Of course we were already fond of the 890GX chipset when it got released, but the FX chipset upped the ante a tiny bit more as next to the integration of SATA6G we see an increase in available PCIe lanes allowing 890FX motherboards to become very flexible in their bandwidth needs versus component usage. PCI-Express is key in the AMD 890FX release as we get PCIe 42 lanes at our disposal. Next to that, the chipset will be paired with the SB850 which we already covered in the 890GX review, it supports up-to 14 USB 2.0, up-to six SATA 6G ports and an integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller.

This is the basis and infrastructure of your PC, the 890 FX chipset. It's that kind of flexibility that allows ODMs like MSI to make little gems motherboards out of that chipset. MSI's 890FXA-GD70 is loaded with features like the aforementioned, but also USB 3.0, automated overclock options and even five (physical) PCIe x16 slots and even core unlock functionality from within the BIOS.