The MSI 790FX-GD70 looks to be another winning product for MSI. It's a feature rich solution designed for AMD's socket AM3 processors using DDR3 memory with the overclocking enthusiast in mind.
Introduction
MSI is a well known name to the world of computing enthusiasts. They maintain a wide product range of motherboards, graphics cards, and other products.
Their motherboards range from basic no frills designs for the OEM market to more expensive and high end solutions for today's latest and greatest processors which are obviously targeted toward the computing enthusiast. Today we are looking at the MSI 790FX-GD70 which is designed for AMD's latest socket AM3 processors.
The MSI 790FX-GD70 is based on the AMD 790FX chipset and is coupled with AMD's SB750 south bridge. The 790FX-GD70 supports AMD's socket AM3 Phenom II X4, X3, and X2 processors as well as the new Athlon II CPUs. According to MSI's documentation, the 790FX-GD70 supports 140 watt CPUs, DDR3 2133MHz memory, along with active phase switching. It also supports AMD's Crossfire and CrossfireX multi-GPU technologies. The board boasts and impressive array of other features. The MSI 790FX-GD70 also has a new feature for MSI boards called the OC Dial. This is not unlike the joystick on the Rampage II Extreme. It serves the same basic purpose which is to manually control FSB speeds in hardware on the fly.
MSI includes their Dr. MOS feature which is a driver IC combined with two MOSFETs. MSI claims this allows for 93.6% power efficiency, improved response time and lower temperatures. The board also supports active phase switching. This function turns off unnecessary power phases to reduce power consumption.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging is what we'd call "old school." It is a simple box that we've come to know over the years. Printing is basic, and the board is protected by an anti-static bag and a piece of foam and cardboard holds the bundled cables and manuals on top of the board. Which is really all most of us want to pay for. Our board arrived without damage. Absent in this case is the retail manual and drivers disks. This board was an production sample and its packaging was not intended for retail distribution, but should be representative of actual retail product. While the packaging gets the job done, it does not impress.
Board Layout
The first thing I noticed about the 790FX-GD70 when I took it out of the box was that the board itself is very svelte looking. In fact, this is arguably the best looking MSI board I've ever seen. It is certainly one of the best looking AMD processor compatible boards I've seen. While we don't rate boards on their appearance generally speaking, a good looking board beats an ugly board provided all else is equal right? 
Well the MSI 790FX-GD70 has at least that much going for it right out of the box. The second thing I noticed was the board's layout. The layout on the 790FX-GD70 is one of the better ones I've seen for an AMD processor compatible motherboard. AM2/AM2+ boards were notorious for being badly laid out, in my opinion anyway. This board could be better in that regard as well, but I have only a few complaints, all of which are minor.
The CPU area is nice and clear. There shouldn't be any problems installing most modern heat sink and fan combinations on this board. Even the RAM slots are positioned to leave ample clearance in front of the CPU socket.
The 790FX-GD70 has four DDR3 DIMM slots. The board supports a total memory capacity of 16GB. I don't care for how the memory slots are grouped, but it isn't as bad as what they used to do. The black slots indicate one bank, and the blue the other. Instead of the old method MSI used where they'd group a blue and a black as one bank and so on. (Using this color scheme as an example.) That is a minor issue compared to the fact that the memory slots are too close to the primary PCI-Express x16 slot. You cannot easily remove the modules, or install new ones without pulling the video card, or flexing some stuff. I almost have to give MSI a pass on this issue though even given the fact that this sort of thing bothers me quite a bit.
The northbridge is a bit oddly placed here in that it is almost behind the CPU socket area. It is interesting in that I've never seen that before and it makes great use of the space. The cooling system used by the north bridge is fairly ample and covers the PWMs and the south bridge as well. The chipset cooler was always only barely warm to the touch. North and south bridge temperatures were 36c and 32c respectively.
