Been looking at the MSI A88X-G45, but was wondering if I could get something that can do the same thing for a little bit less. I have already considered the GA-F2A88XM-D3H form Gigabyte but I think I want to splurge and get the sexy one. Any suggestions on which one I should get. Any different suggestions besides these two?
ASUS has the ROG Ranger, which is the best you can get for the A88X platform, but it's $150 bucks. which for a motherboard is pretty reasonable considering, on Intel's platform ROG Boards go for $200+ dollars.
If you could save alittle bit more i would consider that, BUT if you don't because it's too pricy, i would consider that MSI-Board Gaming board you have have posted.
Sidenote: Take into consideration if you are building a FM2+ based Gaming PC that MSI motherboard DOES require a BIOS update for the Athlon 860k or the 7850k. and for future Godaveri chips which are coming in a few months, so if you are building a PC right now grab a 760k to save you the BIOS trouble, and upgrade to a Godaveri chip later down the road cause Kaveri is defintiely being refreshed this summer.
Hey, thanks for the information! I am probably going to save for the ROG board. The reason why I was asking for a FM2+ board was because I already have an A8 6600K with the MSI A78M-E35 and I want to upgrade my board. Will the MSI require a Bios Update with my prosessor?
Thanks again for the information.
No your motherboard won't need a BIOS update. you can put your current processor in the MSI or ASUS motherboard and it will work just fine. you can update the BIOS with your current processor so that later down the road you can grab a Godaveri Chip. and you won't run into any issues.
Other than the Asus A88X-Pro, which their black-and-gold scheme may not be to your liking, the other higher-end FM2+ boards that are worth taking a look at are:
Asrock A88X Extreme 6+
Asrock FM2A88X+ Killer
Gigabyte F2A88X-UP4
Gigabyte Gaming G1 Sniper A88X - although this has a weird, toxic-green and black color theme.
The gaming boards are not as built for overclocking, but generally have better audio and network prioritization. The Extreme 6+ and UP4 are generally geared towards being robust and reliable, and, don't quote me on this, I think they have better BIOS lay-outs.
Best of the best is the Crosdblade Ranger. I got one and I love it. Way better than the Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-UP4 I had prior. If you have the money for the Ranger, there is no better board
i would say stay away from MSI...they're not a bad brand but they have a pretty lackluster BIOS system that is sugar coated. Long posting, and buggy overclocking if done with software, you pretty much lock your overclock if you do that. What i mean with lock is that if you do initial overclock on software which tends to get you started, then going to bios and adjusting, you'll have boot issues with them. Have a friend that got locked out of the system because we altered the overclock settings and the software wasn't agreeing. Aside from that if you intend to overclock on an MSI FM2+ board either stick with one or the other.
ASrock, ASUS and Gigabyte do amazing jobs with AMD boards...they're all across the board great. Personally i tend to lean for Gigabyte because of how universal they are with other OS, driver compatability, and bang for buck performance. ASrock tends to be along those lines as well, but personally i just don't like the look of their boards. ASUS is always a shurefire solution, they're the most solid AMD boards, especially with their Ranger board which IMO is what makes the FM2+ socket shine.