So to facilitate the new Lynnfield architecture processors Intel has been working on the P55 chipset, this chipset will replace P45. Lynnfield processors feature an integrated memory controller, like current Core i7 processors, and that they're outfitted with 16 lanes of embedded PCI Express connectivity, there's no need to pair the processors with a second chip (Southbridge). Instead, the processor will connect only to the one P55 chip.
So there we are, the first in a series of P55 reviews. The motherboard we'll look into today is the MSI P55-GD80 ... and I can already whisper in your ear that it is an astounding motherboard for the enthusiast PC aficionado, with a healthy taste for performance of course.
MSI's P55-GD80 motherboard will be the flagship P55 motherboard, it oozes with features and performance and stands out alright. Looking back in the history of testing motherboards this editor feels that only very few motherboards really made an impression, motherboards like the initial nForce 680i SLI or more recently the X58 Rampage II Extreme .. and now we'll be adding this motherboard along the same lines as we seem to be very much impressed with it. The P55-GD80 features MSI's "Xtreme Speed" initiative, which boils down to McDonalds's version of super-size me.
Head on over to the next pages please, where we'll startup this review on what is a really snazzy motherboard. Next page please. But first have a peek ...
The P55 PCH - Platform Controller Hub
To understand the product we'll be reviewing today, let's first discuss the heart if it, the P55 PCH. The P55 chipset itself and the Lynnfield processors embargo is finally lifted. The P55 motherboard chipset is just one chip, no more North and Southbridge. Interesting to learn is that the P55 chipset connects to the processor directly through DMI (Direct media interface) interface bus, and that's different from X58 where it connects directly to the QPI link.
- X58 = QPI bus LGA1366, 2 QPI links, 3xDDR3, plus power.
- P55 = DMI bus, LGA1160/1156, 1 DMI link, 2xDDR3, PCI-E connections, plus power.
The P55 chip has embedded a lot of righteousness in it: we see an all-time first integrated PCIe controller for 16X or two eight-speed PCIe cards, when it comes to input / output capabilities we are talking about support for 14 USB 2.0 ports with integrated USB 2.0 Rate matching hubs, 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports and an integrated Gigabit LAN Ethernet.
The chipset will also supports Integrated Clocking Buffer Through Mode, provides Thermal Sensor Data via SMBUS for discrete Fan Control Solutions and Intel Matrix Storage Technology 9.0. New Intel matrix storage has a new user interface for managing all storage related tasks, support for RAID 0,1,5 and 10, Rapid recover technology.
DDR3 wise 1333 MHz is supported straight out of the box, but running the memory at 1600, 1866 or even 2000+ MHz should be no issue either. Speaking of memory, with the arrival of Core i7 870, 860 and i5 750 Intel made the decision to go back to a dual-channel memory interface. Don't get too worried here; the controller is so much faster than the old limited FSB based controllers. You'll have 64-bit memory wide controllers which are connected directly with the processors silicon. As a result this design brings a bandwidth utilization of as much as 90%, a nice jump from the FSB based 50-60% utilization for sure.
In this review we'll be using a 1600 MHz DDR3 Corsair Dominator memory kit. Corsair provided this kit specifically for this review. It is horribly sweet memory as its arranged as 2x4 = 8 GB of memory.
Meet the MSI P55-GD80 - Hello World!
So my fellow Guru's let's meet and greet the MSI P55-GD80 motherboard. We already stated that this motherboard is MSI's most high-end P55 offering, and it shows off alright, the board is just LOADED with extra features.
Next to the six standard SATA II ports an additional JMicron controller provides two internal and one external SATA ports, and one IDE connector. Two gigabit Ethernet connections, 8-channel audio, Firewire, and 14 USB ports make for the rest of the package. Other specs include support for 4 x DDR3-2133 memory allowing up-to 16GB to be installed, 3 PCIe x16 slots for SLI and CrossfireX (limited to an 8/8/4 setup though), 8 SATA ports, 1 eSATA port, 14 USB 2.0 ports, Dual Gbit/s LAN, 8-channel audio.
And that's really just the regular stuff. The motherboard also uses a 14-phase power circuit with standard solid-state capacitors. This board has a lot of overclock friendly features, such as on-board controls for clock-speeds, clear-CMOS, OC-Genie, a DIP switch to control voltages, and voltage-sensing points that make measuring voltages convenient. Let's talk through some of the most extraordinary ones.
Extraordinary features:
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OC Genie / DirectOC - embedded on the motherboard is a small extra ASIC. It is controlled by a number of buttons. Directly in Windows you can use up/down button to dynamically in- or decrease processor speeds. We tried this and it works really handy. This is marketed as DirectOC, especially handy in overclock competitions where you need to alter things on the fly.
