# MSI k9a2 cf



## shk021051 (Jul 11, 2008)

this motherboard MSI k9a2 cf  all viewpoint good???
tanks!


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## shk021051 (Jul 11, 2008)

please answer???


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## mullered07 (Jul 11, 2008)

seems a good budget crossfire board, has a lot of nice options in the bios and could prove to be an OK overclocker dont expect insane overclock tho. 

however the msi utilitys dont work well with vista, so be aware aside from that i like it and once i have a few bugs ironed (flashing the bios without a floppy drive)out i will be testing it in some detail and going crossfire at a later date


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## Champ (Jul 12, 2008)

mullered07 said:


> seems a good budget crossfire board, has a lot of nice options in the bios and could prove to be an OK overclocker dont expect insane overclock tho.
> 
> however the msi utilitys dont work well with vista, so be aware aside from that i like it and once i have a few bugs ironed (flashing the bios without a floppy drive)out i will be testing it in some detail and going crossfire at a later date



Could you please elborate?  I brought one of these board for my rig and I plan to run Vista Ultimate.  I don't wanna go back to XP......looking forward to the future you know.


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## MadClown (Jul 12, 2008)

mullered07 said:


> however the msi utilitys dont work well with vista



they dont work well in xp either, i ended up getting rid of all of them minus the drivers


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## shk021051 (Jul 12, 2008)

> however the msi utilitys dont work well with vista, so be aware aside from that i like it and once i have a few bugs ironed (flashing the bios without a floppy drive


can you description to me about this motherboard defect?

has this motherboard with defect value for buy?


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## JrRacinFan (Jul 12, 2008)

Hiya shko. Seems like a very nice board, yes the MSI tools are a bit buggy, still a very nice board indeed. You can also PM member cdawall as well, he currently owns one. He can give you quite a bit of insight on the board.


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## mullered07 (Jul 12, 2008)

shk021051 said:


> can you description to me about this motherboard defect?
> 
> has this motherboard with defect value for buy?



the motherboard has no deffect , seems a good stable board and cf for the price aswell, i like it, overclocked my x3 to 2450mhz with stock volts and im sure theres room for a lot more although im not too familiar with the bios options. its just the msi software what is crap lol 

its a good board is what im saying.


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## shk021051 (Jul 12, 2008)

how motherboard msi k9a2 cf Certified for Windows Vista


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## mullered07 (Jul 12, 2008)

the boards fine under vista stable enough overall im really pleased with it, i cant wait until i can crossfire my 4850  and upgrade to x4 then my rig will be a monster muahahahaha *cough*


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## shk021051 (Jul 12, 2008)

mullered07' can you description highlight and minus this motherboard to me ??
tanks


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## mullered07 (Jul 12, 2008)

cheap board with lot of options in the bios, crossfire, phenom support to boot, stable
if i had to find fault the only thing i could think of would be the nb could have had better cooling on it, as theres no fan/heatpipes but for the price range thats about right, also the nb heatsink is quite big so should be sufficient with good airflow 
and ive yet to try crossfire on it so couldntr comment, if anyone has a 4850 there willing to give me for the purposes of testing id be only too happy too accept


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## shk021051 (Jul 12, 2008)

mullered07' you have content large this board???


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## Champ (Jul 12, 2008)

So, is there someway around their software?  I didn't know you didn't have to use the software provided.  Any recommendations?


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## mullered07 (Jul 12, 2008)

i only wanted the software to update the bios to the latest revision, i dod find a work round after about 3 hours lol and managed to do it in dos from a cd, other than that i dont need any of the sofware, and it was only live update and live update online i had a problem with the chipset drivers seem to be perfectly fine


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## shk021051 (Jul 12, 2008)

you board perfect satisfaction   ???


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## mullered07 (Jul 12, 2008)

yea id reccomend it definately if your on a  budget and want crossfire support


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## Polarman (Jul 13, 2008)

Be carefull!

K9A2 CF Version 1 does not support 125W&140W CPUS. 

Version 2 support 125W CPUS buth not 140W (Phenom 9950).

If you do get one of these, don't try over overclocking. I don't think the board will tolerate it!


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## Champ (Jul 13, 2008)

I wanna OC my processor, RAM, and gfx.  You said no go?  Some budget, it was the only crossfire board the local shop had.  They had two AM2 boards and varieties of Intel makes.


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## Bytor (Jul 13, 2008)

Polarman said:


> Be carefull!
> 
> K9A2 CF Version 1 does not support 125W&140W CPUS.
> 
> ...



I was going to put a build together of left over parts and wanted to use the 6000+ AMD processor I have in the closet.

Will it work at all on a V1 K9A2 MB?

Thanks


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## paybackdaman (Jul 13, 2008)

Hey, champ, have you checked on newegg.com yet? As you are in the states, there are many there, most likely cheaper then your local computer store is selling them for.

Edit: A lot of complaints on this board is the SATA ports locations. If you have a dual-slotted card there is going to be problems with 3 of the SATA ports connectivity. I have never had a problem with MSI. Although their applications that come with the CD, as mullered has said, are unusable. Not only do they not work with Vista, but with XP they are always buggy. Drivers load up great, but just skip  installing the "extra" applications with the CD.


