Features:
- HTPC Ready
- Easy OC Switch
- True 3Way SLI Technology
- True Blu-ray Audio
-
AMD Cool’n’Quiet™ technology
- Active Phase Switching (APS)
- HTPC Ready
- MSI M-Flash Simple Bios Update
Specifications:
| Socket | AM3 |
|---|---|
| CPU (Max Support) | Phenom II |
| AM3 CPU Ready | Y |
| FSB / Hyper Transport Bus | up to 2.6GHz |
| Chipset | NVIDIA® nForce 980a SLI |
| DDR2 Memory | N/A |
| DDR3 Memory | DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600*/1800*/2133*(OC) |
| Memory Channel | Dual |
| DIMM Slots | 4 |
| Max Memory (GB) | 16 |
| PCI-Ex16 | 3 |
| PCI-E Gen | Gen2 (1×16, 1×16, 1×8) |
| PCI-Ex4 | N/A |
| PCI-Ex1 | 2 |
| PCI | 2 |
| IDE | 1 |
| SATA | 6 |
| RAID | 0/1/0+1/5/JBOD |
| LAN | 10/100/1000*1 |
| TPM | 1 |
| USB ports (Rear) | 4 |
| Audio ports (Rear) | 6 |
| Serial ports (Rear) | N/A |
| Parallel ports (Rear) | N/A |
| 1394 ports (Rear) | 1 |
| eSATA | N/A |
| VGA | 1 |
| DVI | 1 |
| HDMI | 1 |
| Display Port | N/A |
| DirectX | DX10.1 |
| VGA Share Memory (MB) | 512 |
| Form Factor | ATX |
| DrMOS | N/A |
| APS | Yes |
| Sideport Memory | N/A |
| SLI | Yes |
| 3-way SLI | Yes |
| Hybrid SLI | Yes |
| CrossFire | N/A |
| Hybrid CrossFire | N/A |
| D-LED2 | N/A |
| Green Power Genie | N/A |
Click for a Larger Image
Immediately from the specifications we can that the MSI NF980-G65 is an nVidia board through and through supporting triple SLI courtesy of its nForce 980a chipset. A host of other options round out this this overclockers dream including support for overclocking the RAM all the way to 2133MHz. As a legacy free board the MSI NF980-G65 does not have any serial or parallel ports but does include support for PCI-E Gen 2 as well as RAID and 6 SATA ports. In fact the only thing we are suprised about is the lack of an e-SATA port on the rear.
In terms of ready to go technology the MSI NF980-G65 comes with onboard Geforce 8400/8500 video which should be enough to allow you to run some older games as well as playback of 1080p or Blu-Ray if you wanted. The MSI NF980-G65 is hybrid SLI ready meaning that should you purchase a compatible nVidia video card you can run that additional video card in SLI mode with the onboard video card for added performance. In this review we opted to run the ATI 4890 for our benchmarks.
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This might be off topic but I have just fInished assembling a new RIG using the nf980-g65 MB. Have checked all the connections the board lights up all fans run GPU CPU Case etc. The blue APS light is on. The DVD drive is live at least the drawer opens and closes and the green light comes on and goes off as it should. Not so sure about the HDD. How do I check that? Not getting any beeps. Not sure if this board has a speaker? Can’t find any built in the case either. Anyhow to get to the point I do not get a post screen. Can’t install OS or MB drivers. The lights are on but nobody’s home.
NF980-G65
Phenom ll x4 965 Black
4gb DDR3 CL9 Kingston 1333mhz
MSI N465GTX (OC to 470 Specs)
PSU OCZGXS850
500 gb SATA ll Seagate HDD
Sony DVD
Well first unplug everything but the power connections,CPU,RAM. I assume you are using aftermarket vid or onboard vid. Make sure the power to the vid is plugged in right. Then start. if that doesnt work, post back here and we can go to the next step.
Hi Jason
Thanks for your input. I did what you said and it booted to post. Now I’m just tweaking everything up. For a while I thought a piece of hardware or a short at the MB / Case was at fault and I would have to start from scratch again. But as it happened I disconnected all the hardware pulled the ram and moved one stick to another channel and away it went. So thanks for help.
Ron
This may be a dead subject…but after having this board for months it has started not posting. I have to turn the power on….wait a few seconds then hit the reset button…sometimes 2-3 times before it posts….sooo frustrating.
Finally I just bought the crosshair extreme. Im in a jam because I have the AMD 1090T and two GTX580’s…tough to find an AMD board that supports SLI.
here is my rig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35g_mnlG0ME
How is this board still running for you? I have heard that it has its faults and quite a few of them actually POP* and generate smoke/sparks when overclocked.