Review: MSI 880GMA-E45 motherboard. The new budget king? - Mainboard

Introduction

AMD's CPU line-up has become steadily more compelling as the company's continued launching wave after wave of sub-£250 chips throughout 2009 and the first half of 2010.

Headlined in the desktop space by the hexa-core Thuban CPU that's available for £160 in the form of the Phenom II X6 1055T, AMD's backed up the new silicon with a range of 800-series chipsets.

Sitting in the middle of the range is the recently-introduced 880G - a cutdown version, in more ways than one, of the 890GX.

Featuring Radeon HD 4250-class integrated graphics and presented in a space-saving micro-ATX form factor, we take a look at MSI's 880GMA-E45.