When it comes to top-end gaming systems, the search for the necessary products in the market for 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 complete set of functions for fans of the most productive games in the world. Overview, description, specifications and owner reviews will help the reader to get to know this product better.
Confusion labeled MSI 970 GAMING
In the computer market, the buyer may find that under the same label are two completely different products from the manufacturer MSI, which are positioned in the top segment. In addition to the motherboard under consideration, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics card runs under the same name. Having become interested in such a strange coincidence with a company representative, the reader finds out that these products are designed to work in pairs. In fact, this is a common 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 the purchase that compatibility would be guaranteed 100 percent. Here it is 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 gaming graphics card.
First introduction to the baseboard
The MSI 970 GAMING motherboard comes in a huge black cardboard box with bright red trim. Its appearance tells the buyer that inside is clearly not a budget device. The company logo in the form of a dragon occupies the entire 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 reviews of the owners, it would be better to see the image of the motherboard on the box, since the presence of the necessary connectors is much more interesting than the obscure functionality. In general, the description of the characteristics is rather strange - the phrases “Killer”, “Military”, “Multi”, “Boost” do not carry any semantic loads. The catchy names should be changed to a detailed description of the characteristics themselves.
Device Options
Then the manufacturer tried his best to please the buyer. Options MSI 970 GAMING is very rich and interesting. In addition to the motherboard itself, the kit includes: two SATA cables, a plug for the rear panel of the case, software disks, operating and installation instructions, an SLI bridge and a small sealed plastic bag. The contents of this package delight all owners of this motherboard:
- stickers for signing SATA cables;
- corporate sticker MSI Gaming Series for placement on the PC;
- a huge plate on the doorknob with the inscription: “I'm sorry, I'm playing”;
- a folded advertising booklet with a picture of a dragon and a recommendation on the purchase of an MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING 4G graphics card to improve gaming performance (neatly scissoring the dragon with scissors, many users put its image on the wall, it looks very nice near the computer).
Build and placement quality
Not only technologists, but also designers obviously had a hand in creating the printed circuit board . As the owners of the device in their reviews, the motherboard MSI 970 GAMING is made in Feng Shui. All elements of the printed circuit board are placed by sector. If we are talking about power elements - they are placed in one block of the north bridge and covered with a radiator. Contacts for connecting USB devices and power management are located in a row, under the south bridge. SATA connectors are also made in one block, and are not scattered on the printed circuit board, as in budget devices.
There are complaints about the PCI slots. Once again, the MSI manufacturer fails to provide the owner with access to all ports at the same time. For example, two productive graphics cards (the same MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G) in SLI mode simply close the PCI interfaces with their cooling system, so you can forget about connecting a TV tuner or RAID controller. I was only pleased with the PCIx1 connector, which has recently been used to connect high-speed SSDs - its manufacturer placed it over the PCIex16 bus.
Installation of basic accessories
Users will like the platform for installing the 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 in the motherboard MSI 970 GAMING will be appreciated first of all by overclockers. Turning the circuit board over, the owners will find a passive cooling copper core for the processor socket. A rather interesting solution for owners of expensive cases, where there is a corresponding recess 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 ease of installation (the connectors are not blocked by the video card cooling system), on the other hand, in a small case (miniATX), they will not allow installing a DVD drive. Although, as practice shows, such motherboards are acquired by owners who have ATX-Tower cases available.
Overlocker tool
Special attention should be paid to the basic input / output system (BIOS) MSI 970 GAMING. The motherboard is provided with a graphical UEFI shell, which is decorated in the style of the manufacturer. As the owners note in their reviews, the controls are very simple, you can configure any element of the system, however, before proceeding with the settings, it’s worth opening the instruction manual and taking the 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 loading working settings is always easier than resetting the BIOS using a jumper on the motherboard.
Those who are faced with such a device for the first time need to know one truth: the overclocking potential of the MSI 970 GAMING is not limited to the capabilities of components. For example, the motherboard can freely overclock the processor to 5 GHz, but not the fact that the chip itself supports this frequency. That is, you need to focus on the capabilities of devices, and the motherboard is just a tool.
Remote Control
The fact that the motherboard is designed to install the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING gaming video card is also evidenced by the software supplied. The user is prompted before entering the utility to select the device that will be configured: the motherboard or video adapter. Quite an interesting combination solution from the manufacturer. According to the owners, the utility picks up control of all the top-end GeForce-based graphics cards.
In the process of using the software, the user will find that a large set of its functions is intended for testing and monitoring, but things are not good with overclocking. If the video adapter (for example, MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G) can be overclocked by the graphics core, memory or shaders, then it is blocked with an increase in the frequency of the central processor (only from the BIOS). Do not despair, there are enough programs that can solve this problem.
Building a game system
The representative of the High-End class, the MSI GeForce GTX 970 GAMING graphics card, is based on the GM204 performance chip. The device has 1664 CUDA cores, 104 texture units, uses the 256-bit GDDR5 memory bus. Obviously, all of the listed characteristics hint at the gaming properties of the video adapter.
Not all potential buyers understand the company's policy regarding the MSI 970 GAMING motherboard, which is designed for the AMD platform. Logically, the manufacturer should recommend a video adapter Radeon from the same manufacturer. But within the walls of MSI, apparently, they thought otherwise. What will come of this, the user will know after buying both devices, however, 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 famous manufacturer MSI with the marking 970 GAMING is definitely the best solution for all overclockers. This is evidenced by great functionality and related technologies. All installed elements can be overclocked without exception (though only in the BIOS menu). There are many protection systems against overheating, and the chipset cooling system itself is implemented at the highest level. The company’s policy on promoting the GTX 970 GAMING 4G game adapter for this motherboard is not entirely clear, because for an AMD-based device it would be worth proposing a solution from Radeon. In any case, the user can decide which graphics accelerator to install, because the motherboard works with any video card.