More prominent though is the OC Genie button. If you do not like to overclock yourself or have two left cyber hands, the OC Genie will do that task for you. Before you power on the PC, you press the OC Genie button. Then your motherboard will start overclocking all by itself. Increased voltages, timings, processor and memory speeds .. it does it all and does that well. Example. A Core i7 870 processor at default runs at 2.9 GHz. The OC Genie automatically overclocked it towards 3.7 GHz. We'll show you some examples later on in this article.
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Superpipe -- MSI implemented it's Superpipe cooling onto this motherboard. A completely passive design with nice 8mm thick heatpipes. It will keep the temperatures in very safe ranges, and works out really well even when the system is overclocked massively. It looks great, but best of all .. it doesn't make any noise.
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DrMOS - DrMOS is short for Driver-MOSFET; they differ from standard MOSFETs in that it is a 3-in-1 design with the Driver IC, top MOSFET, and bottom MOSFET all in one package. Because of this 3-in-1 design, transmission distance between components is smaller, electrical noise is reduced and there is less power used. DrMOS has a 1000kHz switching frequency (ie: frequency at which the MOSFETs are switched on & off), which is roughly 4 times faster than traditional MOSFETs. You could say that MSI implemented a server class power design for this motherboard. It has 14 active power phases. This is more efficient, better for overclocking and thus also better for overall stability.
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V-Kit - MSI's new V-Kit concept allowing Voltage monitoring and manipulation.. It was already to be found at their GTX260/275 Lightning series graphics cards, but it is extended towards the motherboards as well. MSI creates voltage measuring points for various voltages used by the motherboards. Also additional V-Switches can be found, allowing further overvolting of CPU VCore, VTT, DDR VCC and P55.
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Debug LEDs - you'll spot two of them. Displaying error cores and processor temperatures.
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APS - notable is that the board has APS, which is short for Active Phase Switching. Much like DES on the Gigabyte motherboards it can en/disable power phases on demand. And that means much better power saving. MSI claims up-to 27% actually. On the motherboard you'll find a series of Power Phase LEDs as well, displaying the active phases.
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BIOS - we'll show it in the review, but expect easy to navigate, understand and advanced BIOS features.
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Three PCie graphics ports - Support for 3x PCie, though arranged in 8x/8x/4x.
But before summing up all features becomes a tad too boring. let's just head on over to the next page where we'll show you everything there is to be seen on on this motherboard. after which we'll show you a couple of overclocking samples followed by a good set of benchmarks.
Okay, so most of the following photo's you guys have already been able to see in the sneak preview of this board, same stuff yet now with additional comments and some extra photo's ;)
That's a hot looking feature rich motherboard alright. The one thing that immediately strikes us is that everything on this motherboard seems to be focused at performance, with some very exquisite overclock features.
We received the final retail sample and as such it comes packed with a nice fat product bundle. Among the gear inside the kit you'll find :
- MSI Driver/Utility CD
- SATA cables
- SATA power cable
- USB Bracket
- IDE cable
- V-Check cables
- CrossfireX bridges
- SLI bridges
- Back IO shield
- Manual
- Oh yes, and one fine motherboard :)
So here we have the motherboard itself, it's an impressive and daunting looking motherboard alright. Pricing for this really high-end motherboard will be risibly fair, 200 USD. Some of the more notable features are:
- 4x DDR3-2133OC
- 2x Gb LAN
- 3x PCI-E16
- 8x SATA
- 1x eSATA
- 9xUSB
- S/PDIF
- DrMOS
- OC Geni
- V-Kit
- APS
- SuperPipe
- Winki 2
From left to right that's a PS2 keyboard and mouse connector. Then I count a total of seven USB 2.0 ports, 1x firewire,1x eSATA with power plug, 2x Gigabit Ethernet. Digital audio in the form of coaxial and optical TOSLINK connectors, and then all the way to the right the Analog audio connectors. Well, that certainly is a good start; that back panel is certainly stuffed with goodies.
Audio is managed by Realtek's HD audio chipset (the slightly more expensive ALC889), 8-channel. Completely Blu-ray ready, but then again anything with a pass-through is.
When we flip the board around we stumble into the processor area. We spot the 8-pin CPU power header to the right; see ferrite core chokes and obviously the all new Socket 1156 for Lynnfield based processors.
The GD80 has a 14-phase Dr.MOS PWM design with 8 phases alone for the processor; that should be more than enough for overclocking and tweaking, 2 for VTT, 2 for memory and 2 for the P55 PCH (platform controller hub).
Notable is that the board has APS, which is short for Active Phase Switching. Much like say DES on the Gigabyte motherboards, it can en/dis-able power phases depending on load. And that means better power saving. MSI claims up-to 27% actually. The board incorporates the latest durable components like solid capacitor ferrite core chokes, quality components .. who doesn't like that ?
Only the best selection in components is spotted here. Below the processor socket you can spot the dual-channel DIMM slots, DDR3.
Once we flip the board around once more we again stumble into the DIMM slots, DDR3 of course. It really is a bit of a shame that Intel decided to leave triple channel memory only available to Core i7 related products.
