MSI Z77MA-G45 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: I love this board and there is nothing major that I have found to mark against it. The OC Genie is easy to use and I love being able to use my mouse in the boot menu.

Cons: This isn't a con against the board but more-so a note for MSI.

I have recently updated my BIOS to the most recent version and I have lost the use of my USB 3.0 ports on the motherboard. I'm sure downgrading it or re-flashing will fix it but I haven't tried it yet. Just a note for ya'll.

Other Thoughts: It's a mATX board so of course you're going to be missing a bit of stuff. People complain that there is no PCI slot but there is a PCI express slot which I wish was one slot higher but after thought and consideration, if it was any higher then I would loose SLI/Xfire potential in my case (NZXT Vulcan).

Pros: Great amount of features for price, MSI build quailty

Cons: Will not post over 107fsb. Tried every trick in the book.

Other Thoughts: Just to clarify on my first review. I am not attempting to overclock the CPU. I Actually have tried everything to get the board to post over 107fsb. Lowering the multiplier, Voltages, lowering the ram speeds. All to no avail. I have now even tested other Pentium based intel CPUs and Different sticks of ram. Maybe its a compatibility issue with The Ivy Bridge Pentium cpus... Who knows.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

What you were doing is overclocking, and overclocking is expert knowledge where there are infinite possibilities.
If you have no knowledge in overclocking, then you should consult members on OC forums and find out how to do OC properly.

If you have any questions (non-OC related), feel free to get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 9am to 6pm Pacific Time.
Or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: The board has some great features and good layout.

Cons: Lack of options in the bios, Having major issues with getting the board to accept the proper FSB

Other Thoughts: Im am running this board paired with a Intel g2020 and 8 gig of Kingston hyper X ddr3 1600. Regardless of what I do I can not get the board to post up over 107 fsb. Multipliers up or down, Voltage to the CPU or ram doesn't make a difference. Im trying to get the ram to the speeds that is advertised. At first I thought it was the cpu or ram so i tested them in another motherboard with no issues. Ive always used MSI and normally very satisfied. Im not sure if something is actually wrong with the board or if its really just that bad. Going to talk with Newegg and see if I can get a refund.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Overclocking result varies and CPU is always the major factor behind it, and this means your CPU does not have the potential in overclocking.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1354613/ivy-bridge-pentium-review-benchmarks

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with our tech support team directly at 626.271.1004 for assistance during regular business hours from M to F, 9am to 6pm Pacific Time.
Or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Works well for the price.

Cons: Overclocking options are limited.

Other Thoughts: A very capable motherboard for the money. I bought it to build a backup system to run video compression and after using it for a while I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. The main drawback for some is that overclocking options are virtually non-existent, you can adjust BLCK, Turbo Multiplier and Offset Voltage +.02, +.04, +.06 and.... that's it. In spite of this I was still able to get a 2500K up to 4600 with all power saving features enabled, 50MHz less than the same core in an ASUS Maximus that cost twice as much. No problem using two MSI 6850 in Crossfire. I even like the color scheme. If you're looking for a budget Z77 board to run Crossfire and a decent overclock, this one works well.

I did have a weird issue with BIOS .17 and .18 where the USB 3.0 ports would disappear after I changed the offset voltage and restarted a couple times. Reverted back to the .16 it shipped with and it works fine. I usually don't flash a BIOS unless something's not working, now I'm reminded why. This doesn't appear to be a common issue as my google-fu didn't show anyone else with the same problem.

Pros: AWESOME!
It has great performance, and tons of awesome features.

Cons: The SATA ports are directed to the side towards the hdd bays leaving almost no room to attatch sata cables.... it would have been way better if it was directed to the base of the computer...
i'm using a mid-ATX case, so i can only imagine how much worse it would be with a micro-atx case.

Pros: Stable
used with 16GB of memory and core I5 no issues
Slots allow for XFire which is a plus.
UEFI is laid out nicely.
UEFI is accesable from within Windows which is a huge plus!

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This is my first time purchasing a MSI board and so far I have had no issues.
I can not speak of longevity with this board as I have had it less then a year but so far all seems promising.

Pros: Cheap if you don't care about a working internal USB 3.0 front panel header.

Cons: I wrote a review earlier for this board saying the USB 3.0 internal header is defective. I have received a second board, and that header is also defective. It is definitely not my case, because I tested it with my friend's motherboard and it works fine. The funny thing is this header works fine with my hard drive when connected over USB 2.0 but it does not work when connected over USB 3.0. The drive is either not detected, or when detected it does not complete a full disk benchmark which tries to access all logical block addresses (LBAs) of the drive (basically a full disk read benchmark). Chkdsk also fails over USB 3.0 when it completes fine over USB 2.0. I also tried the latest BIOS, and it still didn't work. I don't understand why the USB internal header doesn't work - it is part of the chipset and should not be hard to implement when Intel specifies everything for it - they really should just be laying down traces and that's it. I find it hard to believe that both of these boards have a manufacturing defect, since the probability of that is quite low, and I believe this to be a design flaw with the board.

Long story short, do not buy this board if you want a working USB 3.0 front panel header.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Ervin,

We apologize for the issues you are having with this motherboard. Can you email us more details about your issue so we can check this internally? We have not had any issues reported with the front panel USB 3.0.

1. CPU
2. RAM
3. VGA
4. HDs
5. BIOS Version
6. Serial Number of motherboard
7. OS

Thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: Cheap.

Cons: Defective USB 3.0 header. Now I have to spend a week waiting for a new board, and pay for return shipping.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
Can you show us how the header is defective by emailing us to usreview@msi.com? A picture would be very helpful, thank you.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the product, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at usreview@msi.com and we will be more than happy to assist you, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: BIOS layout, boot time, overclocking support, good quality, easy installation, USB 3.0, 4 DDR3 RAM slots, M-connector, overall great construction, Crossfire/SLI support.
Also, it was all under $100. ($99.99 w/ Free Shipping, $10 rebate coming soon = $89.99). That is an excellent price for a Z77 motherboard.

Cons: The bloatware that it comes with, although it's easy to opt out and is expected with every new motherboard CD. I wish it could support more fans. I would have gladly traded 2 USB 2.0 for 2 more 3.0 (2.0 are here in abundance, though it is a Z77 limit).

Other Thoughts: This board has the maximum of all the Z77 chipset can naively handle: It includes 10 USB 2 (6 in back, 2 in front), 4 USB 3 (2 in back, 2 in front), 4 SATA 2, 2 SATA 3. It doesn't have any PCI, but keep in mind that this is a Micro ATX board, and for the money, it contains a great value for what it has.

Pros: Has almost all the features that I needed.

Cons: It says it supports crossfire AND sli, But the board that I recieved did not support SLI. It's not a huge deal as I don't NEED sli, But I thought that it'd be a nice feature to have in the future

Other Thoughts: Honestly this is an awesome board wich is why I rated it 4 stars, But be careful, you might get one that doesnt support SLI.