Question MSI motherboards

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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In all my years of building PCs for myself and others, I've never used a MSI board. WAAAY back when, it seems like they just weren't considered to be quality. Nearly every rig I built was ASUS...with the odd ASRock thrown in when they were still a division of ASUS)

Nowadays, after doing several days of reading reviews and ratings, they seem to be leading the pack. (although their documentation suck when compared to ASUS and ASRock)

Am I reading things right? Is MSI now considered a "GOOD" brand? (looking at <$400 Z690 and Z790 DDR4 boards)
 

Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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I’ve used MSI 15-20 years ago and they were already solid back then. Now they’re even better, but I don’t consider them as good as Asus.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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Good for tweakers for sure. Their BIOS is very friendly to overclocking. More forgiving with memory tuning. I get the impression, though, they are pumping voltages somewhat liberally. They tend to compensate it with good heat sinks.

But massively overpriced.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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I’ve used MSI 15-20 years ago and they were already solid back then. Now they’re even better, but I don’t consider them as good as Asus.

I never did either, but after reading review after review...and ratings from Newegg, Amazon, and B&H, none of the ASUS boards I've looked at rate nearly as good. (big surprise to me)

Good for tweakers for sure. Their BIOS is very friendly to overclocking. More forgiving with memory tuning. I get the impression, though, they are pumping voltages somewhat liberally. They tend to compensate it with good heat sinks.

But massively overpriced.

I don't really care about overclocking. (I know...then why buy a "K" CPU?) I'd MUCH rather just buy something that works the way I want...and run it at stock. As for overpriced...doesn't seem that way, they're priced very competitively with the others. (except for high end stuff like the Godlike...and even that is pretty close to the same as the ASUS ROG high end.)
 

Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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ver did either, but after reading review after review...and ratings from Newegg, Amazon, and B&H, none of the ASUS boards I've looked at rate nearly as good. (big surprise to me)
The irony is MSI and GB just want to be like Asus and live in the shadow of Asus for decades now, they copy as much from Asus as they can. But the copy is never as good as the original.

And Asus is held to higher standards than MSI, people kinda expect perfection, these standards aren’t applied to MSI or other brands in my experience. Asus always had this stellar reputation and that’s just like comparing 1980s Mercedes to 2000s Mercedes with all the same problems, that Asus mainboards aren’t perfect anymore because the complexity is way higher now. Doesn’t change the fact though that Asus is still the Mercedes of mainboards.
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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I think I prefer MSI currently, I have had good Asus boards too, but honestly I have heard that some of the recent Asus offerings have a lot of issues with the motherboard software. They both have good BIOS implementation, though I prefer the MSI implementation a bit.

For reference, I have had an XFX nforce 680i LT board, an EVGA nforce 780i FTW board, a Gigabyte X58 UD5, an Asus P6X58D premium, an MSI Z77 GD65, a Gigabyte X79UP4, an Asus X99 Deluxe, a Gigabyte B350, an Asrock X470 Tachi, and the MSI Meg Ace X570. Of the UEFI boards here, I think the best implementations starting with the top were the MEG ACE, the Asrock X470 Taichi, the Asus X99 Deluxe, the MSI Z77, then the Gigabyte B350 and lastly the X79.
 
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I've heard good things about MSI BIOS. I had an MSI Geforce 1060 3GB that had military certified components (I know, marketing!) but it was a good card and I only sold it coz of the low VRAM. I still wouldn't get any budget oriented product from MSI. There was a used MSI P100-106 6GB mining card that I bought for a friend. It got so loud at default fan speeds that it scared the hell out of me. I was surprised that the fans still worked. Had to lower the fan speeds to 70% using MSI Afterburner to bring sanity back. My friend enjoyed using the card too (he refuses to plop down money on a decent 3D card coz he's not a gamer but does love the Tomb Raider series. So I gifted the card to him).

How do people here pronounce MSI? I go with M S I but I think it would be easier to just say, MASAYI !!!

Or Messi :D
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
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I bought X470 Carbon for ~$150 and today X670 Carbon is $500. There is improvement in quality, but nowhere near enough to justify the kind of price hike.
 
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Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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I think I prefer MSI currently, I have had good Asus boards too, but honestly I have heard that some of the recent Asus offerings have a lot of issues with the motherboard software. They both have good BIOS implementation, though I prefer the MSI implementation a bit.

For reference, I have had an XFX nforce 680i LT board, an EVGA nforce 780i FTW board, a Gigabyte X58 UD5, an Asus P6X58D premium, an MSI Z77 GD65, a Gigabyte X79UP4, an Asus X99 Deluxe, a Gigabyte B350, an Asrock X470 Tachi, and the MSI Meg Ace X570. Of the UEFI boards here, I think the best implementations starting with the top were the MEG ACE, the Asrock X470 Taichi, the Asus X99 Deluxe, the MSI Z77, then the Gigabyte B350 and lastly the X79.
Armoury crate ain’t perfect but my experience is, it’s not nearly as bad as people say. It has some smaller issues but overall works normally (for me). I never tried the MSI software aside from AB which probably doesn’t count it’s largely based on Riva Tuner. The MSI board I had was a KT266 btw that’s VIA266 with a Athlon 1333 back then - yep… decades ago

it seems I mostly had Asus boards, but I also had 2 GB boards and they were fine as well. I should mention that I buy midrange and higher segment boards. Never had a Asrock but bought 1 for someone else and it was okay too, entry level stuff with 3870K APU.
Coz of the stupid youtubers and their dumb crowd. The PC Master Race has been infiltrated by dumb rich kids with too much money to spend from their daddy/mommy's credit card.
No, the new AM5 boards are largely more expensive due to the higher signal integrity needed for PCIE5 and higher power requirements because AMD increased TDP to 170W (which is 230W in real). There’s no “unreasonable” price hike it’s what it is. The new boards have higher quality.
 