As I stated before, the south bridge shares the north bridge's cooling system. The south bridge is located in the usual place in front of the expansion slots. Directly in front of the south bridge are the 8 SATA ports. MSI did fairly well here as they used right angle, locking SATA headers. I like that. The blue ports attached to the JMicron JMB322 controller are locking, but plug strait down into the board. I'm not a huge fan of that, but they are for the most part located out of the way.
The expansion slots are in my opinion, laid out almost perfectly. Between each blue PCI-Express x16 slot there is ample room before reaching the next one. Therefore two, three, and even four card multi-GPU configurations would be well at home here. The board features 4 PCI-Express x16 slots that operate in either 16x16 mode, or 8x8x8x8 modes. The board also has 1 PCI-Express x1 slot and 2 legacy PCI slots.
The I/O panel features the usual PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, 1 SPDIF out, optical out, 7 USB ports, 2 RJ-45 ports, six mini-headphone jacks and the most bizarre port of all. A combination USB / eSATA port. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it and used it. I actually tried both a USB flash drive and an eSATA device through this port, and both devices worked. I am not really sure why they chose to engineer such a port, but it is kind of neat. This port also provides power over eSATA for devices that support the feature.
Overclocking Center
MSI included a simple utility with the 790FX-GD70 called the Overclocking Center. The overclocking center has basic system information on the main screen. This includes motherboard, CPU, VGA and BIOS information. The D.O.T. menu is for MSI's Dynamic Overclocking Technology. The software has two modes, a basic and an advanced. The basic mode has preset profiles. 5 to be exact. These set all the overclocking values. Cooling, Silence, Default, Game, and Cinema are represented here.
In advanced mode you can save and edit your own profiles, or load a previously saved profile. There are a fair amount of options here, which is good. The utility is easy to use and understand as a result of its simple nature. The memory tab works very much like CPU-Z's. You can see model, brand and size information, memory load, and the timings table for each modules. The modules are viewed separately and are selected by the drop down list on the left. The PCI tab displays PCI device resources, vendor ID's and a bunch of other technical information.
The BIOS isn't the easiest thing to work with. Most everything is essentially in one place which is nice, but I think there are too many sub-menus to make using the BIOS intuitive. Still, it gets the job done and more is better than less when it comes to BIOS settings.
BIOS
MSI chose the American Megatrends Inc. BIOS for the 790FX-GD70. Version 1.3 was used for all testing and screen captures. At the time of this writing version 1.3 is the latest BIOS available from MSI's website. The BIOS was dated 4/27/2009.
The American Megatrends BIOS is laid out in a DOS menu style and is broken down by categories. The standard CMOS Features menu has the usual time and date settings, and leads to a system information menu. The system information screen shows the name and type of CPU, along with the CPU frequency, BIOS version, and memory information.
The Advanced BIOS Features contains the BIOS flash protection, full screen logo display, and CPU, chipset, and boot sequence settings. The CPU Feature sub menu contains SVM and C1E support settings. Chipset Feature contains an HPET setting.
Next is Integrated Peripherals which contains settings used for configuring onboard hardware such as RAID controllers, LAN ports, audio etc. Power management contains all the normal ACPI functions and settings for the power button. The hardware monitor displays general PC health including voltages. Fan speeds and fan smart control settings are also found here. MSI's Green Power feature is what allows for the active phase switching feature to de-activate unnecessary power phases.
The Cell Menu is where all the overclocking, tuning and tweaking gets done. This contains CPU specifications, AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet feature, CPU FSB frequency, CPU ratio, CPU-NB ratio, Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC), Auto Overclock Technology, OC dial, etc. Next are two sub menus. These are Memory-Z and Advance DRAM Configuration. The Memory-Z feature allows you to read SPD and XMP information from memory modules. This allows you to look at the complete timing information and timing tables for your modules. HT link control, link speed, PCI-Express frequencies, etc can be seen here in screen shots 10-14.
The Cell Menu also contains voltage settings. As you can see in the images, the 790FX-GD70 has a very robust voltage configuration menu. One of the most robust I've ever seen. Also seen above is the Memory-Z and SPD information.
Advanced DRAM configuration contains a ton of configurable options. Once DRAM Timing mode is set to DCT0, DCT-1 or "BOTH" it unlocks a whole slew of settings which can be seen here. As with the voltage settings for this board you'd be hard pressed to find a board with more DRAM configuration options.
Last is the M-Flash utility which is a built in utility for updating the system BIOS. It is fairly simple to operate and is really self-explanatory.
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an AMD Phenom II X2 550 (3.1GHz) Black Edition and 2 x 2048MB Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D ver 2.1 DDR3 1600MHz (8,8,8,24,1T @ 1.65v) memory modules running at DDR3 1333MHz (ganged mode) were used. The CPU was cooled with a Corsair Nautilus 500 paired with an Swiftech Apogee GT water block.
Sound Hardware
The MSI 790FX-GD70 is using Realtek's ALC889 audio codec. The ALC889 is an 8-channel solution which delivers 2ch 24-bit / 192kHz or 5.1ch 24-bit / 96kHz sound. MSI refers to this as True Blu-ray Audio. (Got to love marketing guys.) At any rate it is a capable yet software driven codec. While better hardware exists, as far as audio solutions go, one could do worse than the ALC889.
Audio – Subjective Listening
For subjective listening you want to listen to something that covers a range of sound types. For this portion of the review I went with Disturbed, Indestructible.
The ALC889 worked as it should. CD audio playback was flawless as expected. No hissing, popping, or other distortion was heard.
Audio – Microphone Port Testing
The onboard audio MIC-IN port was tested using a Logitech Internet Chat Headset. Spoken words were recorded from the Windows Sound Recorder found under the Accessories\Entertainment folder in the start menu within Windows XP. The recording was made with the Microphone Boost option disabled, then enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the advanced menu under the microphone section within the Volume Control Menu.
The microphone recording sample had a low volume level with the microphone boost option enabled. With the option enabled, the sample was audible, but distorted. This is a fairly common occurrence with onboard audio and is expected. Serious recording professionals will add in their own sound hardware anyway so this is of little concern for most people.
Drive Performance
To test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 connections, we used an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected first to the USB port. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives on the primary SATA header and Samsung 40 GB SATA 3G with NCQ hard drives on additional SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in RAID 0 16k block size configurations on all applicable controllers. Testing was also conducted using a standalone SATA drive on all applicable controllers, and an EIDE drives connected in a primary slave configuration on the appropriate controller All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program.
Unfortunately the SATA/RAID controller built into the SB750 and the JMicron controllers both caused me quite a bit of trouble. I was able to configure a RAID0 array for installing the OS on. After that is when the problems started. I was not able to get my Samsung Spinpoint drives to function on either the JMicron 322 or the SB750 in AHCI or RAID mode. I could get the RAID array configured on the SB750, but the system wouldn't actually write to it. I also couldn't get a single drive, or a RAID array even created on the JMicron 322 using the Spinpoint drives. I wondered if it was my OS (I test with Windows XP SP3) so I loaded up Windows 7 RC build 7100 on a spare drive. (Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300GB SATA 3G.) I had no problem with that drive, but still couldn't get the Spinpoint drives to function either independently or in a RAID array. So it didn't appear to be driver related.
Finally I utilized a couple of spare Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD drives and gave them a shot. Those worked but not without issue. When you run IO Meter on a volume for the first time it creates a work file. This file is the full size of the drive or array. In this case the file should have been 300GB. After an hour it was only 53GB. Needless to say something was screwy. (Editor’s Note: I do not find that to be unusual IOMeter behavior.) So I stopped the drive preparation and ran the test again. If you do this the test will run anyway without increasing the size of the work file.
