MSI 760GMA-P34 review

The MSI 760GMA-P34 is an AM3+ micro-ATX motherboard that measures 243x228mm. It supports AMD’s FX, Phenom II, Athlon II and Sempron processors and uses the AMD 760G north bridge chipset and SB710 south bridge chipset.

This chipset is a budget one and a little less sophisticated than other AM3+ ones. It particular, it supports a limited number of SATA3 and USB3 ports. On the 760GMA-P34, there are only two SATA3 ports available compared to its six SATA2 ports. Given that only SSDs can really use the full speed of SATA3, this limitation shouldn’t prove too much for most users.

There are also only two USB3 ports on the back panel, but thankfully a further two are available through the board’s internal header. You’ll also find four USB2 ports, two PS/2 ports for a mouse and keyboard, VGA and DVI-D display ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port and three 3.5mm audio jacks. This is a good range for a micro-ATX board.

The 760GMA-P34’s main disadvantage is that there’s not a lot of room for expansion due to its small size. The 760GMA-P34 has a PCI-E x16 slot that conforms to the PCI Express 2.0 standard, a single PCI-E x1 slot and a legacy PCI slot, but that’s it. The latter will also be obscured if you install a graphics card, leaving you with just the PCI x1 slot if you want to install another card such as a USB3 card.