MSI FM-2 A85XA-G65 motherboard review

Right, we start off with packaging as always, so you  know what to look for in the stores. The motherboard by the way falls in the G65 series which you can recognize by the overall aesthetics, have a peek:

For entry level motherboards and APUs, you have to admit that is a good looking motherboard right there. The focus of this motherboard is that it has a dark looking design whilst remaining competitive with pricing. MSI applies their military standard component usage to the product. 

The rear I/O panel - It is just check full with goodies. USB ports, two 3.0 , 7.1 Realtek Audio and Gigabit Ethernet. You will also notice a legacy PS/2 port here, and check out the four different display connectors including HDMI and DisplayPort will delight the triple-display Eyefinity aficionados. Next to that DVI and the really outdated VGA connector.

When we flip the board around a little we see some more good lovin.  Components wise we only see quality really, solid capacitors, solid core chokes, quality components and nothing else, which ensures stability -- but also reliability and extended lifespan. There is 4 x DIMM DDR3 socket support up to 32GB DIMM support with Support for DDR3 up to 1333/1600/1866. The motherboard has Socket FM2 for AMD A series Trinity processors, also referred to as socket A85X - This board supports CPU up to 100W TDP.

When we flip the board once more we see lot's of stuff going on. To the far right Power on/reset and a OC Genie button (automatic overclock), we even see voltage monitoring points for digital multi-meters and then a good 8x SATA 6GBps ports, all leading directly from the A85X FCH. That's impressive, as the eight  6Gb/s ports have  RAID 0/1/5/10 capability as well. If you like to build a cheap NAS, here is your answer. We tested the controller with a SATA3 SSD and the performance really is impressive.

The A85X chipset has another feature it will allow for two primary PCIe x16 slots (the 2nd slot is electrically x8 though), so yeah Crossfire 2-way is an option. Also the spacing in-between the slots is 3-slots, meaning you could fit two 3-slot graphics cards.

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