The MCP chip manages both the northbridge and southbridge functions. In the case of the 750a chipset, this brings the platform down to a two-chip solution, being the processor and the 750a itself. But for the 980a chipset, an extra chip is added, which is the NForce 200. Its only purpose is to act as a PCI-E bridge between the chipset and the graphics solution. It doubles the available PCI-E lanes so that a 3x8 configuration can be run.
Specifications
| Socket |
AM3 |
| CPU (Max Support) |
Phenom II |
| AM3 CPU Ready |
Y |
| FSB / Hyper Transport Bus |
up to 2.6GHz |
| Chipset |
NVIDIA® nForce 980a SLI |
| DDR2 Memory |
N/A |
| DDR3 Memory |
DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600*/1800*/2133*(OC) |
| Memory Channel |
Dual |
| DIMM Slots |
4 |
| Max Memory (GB) |
16 |
| PCI-Ex16 |
3 |
| PCI-E Gen |
Gen2 (1x16, 1x16, 1x8) |
| PCI-Ex4 |
N/A |
| PCI-Ex1 |
2 |
| PCI |
2 |
| IDE |
1 |
| SATA |
6 |
| RAID |
0/1/0+1/5/JBOD |
| LAN |
10/100/1000*1 |
| TPM |
1 |
| USB ports (Rear) |
4 |
| Audio ports (Rear) |
6 |
| Serial ports (Rear) |
N/A |
| Parallel ports (Rear) |
N/A |
| 1394 ports (Rear) |
1 |
| eSATA |
N/A |
| VGA |
1 |
| DVI |
1 |
| HDMI |
1 |
| Display Port |
N/A |
| DirectX |
DX10.1 |
| VGA Share Memory (MB) |
512 |
| Form Factor |
ATX |
| DrMOS |
N/A |
| APS |
Y |
| Sideport Memory |
N/A |
| SLI |
Y |
| 3-way SLI |
Y |
| Hybrid SLI |
Y |
| CrossFire |
N/A |
| Hybrid CrossFire |
N/A |
| D-LED2 |
N/A |
| Green Power Genie |
N/A |
Specifications are courtesy of MSI at http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodmbspec&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=1885
This motherboard is part of the Gaming series from MSI, hence why it has the same package design as the MSI 790FX-GD70.
I like the looks of the NF980-G65. The PCB is black instead of dark brown like the 790FX-GD70, so it's even better. Except from that, the colors between these boards are similar. The heatsinks covering the voltage regulator modules, the northbridge and southbridge are connected by heatpipes. These will probably be more than enough cooling the board needs; that's what we will see during testing.
That cooling system is attached using metal screws, as can be seen from the back. This is much better than plastic push-pins and springs we see on many boards. The socket backplate is made out of plastic though, but I have never had solidity problems with these.
Beginning in the top left area, the NF980-G65 sports an 8-pin CPU power connector. Like the 785GM-E65, it is written in big on the heatsink that it supports 140W CPUs.
Awesome. As I said, this board is the first, yes the first to have DDR3 slots while being SLI ready. Between them and the 24-pin ATX power connector is an IDE connector, mind you keeping some old drives. On this picture, one can also see three of the four fan headers. Only the CPU one has the required fourth pin for controlling the speed.
The last fan header is located beside the six angled SATA connectors which are controlled by the MCP___. One might think that the heatsink in the following picture covers a southbridge, but it is not the case. Under it, is the NForce 200 chip, as I explained in the introduction. Above the fan header is a trusted platform module connector and the CMOS clear jumper.
At the bottom left corner are four internal USB headers. At the right of the blue Firewire header are the front panel connectors, which can be used in conjunction with the supplied Q-connectors for a quick and easy connection.
To the left is the floppy disk drive connector, in case you would have some documents from many years before stored on a floppy. The parallel and serial ports can also be found under the last PCI slot, along with the front panel audio header, the CD in and the S/PDIF out connectors.
Beautiful. The NF980-G65 has three PCI-E x16 slots for up to a 3-way SLI setup. They are accompanied by two x1 slots and two legacy PCI slots.
What do I see here? The onboard GeForce 8300 has a VGA, DVI and HDMI output. It's much better than having nothing at all like on the ASUS M4N82 Deluxe!! There is also one Firewire, one Gigabit LAN but only four USB ports. That's not much; what happens if you have a printer, a mouse, a keyboard and a game controller? Too bad, none are left for the scanner. One of the two PS/2 ports should have been traded for another two USB ports. Also let's not forget the six analog audio connectors. There are no optical and coaxial outputs.
