MSI A75MA-G55 AMD Socket FM1 Motherboard Review

Motherboard Layout

The MSI A75MA-G55 has the same look that adorns many of their boards. It’s a classic blue and black color scheme that will look good in just about any computer case.

The MSI A75MA-G55 APU motherboard has four DIMM slots that will support up to 1866MHz (OC) DRAM in an 8GB x four DIMM configuration for a total of 32GB of memory. In the lower corner we have the trusted platform module header and the 24 pin motherboard power and 4pin system fan header.

There is a total of six SATA III 6Gbps ports on the MSI A75MA-G55. Four of the SATA III ports come out parallel to the motherboard while two of them are perpendicular to the board. If you are planning on running multiple graphics cards in a CrossfireX configuration the pair of SATA III ports that are perpendicular to the A75MA-G55 will be blocked by longer graphics cards. To the immediate left of the SATA III ports is a parallel port connector (JLPT1). Running our eyes up along the edge of the MSI A75MA-G55 we have the two sets of headers for the front panel, followed by a pair of internal USB 2.0 headers. Just beyond the last USB 2.0 header is the internal header for the front panel Super Speed USB 3.0 (blue).

Stuck in the very corner of the MSI A75MA-G55 is the front panel audio connector with the Realtek ALC887 HD audio codec. The MSI A75MA-G55 has a pair of Gen2 PCIe x16 (x16, x4). Between the pair of PCIe x16 expansion slots is a PCIe x1 slot as well as a PCI slot along the edge of the board. Just behind the audio jacks you can see the corner of the Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet controller as well as a 3pin fan header.

The MSI A75MA-G55 has the usual suspects on the back I/O panel. We have a single PS/2 keyboard/mouse combination port, an HDMI port, VGA, DVI, four USB 2.0 ports, two Super Speed USB 3.0 ports and six 3.5mm audio jacks. The MSI A75MA-G55 uses a 4pin CPU power cable which can be found just behind the single PS/2 port.

Taking a peek at the CPU socket area of the MSI A75MA-G55 we can see the same retention bracket that is used on the AMD AM3+ and earlier motherboards; this is great news if you are planning on upgrading and have a good CPU cooler you don’t want to part with.