MSI P55-GD65 Review » -::: MITRAMSI :::-

MSI P55-GD65 Review

Added: 19 January 2011

With the recent launch of Intel's Core i5 and 8 series Core i7 socket 1156 processors there is a need for motherboards to match up with these new processors. You have the boards that are meant for the system builders and OEMs, but what we are interested in are the enthusiast class boards. Those with the features and build quality we demand as overclockers. Things such as better components more for more durable construction, a good BIOS so we can maximize the performance of our hardware, cooling solutions that work, not to mention a board that looks good, while having all of the right attributes. And, it must work no matter what we throw at it. A pretty big bunch of requirements. The MSI P55-GD65 is one of a series of four P55 Express chipset based motherboards for use with Intel's newest processors and is part of MSI's Gaming series motherboards. The P55-GD65 uses MSI's Extreme Speed design philosophy that includes the "OC Genie" for 1 second overclocking, Super Pipe technology that makes use of a heatpipe that is 60% larger than that used by its competitors at 8mm, and DrMos - a mosfet design that has been used since MSI's P45 chipset motherboards that take the place of four separate components with only one! Having had the opportunity to test a few P55 based motherboards, I wonder how these features will contribute to the performance of the P55-GD65 from MSI.

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Specifications:

CPU	• Supports Intel® i5 / i7 based processors in LGA1156 package.
Chipset	• Intel® P55 Chipset - Supports QPI up to 6.4GT/s - Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec. - 6 SATAII ports with transfer rate up to 3Gb/s. - PCI Master v2.3, I/O APIC. - ACPI 2.0 compliant. - Serial ATA RAID 0/1/5/10. - Integrated AHCI controller.
Main Memory	• Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.5 Volt DDR3 1066/1333/1600/2000/2133* (OC) SDRAM, 16GB Max - Supports 1Gb/ 2Gb/ 4Gb DRAM size - Supports Dual channel mode
Slots	• 2 PCI Express gen2 x16 slots - If two graphics cards are installed at PCI_E2 & PCI_E4 slots, these two PCIE x16 lanes will auto arrange from x16/ x0 to x8/ x8 - supports ATI® Crossfire™ & NVIDIA SLI • 1 PCI Express gen2 x4 slot • 2 PCI Express gen2 x1 slots • 2 PCI slots, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface
On-Board IDE/SATA	• One Ultra DMA 66/100/133 IDE controller integrated in JMicron® 363. - Supports PIO, Bus Master operation modes. - Can connect up to two Ultra ATA drives. • SATAII controller integrated in Intel P55/JMicron® 363 chipset - Up to 3Gb/s transfer speed. - Supports six SATAII ports by P55 - Supports one SATAII port by JMicron 363. - Supports one eSATA / USB combo port by JMicron 363. - Supports AHCI controller with AHCI / SATA RAID 0/1/5/10 by P55.
Audio	• Chipset integrated by Realtek® ALC889 - Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing - Compliant with Azalia 1.0 Spec - Meet Microsoft Vista Premium spec
LAN	• Supports two PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek 8111DL.
IEEE1394 / FireWire	• VIA® VT6315N chipset - Supports up to two 1394 ports. (Rear panel x1, pinheader x1) - Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps.
Internal I/O Connectors	- ATX 24-Pin power connector - 8-pin ATX 12V power connector - CPU / System x 3 FAN connectors - CD-in connector - Front panel audio connector - Front panel connector - 1 x chasis intrusion connector - 3 x USB 2.0 connectors - 7 x Serial ATAII connectors - 1 x ATA133 connector - 1 x IEEE1394 connector support additional 1 port - 1 x Power Button - 1 x Clear CMOS jumper - 1 x SPDIF-out connector - 1 x TPM module connector - 1 x OC Genie Button - 2 x Base Clock Control Buttons MSI Reminds You... • The floppy disk cable will be optional.
Back Panel I/O Ports	- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard - 1 x PS/2 Mouse - 1 x eSATA / USB Combo port - 1 x IEEE1394 port - 7 x USB 2.0 ports - 2 x RJ45 LAN Jacks - 1 x 6 in 1 audio jack - 1 x Optical SPDIF-out - 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out
BIOS	• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically. • The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
Dimension	• 30.5cm(L) x 24.4cm(W) ATX Form Factor Mounting • 9 mounting holes.
Product Accessories	Gold Accessory pack Crossfire bridge Connection SLI Bridge Connection USb 2.0 Bracket

