14 DAY TRIAL // When it came to motherboards, the more noticeable products showcased at this year's CeBIT expo in Hanover, Germany, were the mainboards based on the newest chipset from Advanced Micro Devices, namely the 890GX. Among the multiple offerings from AMD's partners were also a couple of products from Micro-Star International, namely the 890GXM-G65 and the 880GMA-E45. The former has now been listed in the US and Europe, thus being the first AMD 8 Series motherboard from MSI to start selling.
The motherboard has been built with a micro-ATX form factor, thus measuring 9.6 x 9.6 inches, and combines the 890GX with the AMD SB850 south bridge. The board supports the latest socked AM3 central processing units, comes with four DDR3-2133 memory slots and a rather powerful integrated graphics solution, namely the ATI Radeon HD 4290 with 128MB ddr3-1333 memory.
Of course, consumers that want stronger graphics can take advantage of the two PCI Express x16 slots that support both hybrid CrossFireX, as well as CrossFireX configurations. In addition, the motherboard supports Active Phase Switching and boasts five SATA 6.0 Gbps ports. This next-generation storage interface is natively supported by the south bridge chipset and will ensure that the storage itself runs at the same level as the rest of the system.
In order to provide all the required connectivity and I/O options that users require, the MSI 890GXM-G65 features Gigabit Ethernet, a couple of USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA connector and DVI, D-Sub and HDMI outputs for video. The mainboard also has onboard audio, namely the 7.1 channel Realtek 8111DL.
This MSI motherboard is accompanied by a one-year warranty and is listed in both Europe, for 119.90 Euro (on the Fort Knox online store), as well as in the United States (on Newegg), where it carries a price tag of $124.99.