Enter now, the era of the Core i5 and Core i7 1156 CPU from Intel. The birth of their new baby has taken the benchmark proven strategies of the 1366 and further expanded on its abilities. This brings us to the new motherboards with the fresh Intel P55. These motherboards now have done away with the north bridge and have a totally new technology about them. The various manufacturers are now beginning to release their production models of these 1156 P55 motherboards, including the motherboard giant, MSI.
The MSI P55-CD53 is the mainstream solution for 1156 motherboards. The MSI P55-CD53 incorporates the revolutionary OC Genie technology for one step overclocking. The abilities to fine tune BIOS adjustments to achieve your own overclock, or work with the OC Genie for extremely simplistic, but nicely performing overclocks. Couple this technology with the DR. MOS CMOS backup solution and you have a mainstream board with excellent overclocking features and potential.
The MSI P55-CD53 comes packed in a green and white box with system support logos and the OC Genie 1 second overclock logo on the front. On the back, the various features and new technologies are displayed for the motherboard, including OC Genie, Active Phase Switching, and Dr. MOS technology. Inside, the various accessories and components are packed on the top with the motherboard packaged at the bottom in an anti-static bag.
The P55-CD53 is fairly different than traditional Intel motherboards, in that the large north bridge and heat sink is now absent from the 1156 motherboards. This has reduced the overall weight considerably and the dimensions have even shrunk slightly. The layout is quite straight forward with everything in the typical locations, with the exception being the lack of the aforementioned north bridge and heatsink.
The P55-CD53 motherboard utilizes the 1156 socket for the Intel Core i5 and Core i7 chips, which utilize dual channel DDR 3 memory. Four DIMM slots are provided for the DDR 3 memory.
The PCI expansion slot arrangement is quite typical of most boards with one PCI-E 16x slots, three PCI-E 1x, and three standard PCI slots. The SATA port selection is located on the lower right hand corner which accommodates six horizontal SATA plugs, and two more vertical SATA plugs a little further down the board. The rear I/O panel contains two PS/2 ports, which are a little rare, ten USB ports, one Ethernet, and the six audio outs that normal accompany a motherboard.
Heatsink requirements for keeping the chipsets cool are not really much of an issue with the P55 boards. The lack of a large north bridge leaves the cooling duties to the smaller south bridge and the PWM.
The motherboard contains a power button as well as the genie button for activating the OC Genie on the bottom of the motherboard.
The P55-CD53 comes packaged with a nice assortment of accessories. Included is the usual assortment of cables and jumpers, the driver disc, the manual and the I/O plate, but there is also the OC Genie overclocking guide and a utility disc for HDD backups on the bootable disc.
Testing
Benchmarking
To test all systems, processors, and motherboards, Hi Tech Legion has compiled a list of popular programs to test performance; these benchmarks are taken from programs that are available to the public. We have compiled these to create the Hi Tech Legion Benchmark Suite, which includes system, graphics, processor, rendering, compression, and word processing. All scores will be graphed for each specific test under its category: video benchmarks (gaming will be rated in FPS: Frames per second), system scores will be graded by numbers which are given as results by their respective programs, higher will be better unless otherwise specified. If file compression is chosen, all times will be in seconds. All temperatures will be measured in Celsius.
Testing Setup(s):
System
- Motherboard: MSI P55-CD53
- Processor: Core i5 750
- GPU: EVGA GTX 275 SC
- Power Supply: Antec 750W Bronze
- Ram: 4GB Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz
- Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA
- DVD ROM Drive: Samsung DVD-RW drive
- Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
World Bench
World Bench is a system benchmark that tests the rendering, DirectX, video encoding, file compression, data entry, and overall performance of your system. World Bench 6 Beta (stable) gives a base score of 100 for a baseline comparison when different systems are chosen. For our tests, these scores will not be valid; all benchmarks are run individually and will reflect times in seconds as given by the program. If you would like more information here is a link. World Bench 6 p55cd53
PCMark Vantage
Designed for Windows Vista, PCMark Vantage benchmarks your system with a variety of tests including video, photo editing, gaming, and communications. For results, a total PCMark score will be given (default setting) and individual scores for the tasks that are tested. To learn more about PCMark Vantage, visit Futuremarks website.
