: MSI P67A-GD65 LGA1155 - is it safe ?

Y

you2

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
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I went ahead and picked up a : MSI P67A-GD65 LGA1155 at my local microcenter last night but the more I read about it the more tempted I am to return it.
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My concern is that there seems to be some reports of buggy bios and voltage jumping up and frying components (vid cards/cpu).

There also seems to be some uefi issues (saves and mouse)

What I don't know is that if these issues are real (i.e, did a few folks foobar their system then blame the mb and spammed the web; or if the bios is super buggy; or if a number of boards have shorts in them).
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I'm also not in love with only one usb3 header on the board (the case has two)
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So have a fair number of folks had success with the mb or had significant issues?
[I can return the board as long as I don't open it; I was actually hoping to pick up an asrock extreme4 - but based on email from newegg i don't think it will be available for a couple of more weeks]
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My usages of the board will likely be mild overclock (basically hit the genie button; if it works). I'm running stock cooler. However, i did want crossfire/sli capability as I will likely add a second vid card in 12 months when I up the resolution of the monitor.
 
I realize your post is a few days old, but noticed no responses, figured I'd chime in for what it's worth.

I have the p67-GD65, running with a razer naga. (I remember reading a few of the razer mice were causing problems in the bios, naga works on both 1.8 and 1.9b). I had the same concerns as you with voltages so nearly as soon as I installed the OS, I had monitoring programs on it to check heat and voltages.

It ships with the 1.8 bios, I played around with that a little bit, but the voltages seemed off, as an experiment I moved to the 1.9b bios and everything seemed quite a bit more stable and the voltages were tighter. I'm running a baby OC, pushing my 2600k to 4.4, manually, through the bios. I also manually entered my ram timings and setting.

I did find the control center 2 software had tons of OC options if you had the OC in OS option enabled, though I found the program odly sluggish in response, and on several occasions when playing around with it, nearly changed settings I wasn't intending to due to the way the program acted. I could see where someone could easily change the wrong setting in the software and cook something.

I'm sure you've already made a decision on whether to exchange it for something else or go with it, personally I'm a fan, and it has brought me back to building with MSI, something I haven't done for around 5 years now.
 
Thanks for the comments; I ended up keeping it. I really wanted the asrock (biostar xle was second choice and msi third) but had the feeling it would be another 3 or 4 weeks of wait (both the asrock and xle have 2 ps/2 connectors which work well with my kb switch)

I did the build last weekend and things pretty much just worked (not sure if the performance is good or bad).

I had/ve three issues:
when the machine goes into sleep mode it turns off (not sure if this is a problem with msi, intel drivers or windows 7 64)
they don't provide a front by adapter for usb3 (i knew this before the build so I can't really complain here but the solution they do provide (rear bracket) seems pointless.
jp1/jp2 block the second video slot (this to me is a very poor design decision; they could either put those connector somewhere else (there is room) OR they could provide a 90 degree adapter (similar to the sata drive ports.
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The last point to me is a rather significant annoyance (and from what I understand they've done the same thing on previous boards). The middle one (usb3 bracket) is one of the reason I wanted the asrock so I can't blame MSI since I knew about it but I think it is kind of silly on their part. The first point (sleep issue) not sure what the issue is here.

I can run the system at 4ghz (2500K) with the stock cooler @ 78C after 1 hour of prime 95; If i feel a need to go higher I'll get a another cooler.
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After the fact I sort wished I had waited for the asrock due to the jp1/jp2 issue (I ended up tying the adapter to the card cage with twist as my case usb3 internal connectors will plug into the adapter (I don't see a way to plug it directly into the MB).
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Other than that it was a smooth build; took a little longer than I had expected (around 3 hours) and I'm still looking into the sleep issue.
 
Your comment on the sleep issue jogged my memory, did a quick search as I knew I had seen it before.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1578123

Looks like its related to the PLL overvoltage functions, according to the forum post, intel is aware of the issue and possibly working on a fix. At your current OC you should* be able to turn off PLL overvoltage and have a stable OC and sleep functions.

I did notice when I was putting mine together, if i wanted to install a second 6970, I'd have to come up with something crafty to get it seated without issue.

*I say should because unless you are talking about OC-ing some old chips, I'm not all that experienced with general OC trickery. I haven't done it before this build in a long time.