In other words, while I believe the test results to be fairly accurate as I've found little difference between a larger work file and a smaller one from an aborted drive prep, the test results here are not comparable to those in any of our other articles. Essentially the only value in this test is confirmation that the RAID controllers worked. Though again, they only worked partially. The JMB322 doesn't even give me an option to place it in RAID mode or configure an array in its own BIOS. As a result, only AHCI single drive tests could be performed.
Interestingly enough the combination eSATA / USB port worked flawlessly as an eSATA port. The eSATA port is attached to the JMB322 and as a result it can be placed in RAID mode with the internal "blue" ports. What does it all mean when you get down to it? Well essentially the RAID controllers were a huge pain to work with. More pain than I've "enjoyed" in a couple of years now. This implementation just seemed "bad" all the way. One other issue of note that I discovered accidentally.
I was looking at erasing my Intel X25-M SSD's after hours of testing them quite separately, and decided to put them on the test system using the 790FX-GD70 to do it as I didn't want to bother messing with cabling in my gaming or work rigs. So I connected them up and booted from a CD with the HDDErase v3.3 utility on them. One of the requirements of this utility is that the drive controller be placed in IDE and legacy support be enabled. Well the controller can be placed in IDE mode, but no legacy feature is present and I wasn't able to use the HDDErase v3.3 tool on this machine. You have to use one of the first four SATA ports, which I did, and it is suggested that the optical drive be on port 4 and your SSD's on 1, 2, or 3. Which I did as well. I covered my bases as best as I could and still no luck. So Intel X25-M owners need to be aware of this potential issue. I threw the same SSD's into an X48 / ICH9R system and of course had no issues with the procedure I described above.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used with Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. DU Meter was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, a 750MB Archive file consisting of several compressed WMA/MP3 files was used for the large file transfer, and 750MB worth of MP3/WMA files were used ranging in sizes from 3 to 30MB was used for the small files transfer test. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel EXPI9400PT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet adapter installed into a test machine using an Intel DX48BT2 motherboard.
MSI chose the Realtek 8111DL PCI-Express 1.0a Gigabit Ethernet controller for both network interfaces. They are capable of 10/100/1000 speeds and offer full and half duplex operation and support adapter teaming.
LAN1
The small files download test showed a maximum transfer rate of 74.16MB a second and an average transfer speed of 57.58MB a second which is quite excellent. What isn't excellent is the horribly high 27% CPU usage that went with it. I ran the test three times to be sure, but in each case the CPU usage bounced from 17% to 50% averaging right around 27%-30%. I can't remember ever seeing CPU usage this bad on any board's integrated LAN. The small files upload test showed a peak transfer of 46.12MB a second with an average of 24.25MB a second. This isn't bad either and for a Realtek solution, it really is pretty good. This time the CPU utilization was better, but not good at 18%. It was all over the place too, but settled there for the most part.
The large files download test showed much lower performance than the small files download test did. Peak transfer speeds were a solid 47.19MB per second which is respectable but the average fell to 35.19MB a second. This still isn't too bad and is in fact better than the Realtek 8111C I'm used to seeing. It would seem that transfer rates on the Realtek 8111DL have improved over the "C" model, but again the cost was CPU usage. It came in at 23% in this test. Again the CPU usage fluctuated like mad but averaged at about 23% most of the time. I saw spikes upwards of the low 40% range at times. It never dropped below 17% which is still not all that great. The large files upload test yielded similar results with 40.68MB for the maximum transfer rate and 20.52MB a second which is more in line with the Realtek 8111C. CPU usage was the lowest I saw before at about 17%. I saw spikes in the high 20's and as low as about 13%. Not bad, but not good.
LAN2
The results of the second LAN port were nearly identical to the first in the small files download test giving a maximum transfer rate of 74.85MB a second and averaging 57.90MB a second. CPU usage was 25% which brings this test in line with the results achieved on the first LAN adapter. The small files upload test was again more of the same. The peak transfer rate was 43.56MB a second and the average was 25.99MB a second. CPU usage was only 19% which isn't the worst I've seen.
