MSI Also Unveils the 970A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard

[btarunr]

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.



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[IceScreamer]

But why?

 

[HM_Actua1]

PCIE 2.0???? pretty sure you guy's meant 3.0

 

[dj-electric]

... why?

 

[ironwolf]

PCIE 2.0???? pretty sure you guy's meant 3.0

I didn't think that any 9xx chipsets supported >2.0 on them, not even 990FX.

 

[Roph]

What year is it.jpg

 

[cdawall]

PCIE 2.0???? pretty sure you guy's meant 3.0

No they didn't. That's all those support.

 

[yoyo2004]

I thought it will says to support "Zen", but oh well. A man can only hope.

 

[F-Zero]

Looks great !

 

[cdawall]

I thought it will says to support "Zen", but oh well. A man can only hope.

How would it support Zen it's going to a different socket...

 

[RejZoR]

What year is it.jpg

Current year of course!

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I see it as a good retirement board for my processor if this board died but it does also add m.2 and nvme possibilities to a system such as mine, shit lane splitting though for me I'd want 16x2 which wouldn't effect graphics cards much if at all in this generation

 

[Disparia]

Nice board.

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.

 

[HM_Actua1]

I didn't think that any 9xx chipsets supported >2.0 on them, not even 990FX.

you're right, all I saw was X99 so I assumed this was intel.

 

[Joss]

if my 990FX board died

The Sabertooth 990fx is a beautiful board, with those subtle brown and green tints.
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.

 

[natr0n]

I'm still living in the stone age,so this board is exciting.

 

[$ReaPeR$]

But why?

wondering the same thing..

 

[suraswami]

Seriously?

Why can't they give the money spent on AM3+ boards to AMD to help them out with the release of Zen?

 

[ensabrenoir]

....musta missed that line about zen support.... gonna read it again five times to solve this mystery.....

 

[Sempron Guy]

....musta missed that line about zen support.... gonna read it again five times to solve this mystery.....

it says AM3+ right at the first sentence of the news article.

 

[Athlonite]

The least they could have done was use the 990FX chipset (perhaps they had a shit ton of 970 chips laying round and needed to get rid of them)

 

[Parn]

Just another way to clear up any remaining stock of 9xx chipsets before Zen is launched.