MSI Fifty Five-GD80 LGA 1156 CPU Board

[Pepin Henry]

Back in refreshed our very first MSI CPU board, the 790FX-GD70, and we were rather affected with it. That CPU board constituted a fresh instruction for MSI. No much gaudy shiny red PCB, pink storage ports, or acid-trip inspired chipset coolers.

Rather we had a conservative black & blue subject, a low-key but capable cooling system, terrific characteristics, and solid overclocking capabilities. MSI had eventually formed how to tug at our enthusiast heart strings.Thankfully, that similar philosophy uses to the CPU board that we are reviewing now, exclude they have kicked things up a some notches.

As the Top of the Line examples in MSI's LGA1156 roster, the P55-GD80 has been planned to surpass the excellent that the competition has to extend, and it is acquired one heck of specifications list.

It affirms entire recent Lynnfield LGA1156 processors, has an advanced DrMOS Viii+ii phase power plan, 4 DDR3 memory ports with frequency support up to DDRiii-2133, 3 mechanical PCI-E x16 ports, CrossFire and SLI support, double Gigabit LAN slots and a host of other characteristics. It too arrives with MSI's fresh OC Genie actual-time overclocking processor with accompanying OC Genie & DirectOC keys and still touch-sensitive onboard power/reset switches.



For that bit of included "bling" MSI utilizes phase LEDs for each major parts, a post code debug screen and rather a bit more. Our Canuck readers will too be glad to familiar that entire Canadian RMAs are processed by MSI's facility in Ontario, which should mean fast substitutes and no customs worries.

Still though the P55 lineup was just contributed into the limelight a some short months before, producers have been very fast to jump onto the bandwagon and release complete board lineups. Still though the P55-GD80 represents the pinnacle of their recent extendings, MSI has costed this board extremely well considering the recent market climate.

It caters to enthusiasts with a bucket load of characteristic and few excellent overclocking possible but retails for far below that of Gigabyte's flagship P55-UD6 or ASUS' own P7P55D Premium and Maximum 3.

Indeed, its primary competition is the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe and the GB P55-UD5 which are in the similar cost bracket and extends same characteristic. Just it is time to see whether the P55-GD80 lives up to its hopes, and surprise us the path the 790FX-GD70 did. Let's search out!