Just as it was with the small files download test the large files download test had a peak transfer rate which was decent at 75.95MB a second. The average fell in line with expected results at 56.10MB a second. CPU usage was ridiculously high at 46%. The large files upload test was much slower maxing out at 36.69MB a second and averaging 21.12MB a second. CPU usage hovered around 23%.
Certainly the Realtek 8111DL has the potential to out perform the Realtek 8111C that is so common on today's motherboards. Unfortunately it seems to do so at a cost of very high CPU usage. Hopefully this is a driver issue and nothing more. I'm running Windows XP SP3 at this time on the test systems, so it is possible that Windows Vista users will find a better balance of performance or even better, similar speeds, with less CPU usage.
Test Systems
The following system configurations were used for the Sandra memory benchmark graph, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - FSB Clock - Memory Clock
Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in Triple Channel mode, except of course for our AMD system which only supports dual channel DDR.
It shouldn't come as a surprise but the Phenom II's integrated memory controller just doesn't have the memory bandwidth the Core i7 does even when you allow for a third channel on the Intel Core i7 machines. We suspect the upcoming Core i5 with dual channel DDR will easily handle the Phenom II as well. The results are where they should be, and as we all know, memory bandwidth isn't everything.
The performance looks low here, but again, it really isn't. The Phenom II is simply outmatched by the Core i7. The 790FX-GD70 is working properly, and that's what we are showing here.
In Hiper Pi, there are no surprises. The 790FX-GD70 performs as it should.
The results here are actually quite good for the 790FX-GD70. The results here actually best results we've seen from the Core 2 Extreme QX9770 which is no small feat.
Multimedia Benchmarks
Outside of gaming and encoding, there are few applications on the desktop that will push our systems to their limits. Especially when we start talking about dual core processors that are becoming the norm now days. Some encoding apps are really starting to shine and become usable by the masses.
The benchmarks below all represent very real world situations just like you would run into at home while encoding video from your camcorder - or while using a picture editing program - or while encoding music for your iPod - or making movies with something as simple as Windows Movie Maker - or encoding a DVD for saving it to your hard drive to allow you easier access to the content.
We have simply timed our various tests on the different systems and supplied you with the amount of time it took for the system to fully build the file. Scratch disks were used properly as well as making sure we were not bumping into any IO bottlenecks elsewhere.
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - FSB Clock - Memory Clock
In DivX converter we see results that are right where they should be albeit shattered by Intel’s Core i7.
The 790FX-GD70 completes the test perfectly with no errors or problems and closes the distance between itself and the Core i7 at equal clock speeds.
WinRAR is an interesting test as it always has scaled well with CPUs clock speeds, and added CPU cores. It clearly showcases Intel's advantage in this test. (Editor’s Note: Please notice our graph is not scaled correctly ending at the 40 second mark instead of at ~80 seconds. Obviously the Phenom II system took over 2X the time of the Core i7 at equal clocks to complete the test.)
Performance is as expected.
The trend continues...... (Editor’s Note: Again, this graph is scaled incorrectly.)
Gaming Benchmarks
As always, these benchmarks in no way represent real-world gameplay. They are all run at very low resolutions to try our best to remove the video card as a bottleneck. I will not hesitate to say that anyone spouting these types of framerate measurements as a true measuring tool in today’s climate is not servicing your needs or telling you the real truth.
The gaming tests below have been put together to focus on the processor power exhibited by each system. All the tests below consist of custom time demos built with stressing the CPU in mind. So much specialized coding comes into the programming now days we suggest that looking at gaming performance by using real-world gameplay is the only sure way to know what you are going to get with a specific game. Our Real World Gameplay CPU Scaling would be a great place to start.
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - FSB Clock - Memory Clock
Lost Planet performance again meets expectations of a 3.2GHz Phenom II system. Lost Planet is very much core and thread aware.