Features:

OC Genie

Push to overclock in 1 second, MSI’s original invention, a fully automatic, smart overclocking chip. It will automatically detect the optimal settings for your individual system
Advantages
      1. 300% higher than Turbo Boost
      2. Overclock 4 core B-clock & Ratio by OC Genie
      3. Turbo Boost only overclock a little Ratio
      *To enable OC Genie, we suggest you using the new 1.65V XMP memory modules and a high efficiency CPU cooler.

SuperPipe

Decrease of temperature by 50°C, The thick design of 8mm heatpipe, A surface increase of more than 56% compared to other competitors.
Advantages
      1. 8mm extra thick heatpipe
      2. 60% thicker than traditional heatpipe
      3. Thickest heatpipe used on mainboard

DrMOS

1 Phase DrMOS > 4 Phase Traditional MOSFET 3-in-1 server class power component, 400% faster than traditional MOSFET Offers excellent energy-saving capability and high-computing performance.
Advantages.
1. High Efficiency: Up to 96%
2. Efficiency Increase: +38.3%
3. Lower Power Loss: -4.01W (64% Max Saving)

APS

APS is Active Phase Switching, that is complete function to Control Power Demand With Switcing Dynamically, it’s for CPU, Memory and Chipset PWM.
Benefits:
Saving Power under Variable Loading.
Power Usage More Efficiency.

Voltage check points

Provide CPU VCORE, VTT, DDR, PCH Voltage measure value

Key part's voltage measurement for all end-users

Direct OC

Instant CPU Base Clock adjustment
Hardware low latency control
Attain hardware overclocking performance at all circumstances

M-Flash

Faster and Flexible and instant
If BIOS crash, it still can boot from USB Drive
Update BIOS from USB Drive by M-Flash Fucntion

USB Safeguard

With the ESD dual-current protection chip, USB Safeguard can ideally protect your motherboard from the potential damage caused by static electricity when inserting USB devices.

Power eSATA

MSI Power eSATA. Normally eSATA devices need extra power via an adapter or an extra USB cable. This combo port supplies the needed power, so no extra USB cable for power is needed. MSI Power eSATA is 8x faster in transferring data than normal USB ports.

All Solid Capacitors

Longer lifespan than electrolytic capacitors
Endurable to operation under higher frequency & temperature
Avoid exploding capacitors to cause mainboards failure

Blu-Ray Audio Support

The loss-less content protection technology with full-rate audio enjoyment from Blue-ray Disc
Support for 24-bit / 192kHz sample rate offers high quality digital decoders and speakers
support 7.1 channels playback, plus 2 channels of independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs

User Friendly Design

Functions designed with button to be easy use.
Help power-users tweaking process in-chasis enviornment
Onboard SATA ports are stacked on the mainboard to avoid mechanical issue with giant graphic cards like 8800 Ultra.

MSI Advanced Live Update Online

The MSI Live Update online is designed to automatically download and update the BIOS and driver when there’s a new version online. It helps reduce the risk of getting the wrong file and minimize the trouble of searching the files from MSI website.

CrossFireX Support

Equip with 2 or more PCIe x16 slots, ATI CrossFire Ready.
The ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform.
Provides 2.7x faster performance than single graphic card solution.

live_update_4

Live Update 4 is a single utility software that automatically checks BIOS, driver and utility updates and installs for you , which can save your time for searching and lower the risk while updating.

