MSI has introduced an entirely new socket AM3+ motherboard for AMD’s FX processors just when we all started thinking AM3+ had died a long time ago. AMD hasn’t had any new chipsets and CPUs for this socket in more than a year, not to mention that the FX processors are no match for Intel’s latest CPUs. Back to the board, though – called 970A-G43 Plus, the new MSI motherboard offers a modern feature-set for mid-range PCs running AMD FX chips.
As you can see from the name of the board, the new 970A-G43 Plus is based on AMD’s 970 chipset and sports the SB950 Southbridge chip. The motherboard has support for all AMD AM3(+) processors with TDP of up to 125W and draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors; the CPU gets power from a 4+1 phase VRM. The memory controller in the AM3+ processor is connected to four DDR3 DIMM memory slots, which support up to 32 GB of DDR3-2133 memory.
The MSI 970A-G43 Plus offers one PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot with a reinforcement brace, one PCI-E 2.0 x16 (electrical x4) slot, two PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots and one legacy PCI slot. The board provides six SATA 3.0 ports, two USB 3.1 (10 Gbit/sec) ports, two front panel USB 3.0 ports, Realtek ALC892 sound and a Realtek Gigabit LAN controller. The board supports Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, but given the chipset, we have the feeling you can go back even to Windows XP if you want.
The 970A-G43 Plus retails for around USD 100.
Source: MSI