MSI 790FX-GD70 AMD motherboard Socket AM3 DDR3 16GB

Socket AM3 DDR3 platform

This MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard uses the AMD 790FX chipset and a Socket AM3 interface to support 64-bit AMD Phenom II processors. It accepts DDR3 memory at 800, 1066 or 1333 speeds natively, with overclocked steps at 1600, 1800 and 2133. The board provides four DIMM slots for a maximum of 16GB total capacity.

Four PCI Express x16 slots and eight SATA II ports

Four full-length PCI Express x16 slots allow multi-GPU configurations; the first and fourth run at 2.0 x16 while the third and fifth operate at 2.0 x8 when all are populated. Eight SATA II connectors on the board support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 or JBOD arrays without an additional controller card. Dual Realtek 8111DL Gigabit LAN controllers and eight rear USB 2.0 ports handle networking and peripherals directly.

16GB memory ceiling and CrossFire headroom

The 16GB DDR3 limit suits mainstream workloads and older game titles, but modern applications will exhaust that headroom quickly. CrossFire scaling works across the four x16 slots, though the two x8 lanes reduce bandwidth when every slot is filled. Onboard Realtek ALC889 audio delivers 8-channel output with Blu-ray sound support, while the ATX form factor fits standard chassis without special clearance requirements.