AMD 785G Motherboard Roundup Review - PAGE 3

Closer Look:

The MSI 785GM-E65 is mATX-sized. It has only one PCI-E x16, so it cannot run CrossfireX with two dedicated graphics cards, which would have been great. Packing two PCI-E x16 slots could have been done by replacing the x1 slot. It would not have been a limitation since PCI-E x1 devices can be run in larger slots anyway. At the back, we can see the backplate made out of plastic. Steel nuts have been used though. All three heatsinks are attached with metal screws, which is less frequent on mainstream motherboards.

The MSI 785GM-E65 has a P4 CPU power connector, nevertheless it can run 140W TDP processors. No one can miss that; It is written in white on the voltage regulators heatsink. The board is also equipped of a 4+1 phase power design. At the top right corner of the motherboard, one can find the chassis intrusion connector, the serial port connector, the parallel port connector as well as the outdated floppy disk drive connector, which might still be useful in rare circumstances.

Below that are the IDE connector and five angled SATA 3.0Gb/s connectors. They are controlled by the SB710 southbridge present under the heatsink near them. This is also where the 24-pin power connector can be found. As for the front panel connectors, there are the usual power and HDD LEDs, power and reset buttons, as well as three USB 2.0 headers. One good thing is the speaker soldered directly on the motherboard so there is no need for its connector. The header below the power connector is for installing a Trusted Platform Module.

Further to the left are the CMOS clear jumper, the SPDIF out connector, the Firewire header, the CD in header and finally the front panel audio header. As I was saying, there is ony one PCI-E x16, accompanied by one x1 and two legacy PCI slots. The red switch is for overclocking the HT reference clock. There are four different positions possible which relate to the default 200MHz, a 10%, 15% and 20% overclock.

Finally, the I/O panel is composed of six USB connectors, one Firewire, one LAN and one PS/2 port. For the audio, it boasts the six colored analog connectors and one optical output. As usual, the HD 4200 has a VGA, a DVI and a HDMI output. The sixth SATA connection managed by the SB710 is in the form of an eSATA connector, also located on the I/O panel. As for the accessories, the 785GM-E65 comes with an IDE flat cable, only one SATA cable and a Molex to SATA power connector. Obviously there is an I/O shield, a driver CD and some paper documentation.

Specifications: