Motherboard MSI 970 GAMING: review, description, specifications and reviews

When it comes to top-end gaming systems, the search for necessary products in the market of computer components is greatly narrowed. In fact, the choice comes from 2-3 offers from the seller, because many representatives of the High-End segment are not able to satisfy all the requirements of a potential buyer. This article is dedicated to the elite motherboard MSI 970 GAMING - a high-tech device designed to provide a full set of features for fans of the most productive games in the world. The review, description, characteristics and feedback of owners will help the reader to get to know this product more closely.

The confusion with the markings MSI 970 GAMING

In the market of computer equipment, the buyer can find out that under the same labeling two completely different products from the manufacturer MSI are hiding, which are positioned in the top segment. In addition to the motherboard under consideration, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G is under the same name. Interested in such a strange coincidence in the representative of the company, the reader learns that these products are designed to work in pairs. In fact, this is a normal marketing move, when one product promotes another, positioning it as the best solution for building a platform.

Many users in their reviews note that they built their gaming systems in this way, as the seller convinced them before buying that the compatibility will be guaranteed by 100 percent. It's up to the reader to decide whether to make a double purchase or not, but in this article there is a place to talk about the game video card.

First introduction to the baseboard

The motherboard MSI 970 GAMING comes in a huge cardboard box in black with a bright red finish. Its appearance tells the buyer that inside is clearly not a budget device. The company logo in the form of a dragon occupies the whole front of the display. On the back of the box is a brief description of all the technologies that are involved in the production of the motherboard.

Judging by the feedback of the owners, it would be better to see on the box the image of the motherboard itself, since the presence of the required connectors is much more interesting than the obscure functional. In general, the description of the characteristics is rather strange - the phrases "Killer", "Military", "Multi", "Boost" carry no meaningful loads. Brisk names should be replaced by a detailed description of the characteristics themselves.

Package Contents

Then the manufacturer tried his best to please the buyer. The MSI 970 GAMING package is very rich and interesting. In addition to the motherboard itself, there are two SATA cables, a cover for the back panel of the case, disks with software, an instruction manual and installation, a SLI bridge and a small sealed plastic bag. The contents of this package enthrall all owners of this motherboard:

• Stickers for SATA-cables;
• Branded sticker MSI Gaming Series for placement on the PC case;
• A huge tablet on the door handle with the inscription: "Forgive, I play";
• Folded advertising booklet with a dragon image and a recommendation for the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G video card to improve performance in games (neatly cropping with dragon scissors, many users put its image on the wall, near the computer - it looks very nice).

Quality of assembly and placement of elements

To the creation of a printed circuit board, not only the technology, but also the designers , clearly put their hand. As the owners of the device note in their reviews, the motherboard MSI 970 Gaming is made by fengshui. All elements of the printed circuit board are placed by sector. If we are talking about force cells - they are put in one block of the north bridge and covered with a radiator. Contacts for connecting USB devices and power management are arranged in a row, under the south bridge. SATA connectors are also made in one unit, and not scattered on the printed circuit board, as in budget devices.

There are complaints only about PCI slots. Once again, the manufacturer of MSI can not give the owner access to all ports at the same time. For example, two high-performance graphics cards (the same MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G), in SLI mode, they will simply close their PCI interfaces with the cooling system, so you can forget about connecting a TV tuner or a RAID controller. I was pleased only with the PCIx1 connector, which has recently been used to connect high-speed SSDs - its manufacturer has placed over the PCIex16 bus.

Installation of basic accessories

Users will like the site for installing a cooling system on the processor - it is completely devoid of power elements. Any existing cooler in the world can be mounted in this system. This is in the motherboard MSI 970 GAMING will appreciate first of all the overclockers. Turning the printed circuit board, the owners will find a copper core of passive cooling for the processor socket. Quite an interesting solution for owners of expensive enclosures, where there is a corresponding groove on the mounting base for the motherboard to accommodate an additional cooler.

The connectors for installing memory modules are at the processor level. On the one hand, this arrangement creates the convenience of editing (the connectors do not overlap with the cooling system of the video card), on the other hand, in a small case (miniATX), they will not allow you to install the DVD-drive. Although, as practice shows, such motherboards are purchased by owners who have ATX-Tower cases.

Overlaster tool

The basic input-output system (BIOS) MSI 970 GAMING deserves special attention. The motherboard is provided with the UEFI graphic shell, which is designed in the style of the manufacturer. As the owners say in their reviews, the management is very simple, you can configure any element of the system, but before you start the settings, it is worthwhile to open the instruction manual and take time to read it. First of all, it is recommended to save the current BIOS settings to the Flash drive, since the first steps with the setup rarely lead to positive results. And it's always easier to load working settings, rather than reset the BIOS with a jumper on the motherboard.

For those who are faced with such a device for the first time, it is necessary to know one thing: MSI 970 GAMING overclocking potential is not limited by the capabilities of the components. For example, the motherboard can freely overclock the processor to 5 GHz, but not the fact that the crystal itself supports this frequency. That is, you need to focus on the capabilities of devices, and the motherboard, it's just an instrument.

Remote Control

The fact that the motherboard is designed to install the game graphics card MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING, and shows the software that comes bundled. The user is asked to select the device to be configured before entering the utility: a motherboard or a video adapter. Quite an interesting combination of solutions from the manufacturer. As the owners note, the utility picks up the management of all top-end video cards based on GeForce.

In the process of using the software, the user will find that a large set of his functions is designed for testing and monitoring, but with the overclocking things are bad. If the video adapter (for example, MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G) and can be overclocked on the graphics core, memory or shaders, then with increasing CPU frequency is blocked (only from the BIOS). Do not despair, there are enough programs that can solve this problem.

Building a game system

Representative of High-End class, MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING, is based on the productive chip GM204. The device has 1664 CUDA cores, 104 texture units, uses a 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus. Obviously, all these characteristics hint at the game properties of the video adapter.

Not all potential customers understand the company's policy regarding the motherboard MSI 970 GAMING, which is designed for the AMD platform. Logically, the manufacturer should recommend the Radeon video adapter from the same manufacturer. But in the walls of MSI, apparently, was considered differently. What comes out of this, the user will find out after buying both devices, but there is no negative in the media regarding the incompatibility of the motherboard with the MSI GTX 970 GAMING graphics card.

Finally

The new motherboard from the well-known manufacturer MSI with the marking 970 GAMING is unequivocally the best solution for all overclocking enthusiasts. This is evidenced by the large functional and the technologies corresponding to it. Acceleration is amenable to all installed elements without exception (though only in the BIOS menu). There are many protection systems against overheating, and the cooling system of the chipset itself is implemented at the highest level. The company's policy to promote the GTX 970 GAMING 4G gaming adapter for this motherboard is not quite clear, because for an AMD-based device it would be worthwhile to offer a solution from Radeon. In any case, the user decides which graphics accelerator to install, because the motherboard works with any video card.