MSI AMD A75 MicroATX DDR3 2133 370 Motherboards FM2-A75MA-E35

The MB itself is clean and nicely laid out. Parallel and serial port headers were a pleasant surprise (you'll need the brackets with cables and DB connectors though and pay attention to their cable lengths).The memory slots are too close to the CPU heatsink and block the airflow a bit but nothing to worry about; well placed fans in the case take care of that.I used a bigger Phenom II x4 heatsink - see the CPU review for details - but the memory IS close.The holes at one side had no corresponding standoffs (a case problem) but that issue went away as soon as I put some pieces of soft plastic underneath the corners and middle. You have to be careful not to destroy any components soldered underneath. It only matters when plugging in some connectors: the big ATX for power and some for the front panel.Two SATA III cables (black w white connectors) are also provided with this MB.The system: I currently use the embedded NAS4Free (9.1.0.1.636) with ZFS (NO dedup enabled) and 3 different HDDs: 1TB Seagate (SATAII), 2TB WD Green (SATAIII) and a spare 80GB(really) Seagate laptop drive also SATAII.Each of them is in its own pool and has multiple datasets. I'm just learning and if this is not optimal I stand corrected. Backups are planned and will be a part of the whole setup, so there :-)I turn it on as needed and the startup is fast enough considering the OS is installed on an old 1GB SD card plugged via a USB adapter in a USB2 port. I'll try it with a USB3 capable adapter only if I ever need faster start times.Using the SSH and Samba services the memory goes to max 41% use.No CPU temp is reported - maybe in a later version. As a side note, I don't run it overclocked.Transfers on a gigabit ethernet LAN w jumbo (9K) frames are fast enough to make the network transparent.Multiple transfers at once work OK and the CPU never hit 100%. It also throttles down to the minimum frequency (less than 300MHz) if the lowest power adaptive profile is selected.For extra performance look at different HDDs and improved configuration as I think this setup is HDD bound.Ubuntu 12.04LTS (Live USB2 stick) simply flies in normal desktop use IF you can ignore Unity for as long as a test takes.PC-BSD starts reasonably fast from a USB2 stick and it's quite usable. I'll probably look into dual boot at some point.I used only 1 monitor at a time (DVI): 1920x1080 works nicely, same for 1280x1024 with a different monitor.No windows version was tested but drivers for XP/Vista/Win7 and 8 are available. The downloads for Win7x64 are huge at 700+ MB.I mention USB2 because I didn't try yet a faster USB3 capable stick.For some power measurements read the CPU review.CPU: AMD A6-5400K (ordered both from Amazon, came in the same box)Memory: G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) F3-1866C9D-16GSR

This is a really good motherboard for the price that it is. It was SATA3 and USB3 which you cannot find on many motherboard around this price range, the only thing I don't like about it is is doesn't support AM3+ and FX processors, otherwise it's an amazing motherboard. I used it on a recent build using an Athlon processor and it works magnificently. It supports up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM which is plenty of memory for most users. It's a very well built motherboard and you should expect no problems with it unless it's DOA or you haven't grounded yourself properly and you fry the crap out of it. I would recommend this motherboard to people seeking a good gaming motherboard for a good price. I got it for 60 but the price fluctuates so check out Newegg as well!

This MB came packaged so elegantly, I was all gitty when I opened it. It came with the plate for the rear of the case which looks great. I was also surprised to see a disc with the drivers on it, which made me happy because I will be able to Install the drivers first thing and not have to try to find the drivers online some wheres and then have to download them and worry about getting a virus before i got to do some first tests. in case anyone is curious with is the setup:AMD A8-6600K Richland 4.3GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor AMD Radeon HDWD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB CacheCorsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory KitLite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive - BulkNZXT Technologies Source 210 Computer Case (White)Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt 80 PLUS

This is my first time to purchase a MSI motherboard and the cheapest one I've ever purchased, too. It worked the first time after turning on the power which is a wonderful feeling. By contrast I bought a Asus motherboard for more than double the money a few months ago and it has had boot problems every day I turn on the power. I swapped out everything except the CPU and still the same issues. So I think I'll stick with MSI from now on. I bought a Gigabyte motherboard a few years ago and it worked fine except for a very slow boot time.I was a little apprehensive about buying this low cost motherboard, but I'm really pleased that I did. I am able to overclock this motherboard to 4.1 GHZ using their automatic overclock button. It works great. It even outperforms the other system that is twice the cost. So I cannot say enough good things about MSI. I'm impressed. These are the system components I bought here on Amazon. I upgraded a HP desktop computer and all that I kept was the case and two DVD drives. I kept 4 GB of RAM from my Gigabyte system. I would suggest the RAM below if you need to buy RAM. I've run 12 GB of RAM in my older Gigabyte system and I never saw it even approach using 4 GB. So I say 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for a system like this. My Asus system has 8 GB and it is using 29% of the RAM or about 2.3 GB.I didn't buy Windows Pro 8.1 here on Amazon because I got a spectacular upgrade offer in January of this year. I really don't like Windows 8 at all except for the Netflix app. This is a dedicated computer for my home theater system. I bought Star8 from Stardock on the internet for only $5 and it is worth every penny to make Windows 8 look like Windows 7. And you can easily click to instantly switch back and forth between the two shells.Advanced Micro Devices AD750KWOHJBOX 100W Quad Core Graphics Processor 4.0 4Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX430)MSI Socket FM2/AMD A75/DDR3/SATA3&USB3.0/A&GbE/MicroATX Motherboard FM2-A75MA-E35XFX AMD Radeon HD 6770 Graphics Card (HD677XZNFC)Windows 8.1 Pro System Builder OEM DVD 64-BitCorsair Vengeance Blue 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9B)