out of 10
MSI K9A2 Platinum
Information found in:
from 68 sources in 19 countries.
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User Score (118)7.7
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Expert Score (5)7.0
Freak Rank
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Pros & Cons
- great motherboard, 4 pci e slots, great board, good documentation, runs great
- of course, sata raid, of which, worked from there, power reset button
One of the newest boards to use AMD’s 790FX chipset for the Spider platform, the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard is a high end board for AMD multicore Phenom processors. With 42 PCI Express lanes, lower power consumption, and support for four way graphics, the K9A2 Platinum is one of the top boards from MSI.
System Specs
The 790FX chipset was released in late 2007 to complete AMD’s new Spider platform. The MSI K9A2 Platinum uses the 790FX to provide a 1066/1333 bus with up to 5200 MT/s (5.2 billio…
See moreOne of the newest boards to use AMD’s 790FX chipset for the Spider platform, the MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard is a high end board for AMD multicore Phenom processors. With 42 PCI Express lanes, lower power consumption, and support for four way graphics, the K9A2 Platinum is one of the top boards from MSI.
System Specs
The 790FX chipset was released in late 2007 to complete AMD’s new Spider platform. The MSI K9A2 Platinum uses the 790FX to provide a 1066/1333 bus with up to 5200 MT/s (5.2 billion operations per second) using HyperTransport 3.0 technology. There are four DDR2 800/1066 dual channel slots allowing up to eight GB of RAM. Of course, the MSI K9A2 Platinum sports a AM2 socket for the Phenom processors, but it also provides backward compatibility for AM2 Athlons and Athlon 64s. The board uses MSI’s “Circu-pipe” dual pipe cooler to cool the north and southbridge as well as the power circuitry. The board requires a 24 pin power connector.
Expansion Slots
One of the first things that jumps out is the four PCI Express x16 graphics slots. There are also two standard PCI slots and a PCI Express x1 slot. There are six onboard SATA connectors supporting RAID 0/1/0+1 along with single PATA and floppy connectors.
Onboard Ports
The MSI K9A2 Platinum has four USB 2.0 ports, with support for two more on the front panel, as well as a single FireWire port. An optical S/PDIF output joins an eight channel surround sound audio stack. There are two 3 Gb/s external SATA connectors and a single Gigabit Ethernet port.
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Manufacturer's Specs
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CPUAMD
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CPUHyperTransport 3.0 supporting speed up to 5200MT/s
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CPUAMD® 790FX and SB600 Chipset
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Main MemorySupports Dual DDR2 533/667/800/
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Slots2 mazarine PCI Express x16 slots (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant; supports CrossFire Technology)
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Slots2 PCI slots, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface.
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SlotsWhen 4 PCI Express x16 slots are all installed, the PCIE x 16 lanes will auto arrange form x16/ x0/ x16/ x0 to x8/ x8/ x8/ x8
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Slots1 PCI Express x1 slots
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Slots2 light-blue PCI Express x16 slots with x8 operations (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant; supports CrossFire Technology)
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On-Board IDEOne IDE port by AMD® SB600
Review Summary
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- Equip with 2 or more PCIe x16 slots, ATI CrossFire Ready. The ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform. Provides 2.7x faster performance than single graphic card solution.
- Key components …
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MSI K9A2 Platinum Motherboard
Reviewer: CPU3D03 June 2008Believe it or not, I have to say there are a lot of positives and strong points about the MSI K9A2 Platinum. It's a very solid motherboard that offers a lot of features that will attract both AMD fans and moderate gamers alike. It may not be the choice of the enthusiast, but it certainly has a lot to offer. Take for example, the ability to support Crossfire X configuration via the 4 PCIe slots, as well as being able to use widely available DDR2 ram. And when it came... Read more
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Reviewer: Noticias 3D28 April 2008
AMD se ha ido poniendo las pilas últimamente, y esto se demuestra en la placa que hemos analizado hoy. Tenemos diferentes tipos de chipsets, casi para todos los gustos, y placas base con gráficas integradas (o no) y múltiple conectividad. MSI nos ha traído un producto bastante correcto, dentro lo que sería la gama alta. Normalmente, cuando en el modelo de una placa encontramos la palabra "platinum" es signo (aunque no siempre) de que estamos ante un producto de gama... Read more
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MSI K9A2 Platinum
Reviewer: maximum pc28 March 2008- Overall 8
If you want AMD performance without the cost, MSI’s K9A2 Platinum might be the ticket. It’s a bare-bones yet performance-oriented board for Phenom procs that boasts no fewer than four x16 physical PCI-E 2.0 slots, as well as support for eSATA and SAS drives and loads more features than you'd expect from a board of this price. Read more
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Reviewer: Viperlair15 February 2008
The MSI K9A2 Platinum is part of MSI's premium products, though their ultra high end typically carry the Diamond designation. That said, the bundle is extensive, though rather mundane. We have MSI's D-Bracket, several storage related cables, a custom IO shield and driver CDs for XP and Vista. There's a user manual and quick start guide, as well as a couple of CrossFire bridges should you wish to assemble a multi-GPU setup. Read more
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MSI K9A2 Platinum Motherboard on AMD 790FX Chipset (Socket AM2+)
Reviewer: Digit-Life07 February 2008Even though the AMD 790FX chipset offers a great reserve for the future (in other words, its functionality is hardly necessary for a generic modern computer, even if it's assembled for games), MSI tried to design a practical motherboard. It may come in handy to users, who want to rig it up to maximum right now (including four graphics cards with two-slot cooling systems). Those who just want to upgrade their computers or assemble a new one may also like this motherboard,... Read more
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missing parts
Reviewer: N/A, Newegg6 days ago- Overall 2
Will put MSI in exclude list next time I get anything. Read more
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Made the right choice...
Reviewer: Caboose, maximum pc26 September 2008Looks like I made the right choice in my purchase. It was a tossup for me between the Asus and the MSI, and from your benchmarks, it looks like I picked right! One of the nice features, is the extra heatpipes and fins for RAM cooling. It's an optinal add-in, and so far I can't really tell a temperature difference, but it is nice to have and should help in the long run The only thing with the RAM heatpipes are that they need to be installed BEFORE you install the CPU, it... Read more
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