SiSandra
One of our favorites, Sandra from SiSoftware is a system benchmark that individually tests all components of your system. For our benchmarking purpose, we will use the processor section which includes Processor Arithmetic, Multicore Efficiency, and Multimedia. All scores will be listed as given by benchmark, higher will be better unless otherwise stated. SiSandra
Everest
Everest is a diagnostic and benchmarking tool. Everest will be used for its Cache and Memory benchmark. System memory, L1 cache, L2 cache, and L3 cache will be benchmarked for latency, read, write, and copy. Lavalys is the producer of this software.
Cinebench R10
Created by Maxon, Cinebench R10 tests rendering of your CPU and GPU and scores their performance individually. We will be using the CPU rendering portion of the program and benchmark single CPU and Multiple CPU performance.
3DMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage is a gaming benchmark used to test the DirectX performance of your graphics card. There are four tests plus a custom setting that can be run: Entry (1024x768), Performance (1280x1024), which is the default setting, High (1680x1050), and Extreme (1920x1200). In each resolution, a total score, a CPU, and GPU are generated. Futuremark
Max resolutions used for gaming benchmarks will be 1680x1050. Remember, we are upgrading our system and are working within a budget - average users are still working with 19 to 22 inch wide screen monitors, which will not exceed 1680x1050.
Brothers in Arms (Hell's Highway)
Hell's Highway is the newest edition to the Brothers in Arms Saga. It is a WW2, first person shooter that utilizes the newest Unreal Engine. This edition is based on Operation Market Garden that took place in September of 1944. You will play as one of the men in the 101st Airborne.
Settings
Crysis
One of the most demanding games a video card has ever had to contend with, this first person shooter can wreak havoc on an entry level video card even at low resolutions.
Settings
World in Conflict
Do you have what it takes to conquer your opponent? World in Conflict is a DX10 game where if you don't defeat your opponent, you don't gain. This is an all out, winner-take-all, modern war scenario.
Settings
- AA x4
- Graphics: Very High
Overclocking
OC Genie
The first stage of my overclock was to utilize the OC Genie on the motherboard and see what it could do for me with the push of a button. After enabling OC Genie and starting up the computer, I let the system boot into Windows and brought up CPUz to see what the genie had netted me. CPUz showed the system to be running at almost 3.3 GHz. This is roughly a 700 MHz overclock without doing any work. I then restarted the system and entered the BIOS to check what the genie had come up with. It was surprising to see how much adjustments that OC Genie had come up with. OC Genie adjusted the core voltage, memory voltage, memory clock speed with optimal timings, and the clock speed and lowered the multiplier. Most overclocking shortcut programs really only mess around with the base clock, so it was nice to see that the OC Genie actually did some overclocking work. By pressing the + and – buttons on the motherboard while in Windows, you can see the real time adjustments made to the base clock for fine tuning. All together, a 700 MHz overclock is a pretty damn good overclock for doing little more than activating a button.
Overclocking on the MSI P55-CD53
Overclocking can be performed in one of two ways on this motherboard. The first is by utilizing the MSI Control Center that can be downloaded or installed from the disc that comes with the motherboard. The MSI Control Panel serves as a utility in which you can monitor all system specifications and information, enable green power and perform basic overclocking. From within the overclocking menu, you have sliders available for base clock, CPU core voltage, VTT voltage, PCH 1.05 and 1.8 voltages, DRAM voltages, DDR_VREF voltages and fan speeds. From this screen, you can make adjustments through use of the slider interface and click apply to enable the setting adjustments. This method is quick for basic adjustments and stress testing, but you cannot make any adjustments with RAM timings, which limits extreme overclocking abilities.
The second and preferred method by most enthusiasts and overclockers is by utilizing the BIOS functionality. The Core i5 750 and this motherboard proved to be an excellent match for this overclocking task with very few stability issues until over 4.2 GHz. I made several different adjustments by boosting the base clock with turbo on and turbo off and by adjusting the core, DRAM, and DDR_VREF voltages. I also worked with the memory clock and RAM timings to fine tune everything when I began reaching my overclocking ceiling. After all was said and done, I was actually quite surprised at my results, not so much in speed but in the settings that got me there. I achieved a final overclocked speed of just shy of 4.4 GHz which is almost a full 1.8 GHz overclock. This, in itself, is quite awe inspiring, but the most amazing part was that it was accomplished with little more than base clock, CPU voltage, and RAM voltage adjustments. In most of my experience, a lot more has to be played with when you are trying to get a stable 1.8 GHz overclock on a chip, including additional voltage or transfer speeds. Thanks to the new design of this chip, with the full integration of the memory interface being on the CPU, better transfer rates are accomplished and stability seems to be even less of a problem now.