The NF980-G65 comes packaged with four standard SATA cables that have a small metal lock. One could not install such cables on the ASUS M4N82; he was obligated to use the supplied cables. There is also an IDE cable and two molex to SATA power connectors. Besides the usual user guide, there is also a quick installation guide, should you need help installing your components. Finally, there is also the HDD Backup feature user guide. Obviously, there is also a driver CD and I/O shield. Lastly, there is also an SLI bridge provided, but what if you wanted to run 3-Way SLI? It would have been great to get the triple bridge required.
Now, let's look at the BIOS.
MSI normally uses the American Megatrends Inc. BIOS, and this board is no exception.
The Standard CMOS features are nothing but standard.
The Advanced BIOS features contain a few interesting things though. First of all, at the top, there is a BIOS flash protection. Paired with a BIOS password, it will offer a great protection against diverse things. For example, is the computer is housed in a locked case, it can be set to boot only from the primary HDD, where the guest can only login in their account. If not, he could boot from let's say a USB drive and potentially harm the computer. In the Chipset feature sub-menu, the onboard GeForce 9300 can be enabled and its shared memory can be manually set. This is also where Hybrid SLI can be enabled.
In the Integrated Peripherals, the various controllers can be enabled. Notice the typo in "Aduio HDMI".
The Power management setup also contains the standard stuff.
Voltages, temperatures and fan speeds can be monitored in the PC health status. One great thing is that the system fans speed can be set to a certain percentage - even if they are only 3-pins.
Now, let's look at the most interesting part: the overclocking section.
That's where the fun begins. In the Cell menu, all the required settings are present, and more. The NVIDIA core calibration should allow unlocking the disabled cores, if the processor allows it. At the top, AMD Cool'n'Quiet should be disabled if one plans on overclocking,
In the Advance DRAM configuration, the timings can be set as well as a few other options. What's great is that the extensive list of timings can be set individually for each DCT. The drive strength an also be altered, should it help you gain a few more MHz.
The current settings can be saved and retrieved from the User settings menu. One thing I would like to see though is the possibility to label the saved slots so it's easier to know which is what.
Finally, the M-Flash utility will allow the user to flash the BIOS from a USB key, or simply use a BIOS stored on it.
So will I have all what I need to push the Phenom II X4 965 to its limits! I think so! That's what we will see in the overclocking section.
Easy OC Switch
The NF980-G65 has one unique feature we don't find on competitor's motherboards. It has a quick overclock switch soldered directly onto the motherboard.
That switch has two levers that can be either in the ON or OFF position. That makes for a total of four different possibilities. There is a small table printed on the board that shows it, but unfortunately it's being hidden by the NForce 200 heatsink. Therefore I'll report the table here:
|
|
Default
|
Add 10%
|
Add 15%
|
Add 20%
|
|
ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
OFF
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
What this switch essentially does is set the minimum HT link reference clock to 220, 230 or 240MHz. Nothing else is changed, so if the voltages are not high enough or the multipliers not lowered, the board will simply not boot. We'll see in the overclocking section how this thing fares.
Active Power Phase
The other unique feature this board has is the Active Power Phase Switching. This technology allows the power circuitry to downscale to a lower number of phases for energy savings. There are four LEDs on the top right corner of the motherboard that indicate the number of active power phases. In this picture, all four are active:
In the Green power menu, this function can be activated in the BIOS, as well as the LEDs turned off.
Will it significantly reduce the power consumption? We'll find out later!
Popping the supplied CD into the drive and executing the autorun brings you to the following menu. The drivers can be installed from the first tab. They include everything you need to get started. Strangely enough the VGA and LAN drivers are available under the "Chip" category, and their own icon is greyed. In the Utilities tab, MSI's Overclocking center, Green Power center as well as Live Update can be installed by clicking on the toolbox. NVIDIA nTune is also available under the System Tool category.
Live Update allows your computer to automatically check for BIOS, driver or utility updates, and download them.
The Green Power Center is all about energy savings. Not much can be done in there, except activating or deactivating the Active Power Phase switching. The LEDs can also be turned off if they become annoying.
The Overclocking Center has the same System Information page as the Green Power Center so I won't show it twice. In the D.O.T./Advance tab, the voltages can be adjusted on the go, but changing the multipliers is not possible. For some reason, the HT link reference clock is greyed and cannot be changed.
Now, it's time to put the NF980-G65 to the test!
To be continued on MSI NF980-G65 Motherboard Review Part. 2
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