MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING Pro Reviews

The MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming is an excellent motherboard. It is obvious that MSI is putting a lot more R&D resources into its motherboard program. The overclocking prowess of the Z87-GD65 Gaming is exceptional, in fact it exceeded my expectations. This motherboard has a solid feature set and is a decent value at $189.99 with Free Prime Shipping. The GD-65 series of motherboards from MSI have been standouts with us now for more than a few generations and MSI has hit the nail on the head once again delivering a very solid motherboard that most enthusiasts will likely be very satisfied with.

Overall, the performance at stock clocks is very solid to boot, while a top clock for our 4770K test chip of 4.6GHz is only just behind the very best. Yup, this is one hell of an all-round package. In fact, it's strong enough to give Asus's Sabertooth Z87 a fright. Lose the Sabertooth's cladding and back brace and there's little doubt this MSI board has more high quality components and a better feature set. And all for £40 less. That the Sabertooth remains marginally the better overclocker does confuse the issue, admittedly, but at current pricing, MSI gets the nod - if only by a whisker.

MSI set out to build a Gaming based board with the Haswell Z87 chipset and we think they did very good with a competitive price and a nice feature set. What is really cool is to see how key feature set items make their way into this board from the higher end OC models similar to what we saw on the Gaming series GTX 770 we tested just a short time ago. The features are plentiful and actually useful, from the Killer E2205 network controller to the high end audio solution and even the overclocking components all come together to make a very nice package. The one thing we wish we could have seen is built-in WiFi as so many homes now days are going wireless and it just seems like a missed opportunity and really would have sent this board over the top. The board is placed in a super competitive position due to its price and high end gaming nature it really would be tough not to recommend it as a consideration for any single or dual GPU rig as even the looks of the board just jump out at you.

In the end MSI's Z87-GD65 is a board that comes with an expansive feature set that includes all your basics and the extras that set them apart such as the V-Check points, upper end audio, Dual BIOS ROMs, KIller Network package, Military Class IV package, and a three-year warranty. Couple that with good looks that carry the dragon theme through the board, and you have a winning combination at $189.

Before continuing with our final thoughts on this board, we would like to take this opportunity to give our friends at MSI a hearty “Thank You” for giving us the opportunity and pleasure of reviewing the Z87-GD65 Gaming motherboard. I had high expectations coming into this review after having such a good experience with the previous revision of the board, the Z77A-GD65 Gaming. I was not disappointed. Not only does the Z87-GD65 Gaming board live up to the reputation of its predecessor, but it raises the bench in quite a few ways. MSI pulled out all the stops with this board, making it the ultimate gamer's board. From its black and red coloration and dragon-themed chipset heat sink to its plethora of add-in features, this board screams performance. The layout is superb with MSI taking the time on some small things that can become troublesome. The CMOS battery placement was masterfully done with it remaining accessible except in the case of running dual or tri-card configuration. The mSATA device port and primary PCI-Express x1 slot placement are further evidence of this design mastery.

So there it is. The MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING board offers a bunch of features for the gaming enthusiast and some pretty decent memory overclocking, but it is by no means a top-tier "engineering showcase". What it does, it does very well, but at its core, the enthusiast's wallet was part of the design consideration. The new benefits offered by Intel's new Z87 chipset allow MSI to do all of that at a very affordable price, and it really appears as though no corners were cut in order to lock in that sub-$200 pricing. The esthetics provided by the MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING are simple yet so very complex, and that really highlights how I feel about this board right now. Its simplicity makes it easy to overlook, but deep at its core is more than ever before, as the Z87-GD65 GAMING offers more than I could have imagined, and it seems I am not the only one that noticed. The MSI Z87-GD65 was recently given the "Best Choice Golden Award" by Computex. To quote our recent news article: "The Best Choice Award has always focused on Functionality, Innovation and Market Potential as the main judging guideline." I couldn't agree more.