I did get my system stable to 4.8, but decided to scale it back to 4.4 for my own comfort, likely related to me being a nervous nilly when dealing with my own equipment.

On a side note as well, I would highly suggest looking into an aftermarket HSF. I use the Cm hyper212+, pretty easy install, getting really great temps on it, (have it setup in a push-pull atm). Plus its really cost effective compared to other HSF's. I have two new noctua fans and some diamond 7 on the way, though running with the 212+ stock fan and a scythe 800 rpm s-flex ATM and my warmest core under intel burn in is 66.
 
Just don't change the phase control options in the software or you will blow up the board. They patched that horrible bug on their webpage but its probably NOT patched on the packaged cd's.
 
Thanks all! I will test turning off PLL tomorrow and report what happens (I can't remember which main topic it is under in the MSI bios; but i can't be that hard to find can it ?)
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I have OS changes disabled in the bios and will leave it that way given your warning (which is a good thing since I did try to change both the clock and phase without realizing the bios had it disabled). With the stock cooler I feel very uncomfortable going above 40 as the temp goes up into the upper 70's when running prime95 (it is much lower with games since all four cores are not running 100% and with in 5 seconds of killing prime95 it drops down below 50; so I think if I want to go higher I should replace the cooler with the recommend hyper212. To be honest I'm not sure if there is a valid reason to go above 4 with todays games.
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I will say the build was rather easy (other than taking an hour longer than it should) and the system is very stable at 4ghz.
 
Had one up and running since Friday... specs in siggy. Only issue I ran into was it refused to boot if I had an external USB DVD/RW attached. Once into the OS I could plug it in and it worked fine. I contacted MSI support and they sent me a new BIOS today. I had a backup of my 1.8 BIOS and settings saved on a USB stick already and went ahead and flashed the new BIOS. It fixed the boot/dvd issue but I got a BSOD when I tried to apply my OC settings from memory as the new BIOS did not recognize any of the old profiles. "hole" error. TBH I was in a rush and believe I might have missed a few settings. I needed to use the PC so I simply reflashed baxck to 1.8 and was back up and running in 3 minutes. More time to do it right tonight and see if it was my error or the new BIOS causing the BSOD. Either way I'd still recommend this MOBO.

My2c.
 
Have had my 2600k rig running for about a week and a half now with the MSI p67-gd65. Moderate oc of 4.5 @ 1.32vcore.

Only weird issue I've been having is that the system will start (fans power on & light up for a few seconds), then power down and restart when I first start it up. Been trying to figure out the cause of this. No luck so far, but it's a quirky issue that I can live with.
 
I'm at 4.8ghz on my 2600k with the GD65, my Vcore is 1.37v idle and it jumps to 1.42v at load. I don't consider it that bad since the cap is supposedly 1.5v. It took quite a few errors here and there and I ultimately had to use a multiplier of 49 and a bclk of 98 to get 100% stability.
 
I have one, and it's decent. Haven't encountered any issues yet, except the upside down mouse issue that a lot of razer owners seem to have; up and down is reversed, but left and right is not.
 
Setting PLL to disable did not solve the problem with the system shutting down instead of going into sleep mode. It does not always shut down; sometimes it will enter sleep mode -i'd say 50%; disabling sleep mode in windows stops the shut down.
 
joker331 said:
Have had my 2600k rig running for about a week and a half now with the MSI p67-gd65. Moderate oc of 4.5 @ 1.32vcore.

Only weird issue I've been having is that the system will start (fans power on & light up for a few seconds), then power down and restart when I first start it up. Been trying to figure out the cause of this. No luck so far, but it's a quirky issue that I can live with.
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I beleive the 1.9b bios resolves this issue, I know it did for me at least, same with the mentioned no boot with USB drive plugged in.

You2-- you might want to consider moving to the 1.9b bios as well, may clear up the sleep problem.

Ocme-- Usually that's related to the vdroop, if you set it to low vs. high(I think it defaults to high) your voltage may not vary as much.

Evil Scooter-- Depending on which bios support sent you, I know the newest beta bios has some issues with usb devices and a few other items, exact list I can't quite think of atm.

