MSI DKA790GX Platinum Motherboard Review :: DKA-790GX Layout

The CPU area of the motherboard is clear of obstacles allowing the user to install virtually any regular CPU cooler for the AMD platform with the possible exception of some weird after market coolers that would require a new motherboard anyway in most cases. The DrMOS chips are aligned across the top of the CPU cooler along with the solid capacitors. The790GX chipset supports all current CPUs including the 9850 and 9950 that won’t work on the 780G chipset due to power requirements.

MSI uses a circular heat sink design they call Flat Circu-Pipe. There is a circular heatsink on both the 790GX chip and on the SB 750 Southbridge allowing for the best thermal contact with the chips of the available designs. The heatsinks allow for the installation of after-market CPU coolers due to the low-profile nature.

One advantage that most chipsets based upon the 790GX chipset has is the ability to run Automated Clock Calibration, allowing for higher overclocks. The Phenom CPU has direct access to 6 pins on the SB750 chipset that allows the SB750 to communicate with the CPU allowing the SB750 to override some of the internal settings of the CPU. This only works on AMD Phenom processors, meaning that older ones won’t work.

The 790GX has the ability to run two video cards in CrossfireX mode and the MSI board has two PCI Express x16 Generation 2 video card slots to facilitate this. In CrossfireX mode the two slots run at x8 mode each. As the 2nd generation PCI Express x16 slot provides the same bandwidth as a 1st generation PCI Express slot, there should be plenty of bandwidth to go around for two cards as there is little performance difference in current cards. The other expansion options on the DKA790GX include two PCI Express x1 slots and two PCI slots.

Memory expansion on the MSI board includes four DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Modules) with support for up to 16GB of DDR2-1066 1066MHz memory. The memory controller is on the CPU and not the chipset from the Athlon 64 launch, meaning that DDR2-1066MHz would need a CPU that supports it. The DIMM slots are located below the CPU socket and above the 24-pin power connection, making for excellent placing of the memory slots. Dual Channel is enabled when like memory modules is placed in like-colored slots.

ATI supports up to 6 SATA ports on the SB750 Southbridge. The DKA790GX sports sixe SATA ports aligned sideways to the motherboard, allowing for excellent cable management. One word of caution on the ATI motherboards, their SATA RAID support has been iffy for years. Every motherboard I’ve reviewed with an AMD chipset has failed to initialize the RAID 0 Array. Intel, NVIDIA, VIA, SIS motherboards has not had that issue but AMD motherboards seem to. A single IDE port rounds out the drive expansion on the board with MSI deciding against including the FDD port.

Onboard audio on the board is the venerable Realtek ALC888 CODEC found on many motherboards today. This CODEC is compliant with the Azalia 1.0 specification and has the ability to do 7.1 Surround Sound+2 channel front panel audio. Modern onboard sound has caused companies like Creative Labs and ESS which used to market add-on cards to nearly go out of business or have very limited exposure due to the onboard audio being good enough for most people.

The IO on the board is interesting due to the onboard graphics on the motherboard. Modern video cards like the GTX 280 and HD 4870 are great and all but priced out of the ballpark for most people. There is a PS/2 keyboard and mouse port, for the legacy users out there. The use of a single port is understandable as the majority of users use USB keyboards and mice today. There are 6 USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, a HDMI port, an Optical SPDIF port, an IEEE-1394 port, an Esata port, a Gigabit LAN port and 6 Audio ports for the onboard audio.