Location: Home > Computers > Components > Motherboards > MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ 970 DDR3 2PCI-E16 SLI CrossFire 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard

MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ 970 DDR3 2PCI-E16 SLI CrossFire 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard

MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ 970 DDR3 2PCI-E16 SLI CrossFire 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard (MSI/MicroStar: 970A-G46)
VPN: 970A-G46
Vendor: MSI/MicroStar
Price: $99.99 - $99.99 CAD from 1 stores
» Email this product to a friend   » Write a review
» Discuss on forum   » Post your deal
  Store Product Price  

Online
MSI 970A-G46 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Newegg.ca - Once you know, you Newegg! 
$99.99 CAD Buy Now

Product Reviews

MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ 970 DDR3 2PCI-E16 SLI CrossFire 2PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 GBLAN Motherboard
19%
Excellent
67%
Very Good
14%
Average
0%
Below Average
0%
Poor
Rating: 8.1/10
With 21 User Reviews
dubbreak@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 02/10/14
Cons: Horrible gui bios, updates reset settings, poor fan control, no esata

Pros: Good value, decent overclocking control
Comment:
I purchased this based on reviews. I'm running an FX-8320 e 4GHz on it and a single r9 280X. It works well enough but I wish I had purchased something a bit more expensive (like an Asus). Since I am running an MSI video card I decided to go with the MSI board as well since they have some tools that take advantage of having a matching setup. I haven't really benefitted from it though.The good:-plenty of usb ports-onboard audio works well-ok manual overclocking controlThe bad:-I hate the GUI bios. Mouse driven doesn't make any sense to me since I usually want to get in quick and change something. You can do most (all?) this with just a keyboard, but it isn't as efficient as keyboard biased BIOSes-Firmware updates are easy, but remove your settings. My sata mode got changed and my OS wouldn't boot. Took waaay to long to figure it out and had to find it on a random forum.-The in bios fan control is very limited and MSI's provided software requires admin access on launch (should really be a service with a low privilege gui). Minor nitpick for some, but being able to set a temperature target for my system fans seems like a pretty basic feature. Yes you can set the processor fan to a temp target, but not the system fans (just a static speed). Yes, lots of solutions to this "issue", but bios settings is the clean simple way that is OS agnostic.-The board has all the inputs/outputs I'd want except it doesn't have a single esata. I have laptops and all-in-ones with esata. USB3 somewhat makes up for it, but I wish I had noticed there is no esata before purchasing. -My ram didn't auto clock correctly at 800/1600. Easy enough to fix if you know your ram timings, but that's going to catch some people up. Might have just been the Corsair Vengeance Blue I bought. I've never had this happen with a motherboard before (and I've been building my own computers since the 90s).Conclusion:For a budget build this is fine. It is stable and I'm getting good performance out of it. In hindsight I wish I spent more, but I'll be sticking with this unless I have any stability issue (which I doubt I will as it has run fine for months now).
Rod L R_H@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 12/09/13
Cons: You will lose one PCI-1 socket if two graphic boards are installedand this is a common problem with many makes and models. Since this board only provides 2 of these very small sockets, MSI needs to consider socket location better than they do/

Pros: Value for money
Comment:
Many reviews complain about the two sata ports being unusable when the second video card is installed. Not true, you simply have to use the "angled" ends of the sata cables and let the cables run under the graphic card to your sata drives so they are usable.You will lose one of the PCI-E1 sockets when the second graphic card is installed.I'm using an AMD FX-6350 CPU with G.Skill 2133 mhz memory and you do have to go into the bios as this board comes with the bios set at default values which allow for memory up to 1866 mhz. Anyone considering buying this board should update  the bios and drivers and you will have to install the software on the disk that comes with this motherboard. Live downloads and update s require connection to MSI website. I'd give this 3 stars due to no 20 pin USB 3.0 on board extension and other board limitationsKnowing the price differences, I'd recommend a better board.
Mark_V@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/13/13
Cons: none so far

Pros: CheapMSI 3 year warranty
Comment:
Bought to power a litecoin mining rig, works great
Spence_G@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/08/13
Cons: on my board found out smart fan wasn't enabled

Pros: PCI-e 1x slot placed above the 16x slotable to have my ram at the stock clock
Comment:
Great board though I'm new to the whole "tech" world am very happy with it. My only suggestion ( to save you a headache) is that you go into the bios and turn smart fan on if you want the mobo to do the cpu fan control on its own because without smart fan enabled the cpu fan will spin at 100% all the time resulting in a lot of noise (for the stock a least though am going to upgrade soon)
Tom_Z@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 05/16/13
Cons: My cpu heatsink didnt install very well, details below.

