This takes me back to the new AM3 motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70.
This board is able to support AMD Phenom II triple- and quad-core processors, and below is of course the DDR3 version box.
Inside peripherals
MSI 790FX-GD70 board itself
The MB's lower-left side
4 X PCI-E X16, supporting ATI CrossFireX
1 X PCI-E X1
2 X PCI
sound chip is Realtek ALC889,which supports HD Audio 7.1 channels
MB's lower-right side
6 X SATAII(SB750),supporting Raid 0, 1, 5, 0+1
2 X SATAII(JMB322)
1 X IDE
Indicator lights: POWER/RESET/clr CMOS/Green Power/OC Dial and function buttons
MB's upper-right side
4 X DIMM DDR3, with two power supply connections
Supports 800/1066/1333/1600/1800/2133 MHz with a 16GB maximum memory.
The 1600/1800/2133 frequencies require overclocking to be obtained.
The power supply connectors are 24 PIN.
MB's upper-left corner
CPU connection is a Socket941 supporting the latest AMD AM3 45nm PhenomII CPUs.
The board comes with a 5 phase power supply supporting MSI's unique DrMOS technology.
IO ports
7 X USB 2.0
1 X IEEE 1394a
2 X RJ45
1 X eSATA
On this board, aside from the usual power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons, MSI include three buttons to ease the overclocking process.
The left-most, after changing the clock speeds, helps the user figure out the CPU's overclocking limits.
MSI's recent cooling system is the Flat Fins Copper-Pipe.
Its appearance has a lot of class, and truly gives off an air of being a high-level product.
The pipes' flow can bring the temperature down below 52 degrees C, which is in part due to the benefits of the AMD(ATI) chipset's low temperature, and low energy use.
Here is the screen after powering on the machine
BIOS main screen
Cell Menu
You can tweak the voltage quite a bit
Memory-Z
DRAM settings page; opening the selection menu lets you see several more performance settings.
M-Flash, you can directly update the BIOS
H/W Monitor
Tested platform
CPU: AMD AM3 45nm 2.8G
MB: MSI 790FX-GD70
DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator 1GBX2 DDR3 2133C9D
VGA: MSI N9600GT Diamond
HD: SAMSUNG 250GB
POWER: Corsair HX1000W Modular Power Supply
Cooler: Thermaltake V1 AX/JETART Nano Diamond
CPU info
45nm, triple-core, without L3 version (the tested CPU has specs which won't be produced anymore).
The graphics card used is MSI N9600GT Diamond
Its components are outstanding, Hi-c CAP,DrMOS
and its specs use the special 9600GT.
IO ports have DVI, HDMI, D-SUB via a DVI-D-Sub adapter, S/PDIF-in and an overclocking button.
The DDR3 used the high-end, CORSAIR Dominator 1GBX2 DDR3 2133C9D
Preliminary test
CPU 200X14=>2800Mhz 1.300V
DRAM DDR3 1333 CL6 6-6-18 1T
VGA 650/1625/850Mhz
Hyper PI 3X32M & CPUMARK
CrystalMark 2004R3
CINEBENCH R10
DDR3 1333 CL6 6-6-18 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth-12269MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read-93533MB/s
3DMARK2005
3DMARK2006
Crysis Benchmark
Overclocked test (without limits)
Test settings
CPU 240X15=>3600Mhz 1.337V
DRAM DDR3 1600 CL8 8-8-24 1T
VGA 650/1625/850Mhz
Hyper PI 3X32M & CPUMARK
CrystalMark 2004R3
CINEBENCH R10
DDR3 1600 CL8 8-8-24 1T
Sandra Memory Bandwidth-14476MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read-10544MB/s
3DMARK2005
3DMARK2006
Crysis Benchmark
The tested AM3 chipset is the 790FX northbridge with the SB750 southbridge, which is currently AMD's pinnacle product.
Price-wise, because it has come out after AM2+ has been on the market for a while, it isn't too much of a jump from previous boards.
MSI put a lot of thought and attention to detail into its AM3 platform 790FX-GD70.
Aside from adding new functions and design, the cooling system is a thing of beauty and adds to the overall sense of quality in this board.
This was my first time using the 45nm AM3 platform, and I can already see a big drop in temperature and energy-use.
The frequency peaks have also been raised quite a bit from the 65nm chips - online results
I have seen indicate the AM2+ PhenomII can be overclocked to 4GHz or higher.
Regarding the performance, although they results weren't the surprise I had imagined,
the 45nm design showed a not too small improvement in lowering the temperature and conserving energy.
Add to that AMD's CPUs lower price-range, then I can see this platform attracting a lot of customer attention
if the 45nm triple-core or other PhenomII CPUs can maintain a price similar to the current 65nm versions.
Personally, given the high price-performance ratio, I feel that this AMD platform has a lot of potential in the mid-/low-price segments of 2009.
This review marks a new beginning for AMD,
and it is my hope that even better AM3 overclocking performance or special functions will appear in the many reports to follow 
. windwithme
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