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  • ekv - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    The article states there's a PCIe x16 and two x1 slots. The pictures shows another (black) slot. Is that a PCI or PCIe slot?

    If it's PCIe then I would need to find a low profile RAID 5 card, preferably by Areca. Intel still has lower power consumption (higher efficiency), but this board has me thinking.
  • Roland00 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    The big long black slot is a pci slot.
  • GeorgeH - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    WTF is this?

    1)
    MSI makes lots of motherboards. The 790GX-G65 is a 790GX board. The 880GMA-E45 is a 880G board. The NF980-G65 is a NForce 980a board.

    Now they're making a 740 board called the 790GM-P25?

    2)
    This board supports AM2+ processors with two DDR3-1333 slots? Just out of curiosity, what are these magical "AM2+ specifications" AM3 processors will run at?

    I know mistakes happen, but how hard is it to check three freaking paragraphs? If you can't get the trivial stuff right, how can anyone believe you get the simple stuff right?
  • Rajinder Gill - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Sorry George, my mistake cos I let it go live.

    later
    Raja
  • IanCutress - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Hi George,

    Apologies, this is my article. The 790 issue is a typo I made, which didn't click my end for proofreading or in the editorial team. The AM2+/DDR3 is combination MSI + me fail; their specification sheets still lists this as DDR3 and AM2+, and there are no DDR2 termination resistors in the image, however the AM2+/DDR3 combination didn't register as foul play my end. We reckon here that MSI will re-release info on this board to AM3 and disable AM2/AM2+.

    All the best,
    Ian
  • GeorgeH - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Thanks for the fast fixes. My apologies, also, for the overly harsh tone; it really wasn't justified, especially as being kept awake past midnight after a long day at work wasn't your fault. :)
  • JonnyDough - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Fail.
  • Carleh - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Yes, but you get the COM port instead :-)
  • jabber - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Yeah a COM port, how very 20th century.

    Very handy for when I use my HTPC for configuring some highend enterprise Cisco routers or decide to stream some HD content over a 56k modem.

    What on earth happens in these product development meetings for tech products?

    It seems they always have to have a part of the meeting agenda labled -

    "Decide which useless feature/port/codec must be inexplicably added at the expense and omission of expected or crucial feature/port/codec"
  • Gungel - Sunday, May 9, 2010 - link

    The same for the PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard connectors. A couple of USB 3.0 connectors would have been a nice replacement for that agent port.
  • chrnochime - Sunday, May 9, 2010 - link

    Big freakin deal there's no DVI. Go buy a LP video card. And FWIW, low-end..err I mean entry level Cisco routers AND switches also use console ports as well. What gave you the idea that only the high-end ones do anyway?
  • sc3252 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link

    Its advertised as an HTPC board, so it should have a hdmi, it only has a vga. The whole point would be so you wouldn't have to spend an extra $40 to "upgrade" it. If you want an "HTPC" board just wait for frys to have a sale for motherboard cpu combos, they usually include the crappy micro atx boards with an ok cpu. Thats what I did and its been working fine for less than the price of this entire board, $29 after $10 rebate.
  • EBH - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link

    Might be for a UPS.

    Why do you geeks always QQ over COM ports being added?
  • AlB80 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    It's not MSI fail, but author.
  • TheBlueChanell - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    It's a pretty good deal for the money and good use of excess hardware but I wish it were m-itx.
  • MadMan007 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    One coumn for everything (articles, brief announcements, 'this just in') just seems lazy. Please make some distinctions by creating multiple columns or sections of the website.
  • geok1ng - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    "This just in" is a teaser, in order to make readers drop back several times a day, of course there are mistakes, but it just adds to the fun.

    But "this just in"does not mean that the quality of tech articles will get lower.

    AT must keep the high standards of epic articles like the one on memory overclocking on the C2Ds and the SSD saga.
  • MadMan007 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    You completely missed my point. I don't have a problem with 'this just in' the problem is when absolutely everything is mashed in to one *thin* column. On a browser window on a 1920x1600 res monitor I can see maybe 1.5 'articles' in this column, and there is little use of horizontal space in this day of widescreen aspect ratios. That is quite rediculous to me, I can only imagine how silly it is on lower res screens. A single coumn can work if it's *wide* - techpowerup.com does this well enough. The redesigned Anandtech presents me with much less information than it used to because everything is mashed in to one column that's thin.
  • Nimiz99 - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link

    I agree with your point...Currently on as 1280x800 or somesuch is the most frequent resolution and although AT tries to seperate the main articles out at the top by their carousel I tend to now miss reading some articles I otherwise would. It would be cool to see
    1) The carousel not spin all the way around b/c there are only 5 articles within it.
    2) Have the just-in section next clearly split out and spread over at least 1024 pixels wide with the advertisements to the right of that...so that people even at lower resolutions can see all the articles at a glance (when spread out to that extent one should be able to preview 2-3 just-in's
    3) since the carousel already addresses the main articles one could have a split-out section for the main articles below the just-in section and it split out clearly from the just-in section - following the same width parameters

