Motherboard MSI 970A-G43: review, testing and feedback

Many potential buyers are very interested in how the usual motherboard from the budget class MSI 970A-G43 managed to get many users to itself? After all, an inexpensive segment of devices has limited functionality and rarely falls into the field of view of advanced users and game enthusiasts. The review, testing and feedback given by the owners in this article will help the reader to become more familiar with the novelty and find out what is so special about the inexpensive motherboard.

An interesting approach to buyers

The fact that the motherboard MSI 970A-G43 belongs to the budget segment, says only the cost of the device (6000 rubles). Other factors (form factor, functional and equipment) are common to all system boards of a more expensive class. Naturally, any potential buyer will have doubts about the quality of such a unique device, because to reduce the cost of production, the manufacturer has somehow tricked and violated production technology.

IT professionals think otherwise, in their responses they assure that such products need to be viewed from a different point of view. All motherboards manufactured at the plant and supplied to the world markets have a quality certificate, which means they are fully functional. The device could be cheaper due to the abandonment of old technologies and unnecessary components. Or vice versa, the manufacturer assembled the motherboard using old spare parts.

The first acquaintance with the device

The company MSI has always liked to stand out among the competitors on the market. On packages with video cards, the Taiwanese manufacturer places photo dragons, and on the box with the motherboard there is a chip. Quite a strange approach, because many buyers would be more interested to contemplate the photo of the device and its functionality. The box is huge and slightly heavy. Naturally, many thoughts arise before the opening of present gifts from the manufacturer inside the package.

The budget class of the motherboard MSI 970A-G43 ATX hints bundle. She is very poor and uninteresting. In addition to the device itself, the box contains disks with drivers and software, instructions for installation and configuration and a lot of literature of an advertising nature in the form of small booklets. In recycled paper, the user will also find a protective grid for the interface panel. During the installation with it, you need to be extremely careful, since it is made of low-quality metal and has cutting edges, which are easy to cut your fingers.

External view of the system device

The motherboard is made in ATX format, and this is good news for all users, because in this form factor system devices have the maximum necessary functions and are not deprived of the necessary expansion cards. The large area of the brown textolite of the MSI 970A-G43 AM3 device contains really many interesting connectors. Also striking is the large number of electrolytic capacitors (their presence is one of the criteria that affected the reduction in the cost of the motherboard).

It should be noted that there are two modifications of this device on the market. The difference between them is only in the marking and appearance of the printed circuit board. So, the more expensive modification has the word Plus in its name and instead of the brown color of the textolite the manufacturer used black color. The technical characteristics are no different. As the owners note in their reviews, the external beauty of the motherboard in black performance is deceptive, since it has practically no marking for connecting power cables and additional devices.

Features of the integrated panel

Unlike Intel's products, the MSI 970A-G43 SocketAM3 does not contain a built-in video. Marking G43 has nothing to do with the integrated graphics - this is a common coincidence. On the back of the device, the user will find two old PS / 2 interfaces for connecting the keyboard and the manipulator. Also, the manufacturer installed a seven-channel audio system and made 6 outputs for connecting high-cost speakers. Like the users and a large number of USB ports. However, only two outputs are designed for connecting devices with USB 3.0 interface. The rest have an old USB 2.0 connector. The absence of Thunderbolt, eSATA, FireWire, LPT and COM ports clearly hint to the owner that the motherboard is from a budget class.

Hint on the game segment

Fans of dynamic resource-intensive games noticed that on the motherboard MSI 970A-G43, which is reviewed in this article, there are two PCIex16 connectors and CrossFire marking beside them. Yes, the budget representative supports the installation of two discrete graphics cards. And this fact, naturally, can not but please all potential buyers.

True, the manufacturer behaved strangely with PCIex1 and PCI expansion cards. When installing two video adapters, all expansion slots will be blocked by the video card cooling system. Only one PCIex1 interface will be available to the user, since it is located above all expansion slots. This is a huge drawback of this motherboard, and it should be taken into account when buying the device.

