MSI DKA790GX Platinum

Orcs on the box obviously mean a gaming motherboard from MSI...

Yes, we really mean Orcs. While we’re not quite sold yet on the merits of a motherboard that will aid your gaming, we are very sure that this one comes with a bevy of exciting features.

Unceremoniously slapped (albeit gently) onto this board is the 790GX chipset, which includes both an integrated graphics core (roughly equal in performance to what would be a HD3300), as well as 32 PCIe V2.0 lanes allowing full, unrestricted Crossfire in the two present slots. This is covered by a heatsink that is oddly reminiscent of a steampunked bird’s nest, which is very cool (see what we did there?). Sadly there is no fan included, but the temperatures did not get overly warm under use, and even slight airflow here will prove sufficient for good stability when overclocking.

There is also plenty of room around the CPU socket and RAM, meaning that installing coolers and modules will be relatively effortless (though taller modules might have a problem fitting underneath larger heatsinks). The 24- and 4-pin power connectors are in the usual place, and there are right-angled SATA and a solitary IDE port along the right-hand side of the board. Our most favourite of features is down in the corner – buttons for power, reset and clear CMOS. These buttons make it incredibly easy to test, as well as benching sessions outside your case.

Along the bottom of the board are the usual headers, as well as the floppy port that seriously needs to be taken on a holiday and 'forgotten', never to return. MSI have picked a pretty decent array of expansion slots as well, covering you for pretty much any option you’re after (though as always dual-card setups will need a bit more planning if you’re aiming to have a RAID or sound card as well). All the usual favourites in the form of Realtek audio chips and circuits are present that offer acceptable sound quality, but can’t really come close to a dedicated card.

Back panel options are pretty comprehensive as well, with six USB, PS/2, VGA, HDMI/DVI (only one of these at a time), Firewire, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel analogue audio and an optical port. And if you’re one of those obsessive-compulsive USB gadget hoarders, then you’re covered with the three headers, giving up to six more ports.

The PCB of the mobo is a rich chocolatey colour, and is adorned with solid capacitors in three different colours and flavours. Also present are ferrite chokes, but this is mostly standard fare in a decent motherboard. What isn’t standard, however, is the little red and white switches between the PCIe slots, which allow hardware-based overclocking of the HTT bus up to 20%. This is kind of cool, but serious enthusiasts will likely eschew this in favour for the trusty BIOS. Regardless of which method you use, this board is quite a good little overclocker.

BIOS options are relatively clear (though the prevalence of typos and vague explanations may put off newcomers initially), but voltage options are very limited. We only had a choice of 1.3V, 1.35V or 1.4V for the CPU and chipset – this is extremely restrictive when trying to fine-tune an overclock, and definitely worked against us. We did manage to hit a HT speed of 248, giving us a speed of 3224MHz on the CPU, though we know both the chipset and CPU can be pushed further, and were limited by the voltage (voltmodding this board would definitely increase headroom here).

The bundle does lift this board slightly, providing all the cables you’d need, as well as Molex to SATA power – always handy for those with older PSUs. Overall this is a solid offering, but needs more precise overclocking options to make it a real killer.