Wednesday, August 17th 2016
MSI Also Unveils the 970A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard
In addition to the X99A-SLI, MSI today unveiled the 970A Gaming Pro Carbon socket AM3+ motherboard. The board is based on AMD 970 + SB950 chipset, and is based on a new PCB design. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the CPU with an 8-phase VRM. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), three PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and one legacy PCI. The x16 slots feature metal reinforcement braces. The board features chunkier heatsinks over the VRM and the AMD 970 northbridge, than what we're used to seeing on older boards by MSI on this platform.
The 970A Gaming Pro Carbon gets its name from RGB LED lighting on the SB950 southbridge heatsink, and the PCB ground-layer isolation trace that separates the onboard audio area from the rest of the PCB. Storage connectivity includes a 20 Gb/s M.2 slot, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (both type-A), four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and a high-grade onboard audio solution that includes a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, ground-layer isolation, heasdet OPAMP, and audio-grade capacitors. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS, and supports NVMe booting.
The 970A Gaming Pro Carbon gets its name from RGB LED lighting on the SB950 southbridge heatsink, and the PCB ground-layer isolation trace that separates the onboard audio area from the rest of the PCB. Storage connectivity includes a 20 Gb/s M.2 slot, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (both type-A), four USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and a high-grade onboard audio solution that includes a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, ground-layer isolation, heasdet OPAMP, and audio-grade capacitors. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS, and supports NVMe booting.
21 Comments on MSI Also Unveils the 970A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard
While I wouldn't build a new system around this platform I'd grab a 970 board like this one if my 990FX board died. Lots of them available with newer features around $100.
This MSI pretends to be sober but in fact is shouting "look at me" with the fat heatsinks, aggressive white on black and audio components.
Why can't they give the money spent on AM3+ boards to AMD to help them out with the release of Zen?
....musta missed that line about zen support.... gonna read it again five times to solve this mystery.....