MSI P55-GD80 Motherboard
Introduction
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MicroStar International or MSI as they are better known are on of the leading manufacturers of PCÂ components, particularly mainboards so it should come as no surprise that they are also one of the first companies to unleash there P55 range of motherboards.
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Established in 1986, MSI are proud of their award winning heritage and exemplary customer service. They are dedicated to developing cutting-edge products and technology and hold stead-fast to there philosophy of ‘Quality Products – Customer satisfaction’. This history has seen MSI catapult into the top three manufacturers of motherboards along with being the no1 worldwide company of choice for graphics cards so one might say they know a thing or two about meeting the customers needs, especially when it concerns PC hardware.
Today we get to put the flagship MSI P55-GD80 through its paces. This motherboard is the first retail board based on Intels P55 chipset we have gotten our hands on so I’m sure you are as intrigued to see how it performs as we are. The feature set of the P55-GD80 is as mouthwatering as the mainboard itself:
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- OC Genie
An on board processor allows the end user to automatically overclock the CPU at the push of a button. Normally overclocking takes a lot of time and experimentation but the OC Genie automatically overclocks the CPU for you.
- DrMOS
An acronym for Driver MOSFET. DrMOS is different however from your standard MOSFET in that the design incorporates three features in one, the Top and bottom MOSFETs and a driver IC. This has allowed MSIÂ to configure a 1000MHz switching frequency, 400% faster than standard MOSFETs making it one the most efficient designs on the market today.
- Superpipe Technology
The link between the mainboard heatsinks is perhaps as important as the heatsink itself when dissipating heat from the mainboard components. MSI’s interpretation of this is 8mm thick, making the Superpipe 60% thicker on average than a traditional heatpipe and the thickest of all on any motherboard today.
- Active Phase Switching
This technology is MSI’s slant on power saving. Sure, there are few overclockers who care about such things but when you consider that the cost of electricity can dramatically be cut by utilising this feature, even when overclocking, then the prospect of this technology becomes much more attractive.
These are just a few of the features of the mainboard and IÂ could rabble on for a good few pages regarding all of the included attractions of the P55-GD80 but I’m sure you are itching to look at the mainboard itself and its performance so I’ll finish of the introduction with a brief look at the advertised specification…
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Specification
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The following specification is subject to change as the board we have at present is an engineering sample and not the full retail product:
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LGA1156 Socket for Intel Lynnfield Processors
Supports Intel Turbo Boost Technology
4xDIMM, max. 16GB, DDR3 2133(OC), 2000(OC), 133/1066MHz DRAM, non-ECC,unbuffered memory
Dual Channel memory architectureÂ
Dual Channel memory architectureÂ
3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots
2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 (2.5GT/s)
2 x PCI
2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 (2.5GT/s)
2 x PCI
Intel P55 Express Chipset
– 6 x SATAÂ ports (Intel P55)
– 2 x SATA ports (JMicron JMB322)
– 1 x eSATA port (JMicron JMB363)
– Intel Matrix Storage technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10
– 1x IDE (JMicron JMB363)
Dual LAN (10/100/1000) controllers
Realtek 8111L
8 Channel Audio
Realtek ALC889 (True blue-ray audio)
Via 6315N controller
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Rather than opting for just two PCIe slots on the P55-GD80, MSI have incorporated three slots which are CrossfireX and SLI capable but when used in multi GPU format the speeds drop from the PCIe 2.0 16x standard to 8x,8x and 4x. Also worthy of note is that MSI have not opted to go with the infamous Marvel controller supporting 6G, instead, MSI have incorporated the tried and tested stack of Intel and JMicron controllers for the 9 available SATA ports.
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Enough of the small talk though, let’s get down and dirty with the motherboards packaging and appearance…