Good interfaces

The remaining devices can be connected very easily to the motherboard MSI 970A-G43. The owners' comments in the media assure that access to the USB expansion boards , SATA controller and control panel contacts is not blocked by either the video card or its cooling system. And if the control panel and connection of the USB expansion card is a one-time action, many users need to work with SATA ports more often. The manufacturer installed two conventional SATA III ports near the South Bridge chip, and placed four interfaces at an angle of 90 degrees and carried it to the end of the motherboard. In the computer case they will be located in the area of the basket for hard magnetic storage. The huge motherboard does not have a place for the IDE-connector. This is a clear flaw, given the fact that modern interfaces eSATA and FireWire are also missing.

Support for modernization

Any upgrade of the system always begins with an increase in the amount of RAM. All owners of the motherboard MSI 970A-G43 have nothing to worry about, because the manufacturer has installed four expansion slots DDR3, capable of working in a two-channel mode. The installed bus at the hardware level supports the performance of all existing memory modules on the market , including ultra-fast memory with a clock speed of 2133 MHz.

But the manufacturer modestly kept silent that the maximum amount of RAM supported by the system should be no more than 32 gigabytes. Professionals in the field of IT assure that the limitation is more software than hardware. Accordingly, in the future, the manufacturer can release a new firmware BIOS, which removes the limitation.

CPU Support

The MSI 970A-G43 supports all existing processors on the market. The only drawback, which should pay attention to fans of resource-intensive toys - is the lack of support for Hyper-Threading technology. In fact, this fact demonstrates to the buyer that the compatibility of some processors with the motherboard is limited, respectively, before acquiring it is necessary to clarify the information about the products on the official website of the manufacturer.

There are questions to the MSI technologists and the installation of the crystal cooling system. Contact site SocketAM3 at first glance seems spacious, but many owners in their reviews complain about the impossibility of installing advanced cooling systems. All the fault electrolytic capacitors, which do not allow the radiator to properly fit into the socket socket. The options here are few: change the cooler or evaporate the capacitors and solder in new ones, with elongated legs (the containers can be turned aside).

Guarantor of stability

Fans of increasing system performance can not worry about crashes and damage to the motherboard MSI 970A-G43. The BIOS of the device not only has a backup system, but it is also capable of adapting itself to the user's actions due to intelligent power distribution. To ensure reliable data protection on the BIOS chip, the manufacturer used M-Flash technology. However, for this you will have to sacrifice one flash drive after purchasing the motherboard, to which you need to write the settings of the basic input-output system. In general, BIOS protection is impeccable and will appeal to all advanced users.

Is there gunpowder in the flasks?

Increasing the productivity of your own requires a separate review of the MSI 970A-G43 motherboard. Overclocking many beginners imagine in the form of a specialized application in which the power of the system increases as a result of the movement of the sliders up on the control panel. Some users are looking for the same sliders in the basic input / output system. There is nothing like this in this motherboard and will not be.

Dispersal with one's own hand can be done in two ways: to raise the bus voltage or increase its frequency. In rare cases, you can increase the processor multiplier if this function is not locked by the manufacturer. In the MSI 970A-G43 motherboard, performance improvement is provided, but the user performs all actions at his own risk. The whole problem is that in the BIOS itself there is no built-in utility for testing the system for stability without loading the operating system, there is only monitoring, which will not help the user much when overclocking.

Finally

Budget motherboard MSI 970A-G43 has quite an interesting equipment and functionality. The manufacturer has created some kind of multifunctional device that should interest a wide range of customers. First of all, game lovers should pay attention to this product, because in addition to supporting work with two discrete video adapters in CrossFire mode, the board has 4 slots for installing memory modules and is combined with many popular processors. Do not forget about 6 SATA III slots and PCIex1 slots, which can be used to install NAND SSD drives.

But for the home users and the office segment, the motherboard will be less interesting. All the fault is the lack of an integrated video adapter and expansion cards for connecting peripherals. Also for the installation of the ATX device you need a corresponding case, which on the computer market is clearly not in the budget segment.