[section_title title=”Closer Look”]Closer Look
Taking an overall look at the MSI A88XI AC FM2+ motherboard, the form factor as you can see is M-ITX, making this an immediate candidate for those not only wanting a small sized build, but also for HTPC use. We have a very small heat sink for the Southbridge and what I would consider to be a small heat sink for the MOSFETs.
The single PCI EX x16 lane has support for Gen 3 graphics cards but it’s also backwards compatible for Gen 2 cards; naturally. One thing that is very appealing about Kaveri is the ability to Crossfire the on-board AMD R7 graphics chip with another card via PCI EX. This supports other AMD R7 dedicated graphics cards but I and AMD recommend the R7 250 for the best performance.
Another pleasing factor is the all-black PCB on the A88XI AC, unlike some MSI motherboards with its ghastly brown PCB. Another plus point in the bank for MSI’s latest small form factor Kaveri motherboard!
The MSI A88XI AC motherboard comes equipped with an 802.11 wireless adapter which supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless signals. 5GHz is a big selling point and should give you the best possible connection available; unless of course your wireless router doesn’t support 5GHz. One incredibly disappointing thing about this implementation is the cables which trail across the centre of the motherboard; there has been no attempt to hide or even route them and they hand very close to the CPU socket. Maybe this is an oversight on MSIs behalf?
Here we have a closer look at the MOSFET heat sink and the 5 power phases of the motherboard. One can only assume the board runs a 4+1 power phase setup as there is no official information regarding this but it is still ample enough for a board of this calibre; M-ITX. To power the APU, there is a 4 pin 12V input for your power supply so this board will effectively run with any half decent PSU on the market.
For storage devices, there are 4 x SATA 6GB/s ports which support SSDs and mechanical hard drives. There is also support for front panel USB 3.0 which is nice to see on such a small board; most newer cases today have support for USB 3.0 so it’s nice to see MSI have implemented it on this board.
With the MSI A88XI AC FM2+ motherboard being M-ITX, it only has 2 x DIMM slots which support DDR3 memory. It officially supports memory up to speeds of 2133MHz and has support up to 32GB of memory; 16GB is a more realistic goal here. One interesting thing is that there is support for XMP in combination with AMP which is nice to see; those with memory geared for Intel have the option to use it with Kaveri also which is nice!
In terms of rear I/O ports there are the following:
1 x HDMI (support up to 4096×2160)
1 x DVI-D (support up to 2560×1600)
1 x VGA (support up to 1920×1200)
2 x Antenna for 802.11AC
4 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.0 ports
3 x 3.5mm 5.1 audio jacks
1 x 1GB/s Ethernet port
1 x PS/2 port (keyboard/mouse)
Plenty of connectivity available and 4K support via HDMI is a nice touch, although maybe a bit over zealous for gaming though given that Titan can sometimes struggle at 60fps; nevertheless support is there and that is good to see!
