MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition EXCLUSIVE Review

Conclusion

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

Conclusion

Yes, indeed the MSI 870A Power Edition is a bit of an odd ball. For a motherboard that is in essense, a tarted up AMD 870 motherboard it has offered astonishing levels of performance. Not only was our sample capable of reaching dizzy HTT frequencies in the region of 400MHz, we were able to obtain a bootable 4.50GHz out of our X6 1090T processor.

Then we have the Lucid Hydra module. Not only can the board operate dual 16x lane PCI-Express modes, we were able to successfully operate 3DMark Vantage with ATi and nVidia graphics cards functioning together, with promising gains. Also one must remember that this is new hardware and there is every possibility that we can see further performance enhancements with a driver update.

The insanity doesn't end just yet as we haven't even discussed price yet. MSI have informed us that the 870A Power Edition will be priced in the region of £120; this is just £20 more than the inferior vanilla edition. At this price point, it sits alongside the cheaper 890FX motherboards, such as the Biostar TA890FXE, ASRock 890FX Extreme and Asus M4A89TD PRO. Yet in terms of its feature set and the performance it has offered us today, we would place this board squarely as an Asus Crosshair IV series competitor, which is priced at £170 upwards.

This means two things. The MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition is able to offer class leading performance but also at a price that is more in line with midrange choices. It is rare that this tends to happen and with this in mind, we are proud to issue the board the OC3D Gold and Value for Money awards.

Well done MSI.

The Good
- Anticipated Price Tag
- Class leading overclocking ability
- Board layout
- Lucid Hydra performs very well
- Automated Overclocking Feature

The Mediocre
- None

The Bad
- None

Thank you to MSI for the board on test today, you discuss the review in our forums.

Most Recent Comments

24-09-2010, 06:12:43

tinytomlogan

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

Continue Reading

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.

24-09-2010, 08:50:09

SnW

And for how long did that OC genie work ?

great looking board....

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.

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! ;-)

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

24-09-2010, 09:39:00

F-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.

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

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

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

24-09-2010, 13:04:45

AMDFTW

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan

All the cool kids are here

they are cool now they are hear

24-09-2010, 14:29:47

Todd

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinytomlogan

All the cool kids are here

Lovable beast!

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

24-09-2010, 14:59:13

Delusion77

I guess this board really surprised you guys

25-09-2010, 00:01:57

SiN

Mr. El Gappo is an AMD legend.

And yes, I am now a cool kid

25-09-2010, 08:31:53

murphy7801

This going to be great for cheap builds

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

25-09-2010, 10:53:58

sunjoo

for a board that has the lucid hydra chip its cheap

28-09-2010, 17:44:19

El Gappo

LOL Hey Sin!

TTl your cpu-z sig is looking much healthier now

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?

29-09-2010, 11:59:32

F-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.

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.

29-09-2010, 12:11:19

F-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.

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?

30-09-2010, 03:48:31

F-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

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 PhysX

MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition EXCLUSIVE Review

Conclusion

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

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