MSI rolled out a new mid-range, socket FM2+ motherboard in the ATX form-factor, the A88X-G41 PC Mate. As its name suggests, it's based on the A88X FCH chipset by AMD. Drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, the board uses a 5-phase VRM to condition power for the FM2+ socket, which is wired to two DDR3 DIMM slots, that support up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR3-1866 MHz memory; and a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The second x16 slot is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and wired to the FCH.

Storage connectivity on the A88X-G41 PC Mate includes just six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, even as the A88X FCH offers eight. The board offers a total of four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, two by header. Also on offer are ten USB 2.0 ports, four on the rear panel, six by headers. There's quite some legacy connectivity on offer, such as LPT and COM, by headers. Display outputs include a dual-link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI 1.4a. 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of it. The A88X-G41 PC Mate is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS. Expect this board to be priced around the $100 mark.