Closer Look:

MSI has chosen to use an American Megatrends BIOS on the P55-GD65. The latest version OS 1.3 that was released midway through the testing, so I will be using version 1.2 for this review. For the most part the options are what have been in place for a while so that current MSI users will be right at home. Navigation is done via traditional methods using the arrow keys for up and down and side to side movements. You have several options along the bottom in a separate menu including basic instructions on how to navigate though the menus as well as the normal exit methods. I will show each of the tabs and what you can find when you enter each but will only go into greater detail on the Cell Menu section since this is where the overclocker will spend their time.

Standard CMOS Features This section contains the basic setup data for the computer and is used to set up the date, time and view how your disk drives are allocated. The installed processor and amount of memory are visible under the system information tab.

Advanced Bios Features Under this section you can set the boot order, decide whether or not to display your post sequence or the full screen display and choose which port to search first for a graphics card.

Integrated Peripherals This section allows you to setup the functionality of the on board devices such as the LAN ports, Raid Controllers,USB Controller and the serial port.

Power Management Setup In this menu you can set up the standby settings and how to react to a loss of power.

Hardware Monitor This section is just what the name implies. Here you can setup the CPU and chassis fan performance, monitor the CPU temperature, system temperature, fan speeds CPU Vcore and a few select voltages.

Green Power Here you can setup the phase control of the motherboard. The options are Auto and disabled. To use the Green Power energy management you need to have the phase control on Auto. The LED Control is to allow you to turn off the Phase monitoring LEDs on the board. Current draw can be viewed in this section.

BIOS Setting Password Here you can set up a password to secure your BIOS and system.

Cell Menu is where you do all of your overclocking. This section carries all of the voltage and clock speed tweaking options to get the most from the P55-GD65. This section will be covered in more detail on the next page as it deserves another section.

M FlashHave you ever had a hard time flashing the BIOS or been reluctant to do so because you thought it to complicated of a procedure with consequences you were not ready to accept (Unusable hardware), then worry no more. M Flash is a simple utility in the the BIOS to flash you BIOS with just a few simple easy to follow steps. You have the ability to save your current BIOS just in case something does go wrong making recovery a little bit easier.

Overclocking Profile Here you are able to store a total of 6 separate overclocking profiles so you do not have to keep starting from scratch each tome you want to overclock. You can save a 'Good' profile that you know is a stable starting point and then tweak from there or save profiles that work well for you one for day to day work, one for gaming and one for extreme benchmarking with a few still left over.

The rest of the menu items are pretty much self explanatory and are they as a one-click way back from the edge so you can have the factory start points set up in the BIOS based on your installed hardware.

Now let's take a more intimate look at the Cell Menu section of the BIOS.

The Cell Menu section of the BIOS is where you can manually or dynamically improve the performance of the installed CPU and memory. In this case an Intel Core i7 870 and 4 GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3 memory. You can chose to leave all of Intels energy saving and performance enhancing tools in use or can make a break from the normal and tweak the performance for faster computing or improved FPS in games.

The first couple items are the CPU Specifications and CPU Features tabs. Under the specifications tab you have information on the CPU that list the top line specs such as Cache size, VID and CPU Micro code. Under the CPU Features tab you have the ability to turn off the energy saving and performance enhancing technologies that the processor is designed to use such as EIST, C1E and Hyperthreading if your processor has the capability.

Active processor allows you to utilize all of the cores available on the CPU. Intel EIST C1E and Turbo technology are either enabled or disabled depending on how you want to run the system.

Adjust CPU base frequency allows you to increase the bclock to gain additional performance from the CPU. The maximum setting is 600 but this has proven to be an unreachable number. Heck even 300 at this point is unreachable. Even so this is the clock speed that the rest of the system clocks are based from. Right under this option you see the OC stepping tab. Under this section you can set one clock speed to boot at and then dynamically increase the clock speed in set intervals both in time and in clock speed. This feature can work to get you a higher overclock when you find you cannot boot any higher but can run at a higher level once into the Operating system. The Adjust CPU ratio section lets you adjust the CPU clock multiplier to increase or decrease the clock speed of your processor. Of course you cannot go any higher than your processor will allow.

