MSI DKA790GX Platinum Review

ajmatson - October 26, 2008
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Specifications:

CPU:	AMD® Phenom/Athlon/Sempron CPU.
Chipset:	AMD® 790GX and SB750 Chipset
HyperTransport Bus:	HyperTransport 3.0 supporting speed up to 5200MT/s AM2 CPU supports HyperTransport 1.0/2.0 AM2+ CPU supports HyperTransport 3.0
Memory:	Supports Dual DDR2 667/800/1066(only for AM2+) 4 DDR2 DIMMs (240pin / 1.8V) Supports a maximum memory size up to 8GB.
Expansion Slots:	1 mazarine PCI Express x16 slot with x16 operation (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant) 1 light-blue PCI Express x16 slot with x8 operation (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant) When 2 PCI Express x16 slots are all installed, the PCIE x 16 lanes will auto arrange form x16/ x0 to x8/ x8. Do not use the light-blue slot when only one PCI Express x16 card is installed. 2 PCI Express x1 slots 2 PCI slots, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface.
Storage	On-Board IDE One IDE port by AMD® SB750 Supports Ultra DMA 66/100/133 mode Supports PIO, Bus Master operation mode Can connect up to two IDE devices On-Board SATA 5 SATA II (1~5) ports by AMD® SB750 1 eSATA port by AMD® SB750 Supports storage and data transfers at up to 3Gb/s RAID Function SATA II 1~5 support RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 or JBOD mode by AMD® SB750
Audio:	Chipset integrated by Realtek® ALC888 Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing Compliant with Azalia 1.0 Spec
Ethernet:	Realtek PCI-E GbLAN controller 8111C Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in single chip Supports 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s Compliance with PCI-Express Bus specification v1.0a
IEEE 1394/FireWire:	Chipset integrated by JMicron® JMB381 Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps
Rear Panel:	1 x PS/2 keyboard or mouse 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack 6 x USB 2.0 ports 1 x RJ45 LAN jack 1 x optical SPDIF-out port 1 x eSATA port 1 x IEEE1394 Port 1 x DVI-D port 1 x Graphic Card port 1 x HDMI port
Internal I/O:	ATX 24-pin power connector ATX 4-pin 12V CPU power connector CPU x 1 / System x 2 FAN connectors CD-in connector Front panel audio connector Front panel connector Chassis intrusion switch connector 3 x USB 2.0 connector support additional 6 ports 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 5 x Serial ATA II connectors 1 x ATA133 HD connectors Serial port connector Clear CMOS button Power button Reset button OC switch 1 x Wake on LAN connector 1 x TPM module header
Mounting:	9 mounting holes
Dimensions:	30.4cm(L) x 24.5cm(W) ATX Form Factor

Features:

Sideport Memory

3DMark Vantage
The 3DMark Vantage is the newest benchmark software which is from Futuremark Corporation and generally used on analyzing a PC performance of DirectX® 3D visualization, especially a valuable guideline for gaming users as reference.
Hardware equipment required: [CPU] AMD Phenom 9850(2.5GHz), [Memory] DDR2 1066(1GBx2)
Software equipment required: [Benchmark] 3DMark Vantage, [Resolution] Entry Mode (no AA, no AF, 32bpp),[OS] Windows Vista 32-bit.

Easy OC Switch
Help end-users upgrade CPU FSB directly
Buy an essential CPU but want to reach higher performance
Skip the complicated BIOS OC setting and enjoy the higher level CPU performance

DrMOS
Excellent energy-saving capability and offers high-computing performance.
Provide superior energy-saving function and maintain an ultimate low temperature operation.
Comes with three incredible features.

All Solid Capacitors
Longer lifespan than electrolytic capacitors
Endurable to operation under higher frequency & temperature
Avoid exploding capacitors to cause mainboards failure

All Shielded Choke
A choke is an inductor responsible for storing power and regulates the current.
All shielded choke could reduce core power loss, lower EMI interference.
Store energy longer at higher frequency, achieving higher efficiency.

M-Connectors
Easy connect to front panel & chassis cable
2x USB, IEEE 1394, front panel (JFP1/2)& audio(JAUD1) M-connector in the package
Easy to tell the definition of each pin

CrossFireX Support
Equip with 2 or more PCIe x16 slots, ATI CrossFire Ready.
The ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform.
Provides 2.7x faster performance than single graphic card solution.

Green Power Design
With Multi-phase PWM IC, which lead to better power converting, reducing noise and expand the lifespan and stability.

User Friendly Design
Functions designed with button to be easy use.
Help power-users tweaking process in-chasis enviornment
Onboard SATA ports are stacked on the mainboard to avoid mechanical issue with giant graphic cards like 8800 Ultra.

Dual Core Center
Key components status hardware monitor.
Monitor the Dual Core CPU each unit status.
Optimize System status define.
Auto speed up with system loading change.

MSI Advanced Live Update Online
The MSI Live Update online is designed to automatically download and update the BIOS and driver when there’s a new version online. It helps reduce the risk of getting the wrong file and minimize the trouble of searching the files from MSI website.

Live Update 3 Standard
Live Update 3 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.

Cool'n'quiet
AMD Cool'n'Quiet™ technology that based on famous PowerNow™ technology just brings fresh air to hot-fighting desktop platform. Cool'n'Quiet technology can automatically adjust processor ratio to throttle.