MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

Ahhh Z77 board has arrived! And I don’t have Ivy Bridge processor yet. đŸ™‚

The Board

The usual MSI styling – blue and black.

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

Notable changing in heatsink design. It’s rather bulky, and I find it’s could be an issue with large heatsinks. I even had to remove one of the screws for my casing fan (it was long) as the screw itself was hindering the placement of the motherboard.

The heatsink was well placed though, ample space around the CPU 12V socket.

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

Forward facing SATA slots. Love the heatsink there.

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

They were kind enough to attach a note. đŸ™‚

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

4 DIMM and the ATX power connector.

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

3x PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, the first 2 were well spaced but the last one is as always (typical of almost any other motherboard manufacturer) at the most bottom, blocking the usability of any other of the connection there. Good thing most people don’t actually use them.

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

6 USB ports, 3 choice of video output and a CMOS reset button. Nice!

MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

More details at the Official Product Page

User Experience

It’s a solid board, I must say the heatsink feels solid but I don’t have a gun to test out whether this Military Grade III component is bullet proof.

I managed to overclock my Core i5 2500K to 4.4Ghz, a speed I never manage to attain with my P67A-GD55. đŸ™‚ The UEFI was interesting but being a BIOS guy, I really prefer everything in that good old form but nevertheless it’s a nice looking UEFI.

The only hitch I encountered was when I connected a discreet graphic card to the system. Despite how I set the BIOS to initiate the PCI-E card first, it still initiated the IGD. After browsing the UEFI settings for a bit, I found the PCI-E 3.0 option being disabled by default. Ahhhh and with that, the matter is solved.

Just remember to check that portion if you ever get this board and have problem initiating the card. I’ve tested resetting the CMOS, fortunately the setting doesn’t go back to disabled.

Conclusion

It’s a solid board, I must say the heatsink feels solid but I don’t have a gun to test out whether this Military Grade III component is bullet proof. That aside, I just wish that there’s a board speaker or POST LED indicator. It feels good (and more convenient) to hear the BEEP confirming POST.

The board is priced at about RM 480 with Intel Ivy Bridge support and PCI-E 3.0.

goldfries recommended

2 thoughts on “MSI Z77A-G45 Motherboard Review

  1. I just put together a new rig with this board & love it! So far my main complaint it I agree with the writer in that I also don’t like not having the reassuring POST beep. I didnt even realize this board didn’t have a speaker and when I was first testing it outside the case thought I had a DOA board because it didn’t beep once.

    Then I noticed the CPU phase LED’s were all lit up blue and realized it was fine.

    Love it!

  2. Pingback: india power cord

Comments are closed.