We'll be using a nice color matching Corsair DDR3 Dominator kit for this test.
The kit is specced at 1600 MHz / 1.65v and carries timings of 8:8:8:24. Of course it's Corsair memory, so we certainly would be able to go higher on the frequency, or lower in timings. We'll do some memory tests in our benchmark session though.
One thing is certain, the Core i5/i7 series will maximize bandwidth, and even at dual-channel with Core i5, that will be a lot of bandwidth alright, our tests/benchmarks later on in this article will show and proof that.
Recently MSI introduced their new V-Kit concept allowing Voltage monitoring and manipulation.. It was already to be found at their GTX260 Lightning series graphics cards, but it is extended towards the motherboards as well. MSI creates voltage measuring points for various voltages used by the motherboards.
All the way to the left you can see DIP-switches, with the dip-switch next to the Voltage control points, you can actually increase the voltage at hardware level breaking the BIOS limits with another 0.2 Volts.
Voltage monitoring -- Here's the idea, you stick a wire onto a positive and ground pin and that allows you to check out voltages with a multimeter. Let me show you:
MSI's V-Kit will not be exclusive for the most expensive models but according to the source, MSI will equip all of its P55 motherboards with this V-Kit. Above you can see how that works, we are tapping the CPU rails by the way.
Overall board design is great by the way. Everything is positioned really well. But let's move onward to the left side where we stumble into a bunch of SATA connectors.
The P55-GD80 features six right-angle SATA II (3Gb/s) ports which are supplied by the P55 chipset and they support AHCI and RAID 0/1/5/10. In addition to the regular six SATA II ports, colored in blue we see two additional SATA ports, powered by a JMicron JMB322 controller. These they support RAID 0/1 and JBOD. A JMicron JMB363 controller supplies the IDE port and the eSATA/USB combo port on the I/O panel.
We flip the board around again 90 degrees and stumble into low-level connectivity. Spot front panel headers, three more USB headers, a Firewire header and audio connectors. You just can't deny that this is going to be a very complete motherboard alright. But let's zoom in a little to the lower right segment of the photo.
You can notice some interesting features here like dual LED POST display. We see GreenPower, Reset and Power on-board "touch" buttons. It might look like MSI forget to install something there but in fact these are Easy Button II switches -- electromagnetic touch button for Reset/Power/GreenPower (LED light switch), there is no "physical" button, you just touch PCB directly, and as mystical as that is and sounds it actually works. it's one of these things that separates the motherboards from the competition we guess.
Above it we see three buttons: OC Genie, and two on board controls for flexible clock speeds. The last two are Direct OC buttons, within windows when you push the buttons you can adjust the clock frequency of your processor, completely dynamic. So that OC Genie button then ... it leads to core logic located in-between the PCIe slots.
This is the OC Genie IC, embedded into the motherboard the OC Genie is an overclocker ASIC. It's primary function is to find an optimal overclocking settings for your configuration.
Prior to boot up you push the OC Genie button and then the OC Genie will setup the BIOS for you, we'll talk about this more in a tidbit.
A little hard to see, these are two photo's merged together, but you'll spot two diagnostic LEDs on the motherboard:
The LED display on the left displays the active power phases. the LED display on the right, displaying status codes of the system CPU temperatures. So if something goes wrong with your overclock, you will be able to see what is wrong via the post code debug display, and you will be able to reboot the system via the touch-sensitive power/reset buttons below it.
Also, it's good to see that the entire motherboard will be cooled passively. MSI applies their SuperPipe cooling that we know from the GD65, but this time it has a larger heatsink that has to cover the 8+2-phase VRM. MSI uses a really thick 8mm heatpipe for the best cooling efficiency.
Check it out, two x1 PCIe slots, three physical x16 PCIe graphics slots (rev 2.0), however only 16 PCie lanes are available. This GD80 is SLI (2-way / 3-way) compatible just like X58 yet it will be divided into 8x/8x/4x. To top it off, two PCI slots.
Crossfire obviously will work with three cards as well, no questions asked there. On the motherboard we'll also spot chips from VIA VT6315N, a FireWire/IEEE 1394a controller that runs on the PCI-Express bus and we spot the Realtek RTL8111DL for Gigabit LAN and a Realtek ALC 889a 8-channel HD controller.
Look a bit closer, just above the analog audio headers and just above the white fan header you'll spot the second diagnostic LED. That actually is an APS (Active Phase Switching) display. It shows the number of power phases that are active.
Right one last photo of the motherboard with a Core i7 870 installed and a nice phat Thermalright cooler sitting on top of it.
Next MSI P55-GD80 review P.2
Key tags : MSI P55-GD80, P55, Lynnfield, Bloomfield, Core i7 870, core i7 860, Core i5 750, Socket 1156, LGA 1366, nForce 680i SLI |
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