Pros: Works just fine, have had no problems
Comment:
My cpu heatsink brackets were too short, or the cpu brackets on mobo were too short, one of the two. Since Im not sure which component is the problematic one, Im giving this a 4 out of 5, but the product is just fine. You just may have to loosen off the cpu brackets for the heatsink a little bit so as to raise the brackets. The installation still went just fine but is somewhat suboptimal because of the bracket issue.Used an AMD 8350 processor in it and Geforce 560 se, works fine.All of my parts work just fine with this, and the BIOS is very simple and easy. I like it, was a big upgrade from my old mobo and I think it was worth it.
Vettexl@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 04/26/13
Cons: - not going to get all the bells and whistles (look at the price)

Pros: - nice black pcb colour- good temps
Comment:
Not a bad board for the price, though I've heard some suggesting things about MSI. Seems okay so far though.
jlwright1966@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 02/14/13
Cons: limit of overclock due to power management

Pros: very nice board fx readyno suprises2nd board for my household
Comment:
for the avaerage gamer or most high end pc use without overclocking this is one fine board. being fx ready i am running fx-8120 with no probs and a ati 6450 2g vid card. my other unit has fx-8150 with ati 6850 2gb.no complaints with either
skrinkaman@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 11/26/12
Cons: None at this time.

Pros: Great Price for features. Quality components. Full Size.
Comment:
Great board at great price. Need I say more. I did a unboxing video below if interested.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUjqjOHCBA&feature=plcp
Flyercan@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 10/25/12
Cons: trouble with chipset drivers using Vista.

Pros: Great price for a board with a series 9 chipsetSLI and crossfire
Comment:
Opens a lot of option when upgrading from an older motherboard.It was cheaper to buy this board and 8gig of ram than to pay to upgrade my older system to 8gigs of DDR2 ram.Doing so opens my upgrade options up to a lot more choices as to which cpu I can install.Chipset drivers were ok using windows 7, but gave me trouble when I had windows Vista installed first. Everything was ok with Vista until I installed the MSI chipset drivers. After I installed the drivers and rebooted, the sata Dvd-rom did not show up.I've purchased 3 of these so far and I will buy it again for anyone wanting an affordable upgrade with lots of room for performance.I recommend this board to win7 owners or newer, but not for vista or older owners.
Dylan_S@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 09/04/12
Cons: -No on board graphics

Pros: -Black PCB-PS2 Port-Price
Comment:
Great budget board, this guy is getting a bit old now though there are a lot of better picks out there. Still if you can get this for 80 or cheaper it's not a bad buy.
Derrick_S@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 09/01/12
Cons: No USB3.0

Pros: Easy OC easy install
Comment:
This board is nice for people on a budget, Easy OC with OC genieSupports Crossfire or SLI.
BowseR@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/29/12
Cons: none so far

Pros: easy installation, very user friendly bios interface with mouse enabled, browser and os also integrated
Comment:
i love the BIOS of this mainboard, it's browser and os are fun to have. overclocking genie included for an automatic overclocking and core unlocking. there are bad reviews on the 970a-g45 of this board, but none so far from any owners i have found for the g46. all they have done is added a bigger heatsink apparantly but it seems to have done the trick. all in all, i cant wait to see in the long run but for my value gaming rig, i am more than happy.
Scott_C@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/26/12
Cons: None

Pros: Esthetically pleasingAffordableEasy Overclock
Comment:
The board works wonderfully for the price. If you are looking for a board that can support gaming habits, this one doesn't have any problems when paired with the right components. Definitely a good buy.
Irik_N@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/16/12
Cons: No reset bios button, no usb 3.0 on mainboard

Pros: Cheap,usb 3.0 on back, uefi bios
Comment:
It is an average motherboard. It is as good as you would expect for a $75 atx motherboard. The heatsink gets hot, which is troubling.
Shane_S@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/07/12
Cons: Haven't determined if a DIMM slot is the reason for my memory issues at the moment, but will get to the bottom of it.