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## Polarman (Jul 13, 2008)

Bytor said:


> I was going to put a build together of left over parts and wanted to use the 6000+ AMD processor I have in the closet.
> 
> Will it work at all on a V1 K9A2 MB?
> 
> Thanks



F3 revision 125W = NO

G2 revision 89W = YES


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## Champ (Jul 14, 2008)

paybackdaman said:


> Hey, champ, have you checked on newegg.com yet? As you are in the states, there are many there, most likely cheaper then your local computer store is selling them for.
> 
> Edit: A lot of complaints on this board is the SATA ports locations. If you have a dual-slotted card there is going to be problems with 3 of the SATA ports connectivity. I have never had a problem with MSI. Although their applications that come with the CD, as mullered has said, are unusable. Not only do they not work with Vista, but with XP they are always buggy. Drivers load up great, but just skip  installing the "extra" applications with the CD.



I have looked and when you figure in shipping, its about the same as the shop's price.  And I don't do Tiger because they have a sales tax in NC.  I should have done research first, but when you have the money in your hand to build a computer right then, you don't wanna wait.

Oh, and thanks Polarman and mullered07.


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## shk021051 (Jul 14, 2008)

this board need to update bios ????


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## Silverel (Jul 14, 2008)

The only real difference between the V1 and the V2 is a heatsink across the MOSFETS next the the CPU socket. I have my AM2 5000+ BE overclocked from 2.6ghz to 3.36 ghz and its plenty stable. The only reason they released a V2 is because the 'FETs were getting too hot and tended to explode/fail. This board is amazing. The only real flaw I've found is the memory divider settings. There's only three, which makes it tough to find a good solid number to run at. Get this board in a case with good airflow, and some memory that can handle a decent overclock, and its a crazy GOOD deal.

V1 - No heatsink






V2 - Shiny new heatsink





V1 - Modded heatsink. These are actually for RAM, but they fit so well I couldn't say no.


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## shk021051 (Jul 14, 2008)

this board need to update bios ????
from here:http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=bios&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1333


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## Silverel (Jul 14, 2008)

Depends on what you want to put in there. The V2 should come with a newer bios, but if you're using an X2, shouldn't be any problems.

When the V1 was released, it supported 125W processors, which was revoked purely based on the failure rate of the MOSFETs due to high heat and failure rates. With an added heatsink, it passes (they use a large aluminum one, mine are copper). The only thing you need a bios update for is if you're going to use an 8X50 or 9X50 processor. The V1 was released with X4 9x00 support, and the entire X2 line.

It really is a good board. Most of the components are exactly the same as the Platinum version, onboard sound is a bit above standard, Gigabit LAN works well. Comes with 4 SATA2 ports,1 IDE, 24-pin Mobo power (20-pin works if you're not overclocking), 4pin CPU power. Lots of voltage (up to 1.6v I believe) and OC options in the bios. Longer cards _can_ block the SATA ports, but they have 90degree angled cables that fit right underneath it.

If you're getting into a AMD board, this is one of the best for the $$$.


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## flyin15sec (Jul 14, 2008)

WoW! Thanks for the info. I have 2 of V1 boards and was reluctant to buy any higher end quads for them. If it's just a mosfet cooling problem, I can take care of that.


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## Silverel (Jul 14, 2008)

Heh, if you can touch those heatsinks without burning off some skin, you should be fine. 

My nice copper ones are slightly warm to the touch with an X2 running at 3.2ghz


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## Champ (Jul 16, 2008)

Okay, I finally put it all together and it turned out great.  So far I've only been able to OC the 4850.  I read the limits for the processor and memory I have.  How do I get a AMD 5000+ BE to 3.30 GHz at 1.450 volts and how do I get my Mushkin 2 Gbs to 450 Mhz 270 FSB 2.2v 4-5-4-12?  It looks like you can get close to those be not exactly.  This Bios is a little hard to understand.


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## Kei (Jul 16, 2008)

I used to own V1 of this board and thought it to be an excellent board with very good options for it's price range and good stability. It does indeed offer a very fair amount of overhead for overclocking even on the V1 version of the board and the temperatures to the touch on the board were very good.

After a few months using the board I added Artic Silver Ceramique (my paste of choice) to the Northbridge and Southbridge for better cooling and it helped a lot as the two heatsinks were barely warm to the touch even when overclocked.

I used the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ on the board up to 3Ghz and still had room to go without high temperatures (up from 2.5Ghz) tested with 10+hrs validation no problems. I also used a Phenom 9500 (B2 stepping) 95W cpu which is officially supported with the board as the certs on the board went up to 89W but specifically it was stated that 95W Phenoms were compatible.

I can completely vouch for this as I saw absolutely no problems and took the processor from 2.2Ghz up to 2.6Ghz without any problems from the board nor high temperatures. Crossfire worked well on the board as well (8x8 but that doesn't matter much anyway) which is a very nice plus.

The motherboard bus speeds (HT Bus) was taken up to a nice 306Mhz using the 4800+ processor so the board works very well for that price range indeed. I can completely recommend buying this board as long as you will be using it on either an X2 processor of LESS than 125W, or using it with a 95W Phenom or less you will have no problems and should enjoy the board very much indeed.

I hope that helps,

K


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