CoJ is a primarily GPU-bound test, but we see here where the Phenom II is just holding our system back from reaching the GPU-bound mark as we see it.
Again we see performance fall where it should, albeit not where we would like it.
More of the same.
In the Crysis test we see results in line with expectations.
Overclocking
Overclocking the MSI 790FX-GD70 was the single worst experience I've ever had while overclocking. It was horrible. The first problem is that the board does a horrid job of recovering from a "bad" overclock. So I had to get familiar with the profile feature of the BIOS real quick. I established a baseline of settings I knew worked. Default CPU clocks and voltages, advanced CPU options like C1E, SVE, etc. disabled. I had the memory set for DDR3 1333MHz at its stock voltage of 1.65v which was actually 1.63v in BIOS. I did stress testing at these settings early on in the process so I knew they were good to go. I eventually got the system to post and reach the Windows desktop at 240MHz FSB/HTT once but the system was horribly unstable. I never could get the system to POST at those speeds again. I got a BSOD after clicking on CPU-Z.
I restarted the system and backed down the FSB to 220MHz. Upon reaching the desktop none of my icons would appear and the taskbar hung there with no start button. I decided to set everything back to stock settings. The system still wouldn't get to the Windows desktop. After doing that I was treated with the "checking the disk for errors" messages. From then I got six minutes of scrolling file names that the system was trying to repair or recover. I knew my OS was trashed. I restored from a Ghost Image that I always make when I setup a new system for the first time. After that was restored I was still unable to get to the Windows desktop. I got the same icon-less desktop and taskbar that was devoid of a start button. The mouse would move, but all I ever got was an hour glass for an icon. I reimaged again with the same results. I reloaded my baseline BIOS values from the stored profile and even tried some different modules. Same results. I checked my temperature readings in BIOS and found that everything was running nice and cool. (CPU was running at 29c.)
So I got the system running again at default settings by reinstalling Windows XP SP3 from scratch instead of using my Ghost image. I started messing with the settings again and this time I couldn't get 220MHz HTT to run stable. It was at this point I was ready to throw in the towel, but decided not to. I decided to use the auto overclocking feature which can test for max FSB settings. I let that run. It began to load Windows XP after a reboot and blue screened on me. It kept doing this for several minutes. I started going into the BIOS between each reboot and all it did was keep altering the FSB (HTT) settings up. Each time that happened I still got the same BSOD's loading Windows. I set back to stock and went to see if the system would actually run Windows. No dice. Same endless list of attempted file recovery attempts. So I reloaded my second Ghost image. No dice.
At this point I decided to try another load of Windows XP this time using IDE mode instead of AHCI mode. Long story short the data corruption issue continued during my overclocking attempts. It was at this point I grabbed yet another drive and loaded Windows 7 on it. While making my overclocking attempts I still couldn't get the system to overclock much if at all. However the data corruption appeared to stop. I didn't have any more instances of drive corruption from failed overclocking attempts. Finally while I continued to try and tune the board it just stopped working for me altogether. I decided to pull the CMOS battery out and I left it powered down and battery-less for four hours. I came back to it, fired it up, reset CMOS values, and set everything back up manually. The system started working again.
I then decided to go ahead and load Windows XP Pro SP3 on the system. This time, with the drive in IDE mode. All went well this time. In 10MHz increments I started to get the FSB to climb. 210MHz, 220MHz, and so on. I inched my way up to 250MHz changing DRAM voltage, CPU voltage, NB voltage, NB-CPU Ratio, and HTT link ratio. I finally got the board up to 250MHz where it developed one seriously annoying quirk. At this point the board would load Windows and then the monitor would go blank when it came time to show me the desktop. I still heard drive trashing and had the usual glow and pulsing of my test LED's. Finally I had an idea. I unplugged the monitor and plugged in another one. I now had the desktop back. This behavior would continue on every time I rebooted the system from then on out. I just kept going back and forth between monitors. A DVI to VGA adapter might have resolved the issues but I didn't feel like digging on out, or looking at an LCD in analog mode. I continued to inch the voltages up. Finally I settled on a 280MHz FSB/HTT clock. That's actually the best I've seen any Phenom compatible board do in that regard. I've been reading about some boards hitting the wall around where I did and some making it into the 340 range! While I could get mine to post with settings like that I could not make it stable. In fact at those speeds all I got for my efforts were instant BSOD's loading the OS. However, in IDE mode I didn't have anymore data corruption problems.
