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MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition EXCLUSIVE Review

Introduction

Published: 23rd September 2010 | Source: MSI | Price: £120 Est | Author: Milind Chidrawar

Introduction

Everyone likes a bit of variation in life. If one can help it, there are only few reasons to intentionally restrict options. This is why the sensible system builders buy power supplies, chassis' and motherboards that will offer future longevity. Fundamentally, there is nothing too difficult about achieving this but how many of you are willing to pay over the odds for a computer that is easy to expand and upgrade? Where do you draw the line?

I could for example purchase a £150 power supply unit, just so I could guarantee that I would never have to replace it when the time comes to upgrade a graphics card or processor for example. But what if it turns out that I won't be able to upgrade for well over two years, when an equivalent power supply unit is cheaper? What if graphics cards become more power efficient? Is the level of choice available to you all that important when a £75 power supply unit could have offered your existing system all the power it needs at that particular point in time?

So once again, the extent of variety is a bit of a balancing act and heavily dependent on your future financial situation and needs. It's never wise to skimp on core hardware but there's also every chance that you might find yourself investing in a depreciating asset that never reaches its full potential, much like the example I mentioned above. However, once every blue moon odd ball products emerge on the market that claim to offer great long term features, but without the ludicrous pricing. Today's product could well be an example of this; ladies and gentlemen, the MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition Motherboard.

Not to be confused with the MSI 870A Fuzion, the Power Edition is supposed to be a completely different animal. While boasting a similar feature set, the Power Edition benefits from a more potent 10 + 1 phase VRM power design, uprated capacitors and a different heatsink array. Furthermore, it benefits from the current generation 870 Northbridge and also the SATA 6Gbps capable SB850 southbridge. Not very alike at all it would seem!

Its detailed specifications are as follows. 

Now that you've taken a good look at the Power Edition's specification list, you'll understand why it falls under the "Odd Ball" category. The 870A Fuzion is akin to engines such as VW Group's 1.4TSI Petrol. Upon face value, it is a bog standard 4 cylinder engine with not a lot going for it. However, with its Turbo Charger + Super Charger combo setup, it pushes out peak performance (~175bhp) similar to many 2.0 engines.

A similar story holds with this frankenstein of a board. The 870A Fuzion is centred upon the entry level 870 Northbridge. Instead of using high end core logic, MSI have effectively outsourced a key part of the board's feature set to a 3rd party. With the modifications in place, this entry level platform has been transformed into an all singing and all dancing Multi GPU monster.

This sounds reasonable enough on paper, but how will it perform in practice? Let's move on...

Most Recent Comments

24-09-2010, 06:12:43

tinytomlogan

Any ideas what makes it so special? Read on...

Continue ReadingQuote

24-09-2010, 07:28:41

silenthill

MSI have really got a winner with this M/B, for that price I'm thinking of buying one and building a AMD system to play around with.

Quote

24-09-2010, 08:50:09

SnW

And for how long did that OC genie work ?

great looking board....Quote

24-09-2010, 08:57:06

El Gappo

When he pressed the OC genie button it automatically opened up an msn chat with me

Cheers for the heads up tom, board looks mental.Quote

24-09-2010, 09:03:52

lemel

"The 870A Fuzion is akin to engines such as VW Group's 1.4TSI Petrol. Upon face value, it is a bog standard 4 cylinder engine with not a lot going for it. However, with its Turbo Charger + Super Charger combo setup, it pushes out peak performance (~175bhp) similar to many 2.0 engines." -That is the engine i have in my Seat Leon!! Love it! If this board is the same...it really rules! ;-)Quote

24-09-2010, 09:03:56

SnW

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Gappo When he pressed the OC genie button it automatically opened up an msn chat with me

Aaaa it opened up the fridge here i was wondering when he was going to close it again

I have the MSI P55-GD65 and the OC genie button works like Poo Quote

24-09-2010, 09:39:00

alienware

It's days like this that remind me what utter rip off merchants Intel are.