The OC Genie and base clock button functions can be turn on or off if you chose not to use them. Although the OC Genie does provide a nice boost in performance at the touch of a button.

The Memory Z function allows you to see the SPD programming of the memory modules you have installed including the XMP profile information. DRAM timing mode can be left to auto or you can chose manual to do all of the tweaking on your own. If you chose to do so each memory channel can be adjusted independently.

XMP is a memory profile that is setup to work right from the start when you boot up your system. This make memory tuning almost as easy as the 1 Touch OC Genie. You can however gain more performance by manually tweaking the settings yourself. The DRAM timing mode lets you set the memory multiplier so that your memory can either reach its rated speeds or give you the ability to reduce the multiplier when overclocking so that you do not exceed its capabilities. The QPI Ratio has two settings when used with the i7 870. When increaseing the bclock you will get to a point where you can use the lower multiplier to reach a higher bclock speed.

Clockgen Tuner lets you tweak the voltage supplied to the CPU and PCI Express bus. The PCI Express bus is set to 100 but can be increased to help with reaching a higher bclock setting once you reach a wall.

Last but not least we get to the voltages that you can use to tweak the overclocking ability of the system and components. Load Line can help smooth out the transitional dips in voltage when overclocking. I found that I would either under volt or over volt the CPU based on how this setting was enabled. The CPU voltage can be adjusted to 2.07v, the VTT voltage to 2.018, the PCH 1.8 to 2.4v, the memory to 2.4 volts and the reference voltages can hit the 1.15v mark with the PCH hitting 1.95v. There is plenty of room on the voltages to get as high as you are comfortable with to get the highest clocks from your hardware. Spread Spectrum can be enabled or disabled.

Testing:

Testing is the only way to prove whether or not one motherboard is better than the others when it comes down to performance. Some groups like all the whiz-bang features while the hardcore enthusiasts just want good solid reliable performance. To find out which one gives that last little bit of clock speed or has the right options in the BIOS means you have to test the motherboards out one at a time. Quite an arduous task when you get down to it, but it's the only way. To test out the MSI P55 GD-65 I will be running it through the OverclockersClub suite of benchmarks to see if it distinguishes itself from the comparison board(s). The only deviations from the default BIOS settings will be that the energy saving features as well as Turbo technology are disabled so that the motherboard can be tested with a measure of repeatability. The video card control panel settings are left at factory defaults except where noted. Since the MSI P55 GD-65 is part of MSI's Gaming series its only fitting to compare it to its direct competitor the ROG Maximus III Formula.

Testing Setup:

Processor(s): Intel Core i7 870 133x22
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD65
Memory: Kingston HyperX KHX1600C*D3K2/4GX 7-7-7-20 1333MHz
Video Card : ASUS ENGTX260 MATRIX
Power Supply: Mushkin 800w Modular Power Supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 1TB SATA
Optical Drive: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Comparison Motherboards:

Overclocking:

Overclocked settings:

Processor: Intel Core i7 870 200x22 4200MHz

There are several ways to overclock the P55-GD65, The quickest and easiest is the OC Genie. 1 Touch overclocking at its finest. Second you can use the Control Center overclocking section to make adjustments from within Windows. Third you can use the bclock adjust buttons for on the fly overclocking to maximize the scores while benchmarking or you have the good old fashioned way of going into the BIOS and making your adjustments manually. Using the OC Genie the system set up a very respectable 3.7+ GHz overclock with no work on my part other than pushing the OC Genie button. You know, I actually liked how easy it was and it proved to be stable at this speed. The technology worked as intended and delivered results in a fraction of the time the ASUS took. The Control Center works as well but I am just not a fan of overclocking through Windows. Something to do with hosing up an OS in the past that just keeps me away from it so I resorted back to making my adjustments in the BIOS through trial and error. The first thing I do is turn off all of the energy saving technologies C1E, Intel Speedstep, EIST, and Turbo Technology and thermal management so that I will be able to push as hard as I can without anything to interfere with my overclocking. Then I go to the memory multiplier and knock it down to 6 or 8 so that the memory will not prove to be a limitation when pushing the bclock speeds. The Kingston kit used for this test will push to 1090MHz so I really did not worry that much about the memory speeds. I then start upping the bclock until I cannot boot then go in and adjust the voltage to the CPU a bit higher until I get to the point where I have diminishing returns with voltage. After finding the max bclock that the board/CPU combination can run I go back to finding the best combination of multiplier, blcock and memory multiplier to suit my needs. While I could run a 215 to 218Mhz bclock I got the best results at 200x22 or 4200MHz. Not too shabby as this is a prime stable clock speed versus just a bench stable clock. I will run all of the overclocked scores at 4200Mhz. Below are the screen shots for both the 4.2GHz clock speed set manually as well as the 3.7GHz clock speed obtained with the use of the OC Genie.

Conclusion:

All-in-all the MSI P55-GD65 proved to be a solid motherboard capable of delivering performance on par with its competitors. It is built using high quality components with an excellent layout. One thing I was surprised to find on this board that I have not seen in a while was the inclusion of an FDD port on the board. Not that I use one anymore, but some folks just can't move into the new world. The MSI P55-GD65 uses Japanese built solid capacitors, DrMos for a more efficient, cooler running, faster reacting power distribution system and the Super-Pipe heatpipe based cooling system to keep the DrMos cool with an 8mm heatpipe that is larger than that used by MSI's competitors.

When it came to overclocking the P55-GD65, I was able to reach a bclock of 215Mhz stable, while 218Mhz was good for a screenshot but that may mean I just need more tweaking. The maximum CPU clock speed I was able to run was right around 4.2Ghz - much the same as I have done on the comparison boards showing that max performance is not really a function of a ton of phases but just a good solid design. The OC Genie 1 touch overclocking button functioned perfectly. This little button dropped an 800MHz overclock with just a single touch of the button. I found that this was vastly quicker than the Turbo V function on the Asus Maximus III that took around 30 minutes to get a good stable clock speed at just over 3.7GHz. The OC Genie took a touch and then push the power switch - that's literally all it took to get an overclock similar to what the ASUS board did at just over 3.7GHz. For those who really do not understand overclocking and want a boost in performance without the hassles of playing around endlessly in the BIOS, this little button is a God-send. If that's not enough, you have the ability to overclock on the fly with the "Direct OC" buttons to increase or decrease the bclock as you need it. This feature while nice, could prove to be more beneficial for the more advanced overclockers.

The Green power solution does reduce power consumption, but only really when you use the board as Intel would have you run it, with all of the Intel power saving technologies enabled and in use. That just won't work for those that, well - listen to a different tune, let's say! The voltage check points are well done on the P55-GD65. There is no chance of your meter slipping out of a divot for a measurement point when you can leave them in place unattended and still get your voltage measurements. This is a huge advantage and it could not have been easier to use this feature. Unfortunately, this brings me to the thing I did not like about the MSI P55-GD65. Depending on the Loadline Calibration setting used in the BIOS you get a voltage under-shoot of about .05 to .07 volts when disabled and an over-shoot of about .45 volts on the CPU voltage when enabled. This answered some questions about instabilities and higher than expected temperatures for the voltage used. Once you know you are able to work around this although I would think a BIOS fix for this would be forthcoming.

The price point on the P55-GD65 puts it squarely in the mid range for a socket 1156 motherboard. This board comes in a full 50 bucks cheaper than the Intel Kingsberg board, while there is a 90 dollar saving over the ASUS Maximus III Formula, so you have to wonder if the features and performance are worth the extra cash. The included utilities work and provide a good mix of functionality. For my dollar though, if I wanted a simple no frills approach to overclocking, the OC Genie is the one feature that makes the MSI board stand out from the crowd. Excellent components, excellent overclocking, good cooling and you end up with a board that fits the bill!