Putting It All Together
Amazing. That seems to be the one word that comes to mind for me when trying to sum everything up about this board from every perspective. The board is priced as a mainstream board with a single PCI-E 16x slot and not much in the way of bells and whistles, but with performance, stability, and efficiency to boot. That is what you call the complete package. The power efficiency on this system was superb, thanks to the Dr MOS technology that MSI has developed and incorporated on this board. Under load, the system only pulled 153 watts, which is good for today’s standards, and during overclocking, there was barely any stability issues when it came to voltage supply and adjustments. As for the cooling performance of the Dr MOS system, I was easily able to touch my finger to the mosfets without even slightly being burned or feeling any discomfort even under stress testing.
Overclocking performance was a big focus on testing this board, especially with the introduction of the OC Genie utilized on this board. The OC Genie functionality was explained in detail in the overclocking section so here is a quick summary. Enabling the OC Genie got this system a 700 MHz overclock to a final speed of 3.3 GHz by making adjustments across the board, including base clock and voltages. This is pretty impressive for a push button overclock that you can fine tune even further with the + and – buttons. This, in itself, helped assert this board as being a credible board for overclocking in a moderate sense. The real test and evaluation of the pure performance potential came with the overclock that I performed manually on this system.
As was stated in the overclocking section, I was able to achieve a stable overclock of 1.8GHz for a final speed of 4.4 GHz without very much trouble at all. The BIOS was pretty overclocker friendly with good coverage of just about any adjustments you could possibly need. The stability of this overclock was excellent and there was a little more headroom, but without the stability that is deemed reliable. Perhaps with more tweaking or different RAM and timings, I may have been able to squeeze a little more, but 4.4 GHz certainly proves my goal of determining the power potential of this mainstream board that has its eyes set on overclockers.
Conclusion
Price Point
Class: Main Stream
The MSI P55-CD53 is a mainstream motherboard with a price of $160.
Performance
Performance for this board is hands down exceptional. Whether you are looking at the overclocking and speed performance of the board or the green friendly efficiency of the board, the performance of all aspects of the board were quite impressive. During the efficiency tests, the whole system barely cracked 100 watts and did not increase more than 45 watts under load, even with a powerful graphics card being utilized. The speed which the system achieves when utilizing the OC Genie is a testament to the principle of bringing power to the masses. Anyone who owns this board can have an overclocked system that performs well and runs perfectly stable, without even having to know the first thing about overclocking. As for the true overclockers, the performance during my manual overclock shows that the performance of this board is not limited to the normal constraints associated with most mainstream boards.
Reviewer's Opinion
I can tend to be skeptical of mainstream boards and how well they will meet the needs of a variety of people. A lot of times the boards perform real well as a system for web surfing and daily tasks with some gaming mixed in, or they work particularly well for video editing and transcoding and other multimedia workstation type tasks. This board, however, gets all of it. The benchmarks showed excellent performance throughout all the various types of applications and utilities from productivity applications, to multimedia and video tasks, and all the way through to gaming. No matter what type of application was presented to this system, it was easily up to the task, with no exceptions.
MSI also provided a nice complement of utilities to work with this board. OC Genie worked beautifully and has been thoroughly covered, but let’s not forget the HDD backup utility which works well, and the Control Center for system monitoring and overclocking adjustments, and of course there is the Winki. Winki worked nicely to allow for many different applications to run within a Linux environment specially built for the MSI board, allowing me the ability to surf the web and work within Open Office, all without ever having to boot into Windows. The MSI Live Update feature also made it easy for any BIOS updates to be found and made to the system.
Pros:
- OC Genie
- Excellent overclocking
- Highly efficient Dr MOS
- Price
- Plenty of USB ports
Cons:
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