MSI X370 Krait Gaming Motherboard Review

[Guest]

In a sea of unending RGB, can the MSI X370 Krait Gaming outshine the higher tiered AM4 offerings we've reviewed while dishing out value with its streamlined offering?

MSI X370 Krait Gaming Motherboard Review : Read more

 

[logainofhades]

Hopefully this board will not be plagued with issues that past Krait boards have suffered.

 

[elbert]

Cool looking but hope they can fix the power vacuum with bios updates.

 

[the nerd 389]

It's not mentioned in the reviews, but this motherboard does support proper 4-pin PWM fan speed control. This board is safe to use with the Corsair ML series fans on any fan header.

The SYS_FAN headers must be changed to PWM mode to avoid damaging them, though.

It's nice to see a company other than Asus actually bothering to connect the fourth pin of those fan headers.

 

[__Isomorph__]

sounds like it's going to overcook after months of intensive use with subpar components failures. not convinced that buying a new mobo again next year when this one fails is the best allocation of funds.

 

[TheTerk]

@__ISOMORPH__ : I wouldn't say that the overvolting is too much of a reliability issue. When running non-overclocked, everything is running well within safe margins. If you reference the How to Overclock article, 1.39V is still a relatively safe voltage. Overclocking already voids warranties, but if the mobo breaks, RMA that sucker!

 

[Ramin rostami]

ryzen multitask (real power)

https://youtu.be/y1PjNtkFtHc

 

[__Isomorph__]

@theterk yes i was referring to the 'How to OC' article. i also watched the speech given by one of the AMD techs about how to OC Ryzen: as soon as he said 'do not go over 1.425V', i started twitching and all i could think about was 'how sweet would it be to pump 1.90v into the chip.' LOL let's hope am not gonna fry it.

AMD speech on OC'ing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZgpHTaQ10k

 

[Onus]

I've been generally impressed with MSI boards lately. I may have missed it in the description, but did this one have any diagnostic LEDs on it? I thought most of them did these days...
Edit: The web site mentions EZ Debug LEDs. Please confirm.
I'm still trying to decide about a Ryzen build, and I think I'll put this board on my short list (although I may prefer something physically smaller).

 

[Pepe Godzilla]

@Onus: I have this one at home sporting a 1700, if i don't forget about it i'll have a look

What i can say to this point: 3200 Hynix RAMs still don't work with Version 1.3 BIOS. 2933 is no problem though. OC is very easy: 3.7GHz @ 1.2V, XMP Profile for 2933 works at first try. BeQuiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 cools everything down to 67°C at full day AIDA stress test.

 

[Pepe Godzilla]

It has a Debug LED for CPU, RAM, VGA and boot failures, a DIMM LED indicating installation, an iGPU LED for APUs and PCIe slot status LEDs

 

[Onus]

Nice; those belong in the "Pros" column then.

 

[FilmEditing]

I just returned this motherboard to Amazon. The design is awful in person, the BIOS outdated... and good luck trying to clear CMOS or updating the BIOS. And MSI support... well, you know... clear the CMOS with a paper clip (LOL) and update the BIOS. Really? Paired with Ryzen 7 1700, G.skill Frare X 16GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1080, EVGA 850w PS, Samsung 4k curved monitor. All the debug lights showing proper installation, it never booted after trying BIOS update. BTW, the price is higher than $149 at Amazon.

 

[Pepe Godzilla]

I just returned this motherboard to Amazon. The design is awful in person, the BIOS outdated... and good luck trying to clear CMOS or updating the BIOS. And MSI support... well, you know... clear the CMOS with a paper clip (LOL) and update the BIOS. Really? Paired with Ryzen 7 1700, G.skill Frare X 16GB RAM, GeForce GTX 1080, EVGA 850w PS, Samsung 4k curved monitor. All the debug lights showing proper installation, it never booted after trying BIOS update. BTW, the price is higher than $149 at Amazon.

You clear cmos with a jumper (or a screwdriver, or a paperclip or anything that's metal. Use a frying Pan if you like) as every board since 1990.
For flashing BIOS you download the BIOS from the msi Homepage, unzip it, copy it to a usb stick, Boot to BIOS, choose flash BIOS Option in the advanced Menü (very top middle of the screen, click "ez mode" to change to advanced), choose file, that's it. Your outdated BIOS is because it has been in Stock for several Weeks by now.

I don't See any problems