Fantastic as ever guys, and a special thanks to Mul for absolutely kicking the s**t out of it.

Fabulous stuff.Quote

24-09-2010, 11:57:16

SiN

Quote:

Originally Posted by El Gappo When he pressed the OC genie button it automatically opened up an msn chat with me Cheers for the heads up tom, board looks mental.

Dude, I didn't know you were on here! It's D3FiN3 SiN/firestormcomputers from OCN .Quote

24-09-2010, 12:18:54

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiN Dude, I didn't know you were on here! It's D3FiN3 SiN/firestormcomputers from OCN .

All the cool kids are here Quote

24-09-2010, 12:21:43

nepas

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiN Dude, I didn't know you were on here! It's D3FiN3 SiN/firestormcomputers from OCN .

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan All the cool kids are here

Annnnnd another one comes over Quote

24-09-2010, 13:04:45

AMDFTW

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan All the cool kids are here

they are cool now they are hearQuote

24-09-2010, 14:29:47

Todd

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan All the cool kids are here

Lovable beast! Quote

24-09-2010, 14:35:58

SnW

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan All the cool kids are here

Aaaa i love you , you just called me a "kid" i feel 10years younger now Quote

24-09-2010, 14:59:13

Delusion77

I guess this board really surprised you guysQuote

25-09-2010, 00:01:57

SiN

Mr. El Gappo is an AMD legend.

And yes, I am now a cool kid .Quote

25-09-2010, 08:31:53

murphy7801

This going to be great for cheap buildsQuote

25-09-2010, 08:42:18

SnW

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delusion77 I guess this board really surprised you guys

Well not really.. its nice you can use NvidiA/Ati in it Quote

25-09-2010, 10:53:58

sunjoo

for a board that has the lucid hydra chip its cheapQuote

28-09-2010, 17:44:19

El Gappo

LOL Hey Sin!

TTl your cpu-z sig is looking much healthier now Quote

29-09-2010, 11:53:30

Zeals

What's the best heat sink for this if i want to fill all memory slots, the RAM is 35mm tall.

Also can I run 2x460 SLI on this motherboard?Quote

29-09-2010, 11:59:32

alienware

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeals What's the best heat sink for this if i want to fill all memory slots, the RAM is 35mm tall. Also can I run 2x460 SLI on this motherboard?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mul 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (16x/16x Dual CrossfireX, SLI, ATi + nVidia) 2 x PCIe 1x 1 x PCI

The Noctua NH14 will clear regular ram. It only has issues with Dominator ram.Quote

29-09-2010, 12:07:54

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlienALX The Noctua NH14 will clear regular ram. It only has issues with Dominator ram.

Incorrect it only has issues with oversized ram. If the taller heatsink like on the domGT's can be removed your fine.Quote

29-09-2010, 12:11:19

alienware

Ah OK. Well I was right about the 'regular' ram bit.

I wasn't aware that loads of companies made oversized tbh. I know Gskill do that Ripjaw stuff.Quote

30-09-2010, 02:35:56

Zeals

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if i get a ATI and Nvidia graphics card, does the Lucid chip allow me to use Phyx?Quote

30-09-2010, 03:48:31

alienware

Yes. Infact, you can use an Nvidia card for Physx with *any* motherboard and any ATI card.

You do need to run a Physx mod/hack (mod is a nicer word) but yes, you can.

You might need to run that mod for this board, I don't know. Usually Nvidia disables Physx when it sees an ATI card present. And the way it does this is the driver looks at the Device manager and then at the DEV_ID for the graphics cards. If it sees the ATI DEV number (1002 as the vendor code) then it simply disables the Physx function. However, this is easy to get around using GenL Physx Mod 1.04ff.

Google is your friend Quote

30-09-2010, 03:57:43

tinytomlogan

With Lucid set up right then yes you will be able to go into the Nvid driver panel and set it to PhysXQuote

Reply

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