MSI P55-GD65 Pro Reviews

What separates one motherboard manufacturer from the next is features and sometimes overclockability. The MSI P55-GD65 motherboard has a few unique features that mid-ranged motherboards don't normally get. One of these features is the voltage checking. This feature gives users a real time voltage measurement that is accurate and relieving us from the constraints and unreliable software monitoring. Also giving us a realtime measurement of motherboard components that is never listed, like CPU VTT, PCH, and memory voltages. Another cool unique feature that MSI added was the on the fly BCLK adjustment. This is more geared toward those who don't fully understand the complexity of the motherboard BIOS, and gives these users an ability to overclock their CPU. In my case, I went to far on the adjusting the BCLK with this feature and I kept locking up the computer. (So tread lightly when using this feature.)

The bottom line is that the layout is great and aesthetically it's fantastic, but we're polarised by MSI's GD65 more than any other board we've seen to date. If it didn't have these silly little oversights it would absolutely be a recommended, even if £130 is quite a lot to part with because it was no more than a good P45 board when they launched. For the most part though, the GD65 is worth it, but its current overclocking capablities might limit Core i5-750 users a little, and the BIOS recovery issue pokes us in a way that moves it away from being a definitive choice to just a strong contender on your short list in a highly competitive market.

MSI continues it P55 HardOCP Gold Editor’s Choice motherboard trend with the P55-GD65. The GD65 is easily one of the best P55 motherboards we have seen this year and if you consider its $155 price tag with Free Shipping, the value really starts to look great. There is just nothing "bad" to say about the GD65. It is great to see MSI finally make it back to producing some of the best enthusiast motherboards in the world.

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!

The MSI P55-GD65 is a solid motherboard that offers users a full range of overclocking and tweaking options. It's an incredibly good board that still maintains the value that the Core i5 and i7 800 series CPU's shoots for.

The MSI P55-GD65 was the most average of motherboards and the first motherboard I would consider if I were an enthusiast. The quality jump between the MSI P55-GD65 and the ECS P55H-A is worth the $10 price jump. Priced at $150 USD and equipped with a 3 year warranty, the P55-GD65 is a very attractive option. Considering how well it fared through the stock performance tests and how it raised the bar through the overclocking tests, this is a solid choice for what I'd consider to be an enthusiast with a budget.

All that said, the MSI P55-GD65 has a great layout, extensive BIOS options, excellent power consumption, and class leading performance in several benchmarks. If the board did not carry a few warts that either could have been solved easily in the design phase or with some additional BIOS tuning, it would certainly be at the top of our list in the mid-range P55 market.

With the P55-GD65, MSI has created a motherboard that looks great, has plenty of features and an excellent BIOS plus good software. However, unfortunately for a motherboard aimed at overclockers, its performance in this area isn't quite as strong as some of the competition.

The MSI P55-GD65 has a few distinctions over the P55-CD53 motherboard which I reviewed on launch day. First is the ability to do Voltage Checkpoints, which the other board cannot do. Second is the higher Overclock ability (slightly) of the board. MSI has three models of P55 chipset on the market including this one and the P55-CD53 and P55-GD80 with slightly modified feature set for each. MSI’s board gets the Editor’s Choice due to the features and performance that you want at a reasonable price. Good Job MSI.

The new Lynnfield-based Core i7 and Core i5 processors in the LGA1156 socket offer a new level of performance for a mid-market price that we haven't seen in a long time. Even though you can find P55 motherboards selling for as little as $119 today, The MSI P55-GD65 is definitely one of my favorites as it combines a great feature set with solid overclocking options and unique selling points like OC Genie for just $40 more.

Intel Lynnfield and the P55 chipset are superb pieces of hardware and the MSI P55-GD65 motherboard shows them both in a very good light. The price compares well to Core 2 and is considerably cheaper than Core i7, yet the new platform delivers an astounding level of performance.

And in reality, if price is primary gating item for you, the MSI P55-GD65 is one of the cheapest boards in our round-up at $159.99 currently on Amazon. Beyond that, there are some stand-outs in the field of products we tested and we'll list them for you here...

MSI has mounted the 6 SATA ports connected to the P55 chip at a 90-degree angle to avoid any conflicts with long graphics cards. The remaining 7th on-board SATA port has been mounted flat instead. The additional USB 2.0 and Firewire headers are neatly tucked away at the bottom of the motherboard, where they can be easily accessed.