Finally we use bus clocking to see what the boards can do. Not what the CPUs can do. I know that with a Black Edition CPU, FSB/HTT tweaks aren't needed to get good overclocks on these processors and the Phenom II's are clocking quite nicely, especially compared to the original Phenom which wasn't that great compared to what we are used to seeing out of Intel CPUs lately. In other words this type of overclocking is nice information, but if you bought a Black Edition Phenom II (which is what any good enthusiast should do if he goes with an AMD CPU) then it really is an academic point as they will probably not need to focus on that method of overclocking to get the performance they are looking for. Below are the usual compliment of screenshots showcasing the fruits of our labor.
Conclusion
Dan's Thoughts:
It is rare that I can sum up an experience with a board in just one word. Well today that's easy and that word is: Painful. As I had mentioned on the subsystem testing page, when it came to RAID controller testing, the RAID controllers gave me a ton of problems. It wasn't compatible with my Samsung Spinpoint drives, it didn't allow me to use HDDErase on my Intel SSD's and so on. The JMB322 RAID controller was flat out atrocious in that it wouldn't allow me to configure it for RAID use despite it being a "hardware RAID" solution. I also had numerous problems with the board and overclocking. CPU usage on the LAN ports was ridiculously high as well. I'm not sure if that's a driver issue or what. Basically the only thing that worked without doing anything strange was the integrated audio. Everything else was quirky, and flakey.
A BIOS revision would probably mitigate many of the issues I experienced. However the most current (non-beta) version is almost two months old and it seems to me that more needs to be done to whip the board into shape. At least that was my experience. I really wanted to like the board. It has a pretty good layout, runs cool, and it has a great feature set. With that said, until these issues are resolved, I can't recommend this board as it stands. It has all the makings of a good board, but it is far too quirky.
Kyle's Thoughts:
My Windows 7 RC Build 7100 install at stock Phenom II processor speed of 3.2GHz with overclocked RAM clock at 1600MHz went very well using the AHCI controller mode and new Intel SSD drives. In fact it was perfect. I also used KillDisk from a DOS boot to erase my Intel SSD drives; no issues there. I think that some of Dan’s issues came from incompatibilities with older mechanical hard drives which we should probably look into replacing soon.
From my OS install I went straight into a 15 hour torture test that leveraged the system’s CPU, GPU, and RAM at 100% simultaneously. The system worked perfectly without any issues. From there I incubated the board in order to run the board is a very hot environment. Interestingly, this is where the board actually shined. It was nearly impossible to get our incubated temperature over 40 degrees c where as this is usually something that is easily done. 50C is reachable without effort with almost every Core i7 motherboard we have used. The MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard runs incredibly cool. We simply could not provide enough insulation to get the motherboard even close to allowing us a 43C steady internal temperature.
The Bottom Line
The MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard seems to be an extremely stable and solid platform for anyone looking to build a stock Phenom II system that shows to be an extremely energy efficient and cool running product. When you move into the enthusiast realm however, the MSI 790FX-GD70 seems to be a motherboard that can give you some great overclocking on the Front Side Bus front, but be prepared to become an expert in order to get there. Given that AMD has dropped "Black Edition" processors so very low prices, the FSB envelope of a motherboard seems to be somewhat of non-issue these days in terms of AMD chipset motherboards. I would suggest this is an Editor’s Choice Silver Award worthy motherboard had we not seen the AHCI and hard drive issues we had.
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