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On the early March, AMD released the first of their 800-Series motherboard chipsets, the AMD 890GX, to replace their previous high-end 790GX chipset which is showing its age. The AMD 890GX chipset supports AMD socket AM3 processors, including upcoming 6-core Phenom II X6 processors, and it features an integrated, DX10.1-class graphics core with 40 shader units and a 64 / 128-bit memory interface. You should also note that the graphics core within the 890GX is branded the Radeon HD 4290, but it supports Hybrid CrossFire modes with the Radeon HD 5450. Paired with AMD SB850 Southbridge chip, keywords for this chipset are more processor compatibility, better IGP performance and increased bandwidth for the new technologies. AMD SB850 Southbridge chip is embedded with a Gigabit Ethernet and a SATA 6G controller. To add their AMD motherboards collection, MSI was planted this AMD 890GX chipset on their 890GXM-G65. With micro ATX form factor makes this motherboard as on of AMD motherboards for gaming with Small Form Factor (SFF) system thanks to its Crossfire support with a pair of full-length PCIe ports (which run in x8 mode when Crossfire is enabled). The 890GXM-G65 motherboard sports MSI’s typical blue on black color scheme, and has a nice clean layout. MSI has done a great job utilizing the small amount of real estate available in the mATX form factor. The two PCIe slots are spaced far enough apart for dual-slot video cards, while leaving enough room at the bottom for easily accessing the OC Switch and USB headers. This AMD motherboard from MSI only has a total of two fan headers, the CPU fan and the one near the SATA ports. For any additional fans, you’ve gotta run adapters straight from the power supply. The DDR3 slot placement is typical of most AMD motherboards. It’s all too common for memory slots on these boards to use adjacent slots for dual channel, instead of every other slot like the majority of Intel motherboards. There's 14 USB 2.0 ports available from the MSI 890GXM-G65 motherboard in total and the two blue ports are the USB 3.0 ones. There are DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs in the rear I/O block, of which only one digital output can be used at once. There's also an eSATA port, a PS/2 port that can accept either mouse or keyboard, plenty of sound outputs (including optical S/PDIF out) and Gigabit Ethernet too. Overall this is a decent mix of ports, and has enough future upgradability for most people looking for a micro-ATX board. The MSI 890GXM-G65 board has a little something for everybody. It's an awesome net PC or work PC that is power efficient yet delivers a good punch for your business. The wide connectivity feature set and embedded IGP make this AMD motherboard a truly excellent HTPC as well. Still, 1it's not the reason enough to upgrade from the AMD 785/790 series motherboard. But if you are out on the market for an update or new PC, then this MSI 890GXM-G65 motherboard obviously is what you need to take.
Labels: AMD, MSI
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