Conclusion
The MSI A88X-G45 Gaming ticks almost every checkbox we care to think of when evaluating supporting boards for AMD's APUs.MSI has put renewed focus behind AMD's FM2+ platform by retailing a bevy of high-end boards based on the A88X chipset. Leading the pack is the A88X-G45 Gaming, which ships with Assassin's Creed Liberation HD for a limited time.
The A88X-G45 Gaming ticks almost every checkbox we care to think of when evaluating supporting boards for AMD's APUs. It's well-laid-out, has a slew of decent features, a respectable BIOS and performs well in our benchmarks.
The Ā£95 asking price remains a little higher than the competition, notably the Gigabyte A88X G1.Sniper, which offers nearly as much on the specification count. In contrast to Gigabyte, however, MSI has certainly put more real focus on enthusiast-orientated features and bundled a game.
MSI has all the technical bases covered with the A88X-G45 Gaming motherboard, and it's the one board thus far that we'd recommend for an overclocking-specific APU build.
The Good
Well-laid-out
Looks great
Healthy feature set
Free bundled game
Decent BIOSThe Bad
Price may be a concernHEXUS.awards
MSI A88X-G45 Gaming (AC Liberation HD Edition)
HEXUS.where2buy
The MSI A88X-G45 Gaming motherboard is currently on pre-order at Overclockers.co.uk.
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