MSI's A75A-G35 motherboard nears launch by VR-Zone.com

So far MSI has only announced a single socket FM1 motherboard for AMD's Llano APUs, the A75MA-G55, but we've managed to score some pictures of the final version of MSI's upcoming A75A-G35 motherboard. It's not MSI's most exciting motherboard ever, but it's an entry level model so take it for what it is.



This is so far MSI's first ATX board for AMD's FM1 APUs and as far as we know, this is its entry level ATX model. It should be followed by the A75A-G45 and A75A-G55, as well as the mATX A75M-P35 and A75MA-35. As such the features are fairly basic, in fact, some are outright cost savings.

The slot layout isn't too bad, if a bit unusual with a x16 PCI Express slot at the top, three x1 PCI Express slots, a x4 PCI Express slot and two PCI slots. The board only has two DIMM slots, but considering the target market, we don't see this as too much of an issue.



The AMD A75 chipset provides six SATA 6Gbps ports and MSI has fitted them all, alongside pin-headers for two front USB 3.0 ports (again provided by the chipset), four USB 2.0 ports, a serial and parallel port and a couple of things we're not quite sure what the pin-headers are for, but one of them appears to be for a TPM module.

What's not so sexy is the two jumper blocks at the rear for manual switching between the display connectors, as only two of the three can be used at the same time. This screams low cost and it's something we've only seen on Chinese motherboards for the past couple of years now. On the plus side MSI have used heatsinks that are screwed on rather than relying on push-pins.



The rear I/O consists of two PS/2 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, 7.1-channel audio and a D-sub, DVI and HDMI port. Overall there's very little to get excited about, but it's up for pre-order in Europe for as little as (S$125) PHP 4,373.47 which makes it the cheapest ATX size A75 motherboard so far.