    ---
    btw things I like
    1) on the just-in is the initial excerpt of the article and the read-more button, it really helps me decide which just-in articles I want to quickly browse
    2) the comments section is a lot smoother/easier to read
  • MadMan007 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    No digital video output is a complete non-starter these days. For an HTPC you really want HDMI (for convenience so you can use a common HDMI-HDMI cable) or at a minimum DVI. This has neither, while I understand that they did everything to keep this board cheap the lack of digital video output is just too limiting, even as a regular PC not HTPC.
  • loimlo - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    I'll second your opinion. I can live with no HDMI/Display port, but DVI should be a must even on budget boards. D-Sub is too old-fashioned and ought to be left behind the back.
  • IanCutress - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Hey guys,
    This was my news article and it does look like I've missed a few issues (I could blame working at night, but that isn't a valid excuse) as well as a bad typo on the 740/790 front. It didn't click the bad combination of AM2+ and DDR3 when I read the press release and the spec sheets. The MSI database still contains the errors, but for whatever reason my mind didn't engage. Many thanks to those who have noted, and we've changed the article to reflect this. Don't forget, we're all human - you, me, MSI also.

    All the best,
    Ian
  • AlB80 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Ops. It's me again. RS740 supports only PCI-E Gen1.1
  • Goty - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    I don't know for sure (too lazy to go look up the prices), but couldn't you get a decent 785G board for not much more than this? For the cost of adding all of the peripherals to make this a competent HTPC board, you'd probably end up better going with something else.
  • ducksoop - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Hey guys,

    What IS going on with AMD? 740/710 is old news. 8xx is VERY slow in developing. Thank god someone broke with tradition by putting 2x PCIe x1 slots on a u-board!... even with a 710. Gigabyte has a 760 with 4 DIMMS but they don't import to the US? Even the 880 uses a 710 and at best the 850. What are they waiting for?

    Intel went gang-busters with the 55/57/58 chipsets. AMD is dragging their feet. WHY? Terrific processors! Minimal improvements on the boards. Do they have something really sneaky hidden up their sleeve for the next tick? We've seen 2 tocks now.. I don't understand. ITX is suffering - they're losing that ball game totally giving it up to Intel/NV. Their board tech is basically stagnant - 2 years old. Why won't they put a 5xxx graphics chip on the boards? We're stuck with low end last gen. It doesn't make sense.

    I KNOW the development money is with Intel. AMD has climbed out of their hole only to pause.... Great - we've got 6 cores .. And they're still putting out NEW 710's? I do have to applaud AMD for not changing sockets - forcing a completely new expensive rebuild.. but when are they going to make it worth OUR time and money? Are they afraid of huge profits.. really competing with Intel?

    It's time for AMD to really step up to the plate and hit a home run and kick butt. I know they can do it. Why aren't they? When is it going to happen? Anyone got a clue? I know it's all about money. With their failure to pull out all the stops - they're flat out giving it away. I know they can do better.. but when will it happen? How about it Anand.. Raj... how about a hint? We've been waiting too long.
  • AlB80 - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    1. AMD was stalling for time so that fusion (DX11) was successful.
    2. MSI have 760GM-E51, 785GM-E51, 785GM-E65. I think this mobos are near to perfect. 740 is below then acceptable today.
  • DaveSimmons - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    Even the $79 ECS H55H-I min-ITX on the front page has optical and coax ports on the back. Leaving them off of a modern board is sad.
  • Allio - Saturday, May 8, 2010 - link

    This looks like a good cheap little fileserver board to me (especially because MSI usually has exemplary power consumption), but the 740G chipset is really not too hot in a HTPC. Can it even offload H264 decoding? Any of MSI's 785G boards uATX boards would be far better suited.
  • whitehat2k9 - Sunday, May 9, 2010 - link

    If you want to do any HD playback surely the HD 2100 IGP on the 740G chipset won't cut it, as it lacks UVD hardware decoding. This more or less means you need a discrete GPU...hardly ideal for a budget HTPC builder, especially when 785G boards can be had for just a bit more.
  • dmk2000 - Sunday, May 9, 2010 - link

    I can uderstand the idea behind only offer VGA. In reality, most users will purchase dedicated video card, therefore providing only vga will keep cost down.
  • JonnyDough - Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - link

    With a solid integrated chip and DVI/HDMI ports there's no reason to buy another card. It's cheaper to have it built in, allows me to use the PCI-E slot for something else, uses less energy, etc. If you're serious about an HTPC motherboard you want one that has all the goodies, the card slot is really only to be used to upgrade, or if your integrated chip should fail. This isn't a motherboard designed to be used for a gaming PC - that's why it's "HTPC oriented". Only, it isn't.
  • aeronaut - Monday, May 10, 2010 - link

    Hybrid crossfire is where you have one installed video card, and onboard video, and the two work together in crossfire mode.

    Regards,
    aeronaut

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