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CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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I bought X470 Carbon for ~$150 and today X670 Carbon is $500. There is improvement in quality, but nowhere near enough to justify the kind of price hike.

The X670E lineup is massively overpriced across the board. The B650E ones are more reasonable and have almost the same features. I have an older Carbon board and like it, but MSI does not make any B650E boards at all and I will probably go with a different brand this time.
 
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Khanan

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Aug 27, 2017
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The X670E lineup is massively overpriced across the board. The B650E ones are more reasonable and have almost the same features. I have an older Carbon board and like it, but MSI does not make any B650E boards at all and I will probably go with a different brand this time.
No that’s because X670E boards are way more expensive to produce. You can have price hikes with one vendor but if everyone does it you should know it’s another reason. X670E uses 2 chipsets instead of one, has PCIE5 which needs higher signal integrity, everywhere. It’s also for overclockers and has over the top power delivery. That’s not a price hike that’s more quality and you can safely skip it if you don’t need it.
 
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You can have price hikes with one vendor but if everyone does it you should know it’s another reason.
It's called collusion. Let's all make profits together, is what AMD got them together to agree on in a private meeting at some fancy shmancy hotel with strippers.

Unless you have inside knowledge about the BOM of the AM5 motherboards, please don't defend the questionable actions of greedy mobo makers. It doesn't make you look good.
 
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Khanan

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It's called collusion. Let's all make profits together, is what AMD got them together to agree on in a private meeting at some fancy shmancy hotel with strippers.

Unless you have inside knowledge about the BOM of the AM5 motherboards, please don't defend the questionable actions of greedy mobo makers. It doesn't make you look good.
That’s inside knowledge. What I already explained isn’t -redacted- it’s fact. Compared to AM4 mainboard they are just that more expensive to produce. That’s not from me, that’s from multiple reviews and other sources I studied.

Profanity is not allowed in the tech forums.

Daveybrat
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Yep here you go, the reviewer carefully explains the pricing in the lower part of the summary: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/msi-meg-x670e-ace/15.html
Hmmm..the only AM5 mobo that straight away boots to DDR5-6400 without any BIOS settings fiddling. Still, $700 is too hard to digest. Might be a great mobo to get in mid cycle or near the end of AM5 platform when prices hopefully become saner.

Why doesn't MSI think like this: price the mobo at $400 and sell twice or thrice the volume? Why restrict the good stuff to people with crazy money?
 

Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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Hmmm..the only AM5 mobo that straight away boots to DDR5-6400 without any BIOS settings fiddling. Still, $700 is too hard to digest. Might be a great mobo to get in mid cycle or near the end of AM5 platform when prices hopefully become saner.
It’s a lot but it’s also a high end board, the cheaper ones with X670E start with 300 I think or maybe even 250, which is payable. X670E isn’t the successor to X570 it’s something extra on top as the “Extreme” suggests. For everyone else it’s smarter to buy the X670, B650E or B650.

edit: as long as we don’t know the exact BOM the pricing isn’t special in my books, as MSI has to contend with multiple opponents in the market I highly doubt it’s “overpriced” it’s expensive but you also get a lot of features.
 
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You wanna see overpriced?

This one surely is, that’s a halo board now.
I'm sure they laugh like little mischievous kids every time some wuss pays that much. The BOM for this mobo can't be more than one third the price. This is just the marketing folks hurting the PC community. They are a cancer.

For a halo board, it should offer Threadripper Pro level of functionality and features to justify that price.
 

Khanan

Senior member
Aug 27, 2017
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I'm sure they laugh like little mischievous kids every time some wuss pays that much. The BOM for this mobo can't be more than one third the price. This is just the marketing folks hurting the PC community. They are a cancer.
It’s just the same as the 4090 in my opinion. Same as it you also get extra features, extra performance that’s not really reasonable beyond other gpus. But if you can you can
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
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No that’s because X670E boards are way more expensive to produce. You can have price hikes with one vendor but if everyone does it you should know it’s another reason. X670E uses 2 chipsets instead of one, has PCIE5 which needs higher signal integrity, everywhere. It’s also for overclockers and has over the top power delivery. That’s not a price hike that’s more quality and you can safely skip it if you don’t need it.

B650E has PCIE 5 too for $200-350. The only thing I see on X670E is a few more lanes (not a big difference) and 40G USB. It's useless for the vast majority of consumers. Unlike a CPU or GPU there is no performance gain.
 
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