Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsX470 GAMING M7 AC, 2700x Review and info
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2018
I purchased this " on August 10, 2018 "
This is what i paid
$229.00
It's depressing here we are in late 2022, and i can't find a board w/ half the features on x570s, or the new am5 boards are all all 300+. It's now about october 2022, and this board is running great. I really love it.
Pros:
Memory compatibility, 3200 out of the box, no issues (UPC:751492606934) and ripjaw 5 "F4-3200C16D-16GVGB" MSI has already been strong on the memory front.
No issues with the board. I put in the Ryzen 2700x, plugged in the disks, and added ram power on no issues.
great bios features such as USB bios update, readable code on the board (must these days for debugging hardware issues), clear cmos button, though that seems to stick it into an overclock mode (which was the default for me as well when i installed it), which i don't like. I much prefer boards to start in conservative or manufacture suggested settings so the system boots, and hardware isn't damaged. I was especially annoyed seeing the voltage high.
tested both:
(RipJaw5 and Pny Anarchy)
I like the PCI express location being above the top video card. When they are all inter leaved it is quite hard to use them
I like quality of the board. All the connectors fit properly, and pins looked good. Everything was really stable and solid physically. No creaking or popping when plugging in things.
this board has probably among the best usb connectivity. it has 2 gen 3.1 headers and the micro header. A hear and a half later i am getting a ton more life out of this board adding peripherals.
If i hit any stability issues related to the board, i will absolutely update this. if anything on the board fails in the next few years i will update this. Been almost 2 years now zero problems. I actually like the click bios better than the original. It is lighter and simple, and MSI has stayed on top of their updates.
Clear cmos button placement outside of board on backpanel, is super convenient.
Cons
Some points:
1.) My take is the Cooling on the board could be better. I was underwhelmed with the VRM heat sinks. They are small . Just like side case fans i really wish we return to fin.
2.) Sata only 6 ports. I prefer 8. it is disappointing that a lot of boards are moving away from this. Fine i bought a an 8 port sata card, but with the lanes available you have to be choosy on am4
3.) two 8 pin connectors really only serve to cause confusion, but it's fine. It doesn't hurt anything.
4.) the digital code for the mother board is a bit hidden behind where you'd stick the second video card. Hard to read. I know a great place would have been to remove the second 8 pin connector, shift a couple things to the left and put this right up on the top of the board in the upper right corner where it won't be covered. I don't really want to harp on the power thing though because looking a head at 16 core they probably are thinking this is future proofing. that's actually pretty cool. Anyway upper right is the best place for the codes. i guess figure it out. :)
5.) M2 heat sync while supposed a huge feature of the board, seems overkill and 2 gpus would make it hard to open. But heat dissipation is iimportant, so cool
6.) Asus has really nice audio software. I feel this one isn't quite as nice. it doesn't seem to run in the start menu. i need to launch it. The software is useful because it detects impedance of headphones. In fact if there is a weak point my god msi. get some software engineers, and make your stuff feel less cheap software wise.
7.) msi software is horrid. you are paying for a premium board, and will struggle getting realtek audio to work properly is a bit of a let down. Sorry (duplicate of 6 but this is my biggest gripe) coming from ASUS that is the big draw back. Software.
overall i love this board. i'll probably stick with msi on my next build or maybe some other non tichai. auus has gotten too expensive. I really am a sucker for VRM (this has a good one) and think ti is worth paying for on amd platforms since you stick with the board so long. Boards have gotten too expensive in x570. In my opinion an amazing board should be 200 ( like this one). it has everything you can possibly need.
