14 DAY TRIAL // Since it has been possible to combine AMD and NVIDIA graphics for months, Micro-Star International decided to release a new AMD-ready motherboard featuring the Hydra 200 SoC (system-on-chip), so it put together the 870A Fuzion Power Edition that supports six-core Phenom CPUs.
The Hydra SoC is a chip, developed by LucidLogix, which allows any two or more video cards, regardless of model or manufacturer, to work in a way similar to what ATI CrossFireX or NVIDIA SLI technologies allow.
Not long ago, the company even presented a new graphics card architecture, UNITY, which boasts this functionality.
Products of that type will only start shipping around the holidays, however, so MSI saw no fault in releasing the second AM3 Fuzion motherboard.
The platform supports high-end AMD Phenom central processing units, including the six-core Thuban models.
What's more, the product boasts four DDR3-1600 memory slots, which ensures that the CPU can be paired with a solid amount of RAM.
MSI also threw in no less than six SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, as well as an USB 3.0 connector on the backplate (plus another one on-board), and this will allow both internal and external storage units to work at their fullest potential.
As for video capabilities, the company implemented two PCI Express x16 slots, which allows for NVIDIA-NVIDIA, AMD-AMD and AMD-NVIDIA multi-GPU setups.
“Exclusive Fuzion Technology, extreme power design, military class components, USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s, and other popular features undeniably make the MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition mainboard the top AMD 870 chipset mainboard,” states the press release.
Other specifications include Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, FireWire and a host of overclocking features, like the OC Genie, core unlocking support and Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons.
The MSI 870A Fuzion Power Edition motherboard costs 137 Euro and is reportedly already up for pre-order in Europe.