Pros: BIOS is amazing, couldn't ask for anything easier to OC with ... it takes 2 clicks. Great layout, USB 3.0, 2 PCI-E, 6 SATA 6gb/s with RAID .. all for $80 ? CANT GO WRONG
Comment:
Why haven't you bought this yet ???
Louis-Philippe_L@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 08/02/12
Cons: Beware, if you are buying this motherboard for a linux system you might want to check first if there is any incompatibility or module (driver) issue with your distribution and/or kernel. I've got a issue with the network card that wasn't working out of the box. But MSI had a working module to download on their website. So long story short it's working now!

Pros: Great motherboard with feature you expect from a performance motherboard!
Comment:
It's great to have 6 sata3 ports. If you have an SSD you will feel the wind, I'm telling you!
paco_strano@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 07/07/12
Cons: for the price there is none

Pros: Pretty good motherboard for the price. Got it with a bundle. Easy to setup.USB 3.0
Comment:
Bought this motherboard in a bundle for my average gaming PC with a AMD FX-6100. The Bios was already updated for the CPU so that was a good thing.
Mihail_C@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 06/03/12
Cons: No cons,except no SLI cable? but that's just being super picky

Pros: Very good motherboard, i bought this on sale and very happy with the price of $69 after in-mail-rebate. Works like a charm, OC Genie works perfectly, impressed with the bios settings.
Comment:
Very good motherboard even for $100 price, recommend to anyone who plans to build a budget build with an AMD processor. I am very sure you will be happy with the results
puddinger@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 04/05/12
Cons: for that price, cannot complaint

Pros: priceam3+sata3 and usb 3.0
Comment:
this board is ok for starter or budget builds.decent design with 970 chip and am3+ stock, good for upgrade.support sata 3 and usb 3 and cf/sli, under $100, i think it is better than asus and gigabyte's product.new bios interface looks nice for beginners.
Michael_E@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 03/29/12
Cons: No real CONS so far.

Pros: Great looks and performance so far. Great value.
Comment:
Haven't been able to figure out how to unlock my possibly locked 2 cores on my phenom II x4 960. But no biggie as I was only going to unlock them and then re-disable them. Going to start overclocking soon. Would recommend to any beginner pc builder or someone looking for a decent value board
Jason_W@NCIX
Rating:

Review Date: 03/22/12
Cons: None really.

Pros: Cheap, easy to set up, good all-around motherboard.
Comment:
This is the kind of board that I use in builds quite often, and a good 'starter' board for anyone building a PC. I must say that I've had better luck with Asus boards - but this one shouldn't disappoint.
Click Here Show More Product Reviews

Product Features

ATX Form Factor 970 Chipset
SATA III 6Gbps SLI/CrossFire-X Ready

MSI 970A-G46 AMD 9 Series Motherboard
Build a powerful and efficient computer system with the MSI 970A-G46 AMD 9 Series Motherboard. The main PCB offers a set of flexible interface, providing a smooth, interactive communication with several compatible system components. It can utilize the computing performance of any AMD Phenom II or AMD AM3+ FX processors under a 4.8GT/s HyperTransport interconnection, with support from a DDR3 Memory, to facilitate programs and applications. With two PCI Express x16 slots, you can optimize your computer's data SATA III storage with RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5 configurations and GPU video output in an SLI or AMD multiple GPU setup. The MSI 970A-G46 AMD 9 Series Motherboard also offers connections for 1000Mbps wired Internet network and two super-speed USB 3.0. Customize your own PC with the MSI 970A-G46 AMD 9 Series Motherboard to suit your needs.

What It Is And Why You Need It:

  • main PCB; offers a set of flexible interface, providing a smooth, interactive communication with several compatible system components
  • two PCI Express x16 slots; optimize your computer's data SATA III storage with RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5 configurations and GPU video output in an SLI or AMD multiple GPU setup

A Closer Look:

Product Specifications

 
Number of Memory Slots: 4×240pin
Memory Standard: DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600/1866/2133* (OC)
PCI Express 2.0 x16: 2 (x16, x8)
Onboard Video Chipset: None
Audio Chipset: Realtek ALC892
Audio Channels: 8 Channels
Max LAN Speed: 10/100/1000Mbps
South Bridge: AMD SB950

Similar Products

PriceBat.ca is 100% Canadian Own premier price comparison shopping site. Easy to search & compare prices of computer products, electronics and games at Canada online stores.