs.

Question 3

can someone comment on this bios flashback thats featured on this motherboard? how does it work. what is IT exactly?

Accepted Answer

There is a USB 2.0 port on the rear panel, near the CMOS reset button, it's rotated 90 degrees (vertically as opposed to horizontally like the others).

You can put a USB stick in this slot with a BIOS file on it and press the BIOS Flashback button near the OC Knob to flash the BIOS if something goes wrong during a regular flash and you can no longer boot. You don't even need a CPU, RAM or Graphics Card installed for it to work. Check manual for more info.

Question 4

What is the other power connector on the bottom left for?

Accepted Answer

It is used as additional power for hybrid and SLI configurations, particularly when using an APU.

Question 5

Aside from the display port and one U.2 port, what is the difference between this Mobo and the Msi x370 Gaming Pro Carbon that would justify the extra 120$?  Sell me please.

Accepted Answer

Aside from the color of the PCB and basic little luxuries, the real difference is the quantity and quality of the mosfets, resistors, capacitors and such. If you don't plan on extreme overclocking, or need one of the specific luxury add on things, nothing worth the price difference. If you want a more durable board, this one is it. Overall, most people will not be able to tell the difference, but you have to admit, the board color alone makes you want to spend the money.

Question 6

How do motherboards like this boast more PCI Express lanes than the CPU and chipset have?  Does the chipset implement some sort of switching?  If you use two GPUs (SLI/Crossfire) and one connects to the CPU's PCI-Express controller, and the other must then connect to the chipset, doesn't that slow things down?

Accepted Answer

If you put 2 GPU's in either crossfire or SLI, the 2 PCIE 16x lanes become 8x each. One GPU and its 16x. In the case of this motherboard, we are looking at a future proofing feature with the 2 16x PCIE lanes. We can expect future iterations of the AM4 compatible cpus to have more PCIE lanes than what the Ryzen currently has. This will run just fine at 8x for each card with the current Ryzen, however once you add 2 M.2 SSD's you will start to have trouble so I don't recommend filling those up with anything if you are going with a SLI or Crossfire setup. Use the SATA ports for SSD's.

Question 7

will this work with windows 7?

Accepted Answer

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us in regards to your question. Unfortunately that is not a question we can answer, but you can contact the manufacturer directly for possible assistance. Their contact information can be found under the 'Warranty & Returns' tab.

Thank you, 
Newegg Support

Question 8

I know some AM4 boards are able to support AM3 and AM4 coolers by default with legacy sockets built in. Does this one have that built in or will we need AM4 kits for coolers?

Accepted Answer

No, this board only supports AM4 sized brackets. The Asus Crosshair 6 has brackets for both types of coolers.

Question 9

do you need to have a 4 pin power connector in conjunction with the 8 pin?  up top by the cpu? if so what power supply do you recommend?

Accepted Answer

The extra 4-pin connector is used for overclocking, often extreme overclocking, to provide voltage stability in order to keep your system stable.  The system runs well without it, though I had instability when turning the OC meter to level 2 (4.15Ghz on an 1800X chip.)  It's running well at level 1(4.10Ghz).

Question 10

Does this support SLI with both cards at 16x or is it 8x?

Accepted Answer

AMD Ryzen supports 24 PCI-e 3.0 lanes, so I imagine when you go into a multi-gpu setup it goes down to x8. It may also go down to x4 with 3 GPUs depending on how the other lanes are used.

Questions & Answers