Kaveri Motherboards Lead MSI's Gaming Lineup

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By Thomas Soderstrom
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A value push for the mainstream gaming market.

MSI’s pushed Kaveri gaming in a big way for its CES 2014 motherboard lineup, with several products slated to be ready for AMD’s CPU launch.

MSI believes that the nearly-exclusive focus by competitors on reduced form factors underestimates the Kaveri-core’s potential market, and extends its game-centric products across a full range of form factors. The A88X-G45 Gaming tops its launch priorities list with support for dual graphics cards, a Killer Gaming Gig-E controller, and a full ATX layout.

Anyone looking to put a pair of cards into a smaller case can instead consider its A88XM-E45. All four memory slots remain, but the Killer NIC is replaced with a Realtek 8111G. Extra space between graphics slots should boost cooling, though most Micro-ATX cases will limit the second graphics card to a single-slot GPU cooler.

Builders who don’t actually need two graphics cards can achieve further space savings in the A88XI-AC. The DIMM slots are also reduced to two however, due to the form factor’s small size. Also unusual is MSI’s use of an Intel wireless controller on an AMD-based motherboard.

Another surprise tucked back into the corner of MSI’s display is its new J1800I, sporting Intel’s Bay Trail J1800 CPU onboard. Though it looks like an IPC or kiosk unit, MSI further claims this 10W platform has the punch to power many media center builds.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
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4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • patrick47018
    Nice just used a Gigabyte A88X mobo in a recent build with a 6800K, maybe I should of waited
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    I haven't even bought the processor yet but I don't know what to do with the A85x-itx mobo in my hands...gotta find someone to take it off my hands so I can jump aboard the Kaveri steamer :)
    Reply
  • vaughn2k
    ... with arms wide open dude... ;) @Lutfij...
    Reply
  • jbheller
    I still don't see the point in dual graphics cards on an FM2/FM2+ socket motherboard. If you want that much power you will be looking at an FX in an AM3 format, or an i5/i7 intel chip. Unless AMD comes out with something like a 760K or better yet a 6 or 8 core chip without the graphics subsection you wont see the benefit of two graphics cards. If AMD are going to continue with the FX chips (and I hope they do) we need to get motherboard manufacturers to make mini-ITX and micro-ATX motherboards with AM3+ sockets. A lot of people are making smaller systems these days and the FX chips can't be used.
    Reply