I found the bios's on the overclockers uk forum, there is an entire list of them for all the p67/h67 boards. I moved to the 1.9b from 1.8, mostly because of several posts stating it was the most reliable. I did notice when I moved to it my bclk remained consistantly at 100 in cpuz, where as with the 1.8 it would constanlty drop to 98 on it's own and my voltages seemed a lot tighter, before at 4.4 it would be running at 1.37v now at 4.4 its around 1.28-1.32. When idle and speed step drops the speed to 1.6 it usually drops the voltage to a .98v-1 in the old bios it wouldn't drop below 1.1v at idle.
 
awesome. Will give 1.9b a shot!

Was looking around for an updated BIOS back a couple of weeks ago, but the latest was 1.8, which my B3 shipped with.

appreciate the heads up!
 
joker331 said:
awesome. Will give 1.9b a shot!

Was looking around for an updated BIOS back a couple of weeks ago, but the latest was 1.8, which my B3 shipped with.

appreciate the heads up!
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NP, pretty easy update too, throw the bios on a USB stick and update right from the bios update function,(under utilities) I've heard OC profiles aren't recognized by the new bios, so you might want to keep a notepad with any settings you had before.
 
^^^ Where is v1.9b available? The BIOS they sent me yesterday was v1.10B3 dated 3-17-2011 and it nearly bricked my system. Here is the response I sent to them last night after a few hours with a massive headache trying to bring my system back up:

Tried the new BIOS. While it did indeed fix the USB DVD boot issue and let me boot into windows it created a few new issues. After flashing the new BIOS would not recognize my old overclocking profiles from the v1.8 BIOS.. "hole" error. So I manually adjusted all the settings and saved the new settings. I copied them EXACTLY from my previous settings.. I had screenshots which I had printed out as a fool-proof guide. After rebooting I could no longer get into windows. BSOD. If I tried entering the BIOS by tapping the DEL button while booting the system would freeze at the "entering setup...." screen and never progress into the actual BIOS. I unplugged the power, waited a few minutes and held the clear CMOS button on the back panel down for a few seconds. After rebooting I no longer had video output. After much trial and error I ended up having to also unplug my LCD and cycle power on it as well to get video back. But could still bot get into the BIOS by tapping the DEL key during boot. Luckily I have a laptop with all the files on it and I was able to finally re-flash back to the v1.8 BIOS from a USB drive. I'm not sure what exactly you changed.. but I don't think this new BIOS version should leave BETA status.
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To their credit they promptly responded this AM:

There were some changes to the CPU voltage, so your overclock settings may not work properly. We are still working on a 1.A release version. It will be updated to our website soon. http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html#/?div=BIOS
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I only wish they had informed me of the changes to the CPU voltage up front or included a change log so I could have made an informed decision as to whether or not I wanted to try the BETA BIOS. I was under the impression (mistakenly) that it simply addressed the USB DVD issue. I'll wait for the new release BIOS. I can live without the external USB DVD being plugged in at boot. Bricking my MOBO and having to RMA would be a far less desirable outcome. :p That said.. I'd still recommend this MOBO. It has relatively few issues and MSI support is responsive so far.
 
I am using the gd65 board, but the load voltage always spikes up from the idle voltage. Using high vdroop or low vdroop shows the same voltage results, so something cannot be working correctly. The board came with bios 1.8. Does the beta 1.9 fix this voltage issue, or not?
 
TonyLee said:
I am using the gd65 board, but the load voltage always spikes up from the idle voltage. Using high vdroop or low vdroop shows the same voltage results, so something cannot be working correctly. The board came with bios 1.8. Does the beta 1.9 fix this voltage issue, or not?
Click to expand...

If you have the power states and speed step enabled, there will always be a change in voltage from idle to load, as the chip is usually going from 1.6 to whatever you have your multiplier set to.

Do you have your processor voltage set to auto, or are you manually configuring your voltage?
 
Even with those on disabled, it still spikes bigtime. This may or may not be correct, but when I set it to 1.39v on vcore I expect it to not go above that. With prime it pushes it to 1.43v on vcore.
 
Laron1313 said:
If you have the power states and speed step enabled, there will always be a change in voltage from idle to load, as the chip is usually going from 1.6 to whatever you have your multiplier set to.

Do you have your processor voltage set to auto, or are you manually configuring your voltage?
Click to expand...

I have overclocked several Core 2 Duos and Core 2 Quads, so I know about the voltage changes from idle to load, but in every one of them, the load voltage was less than the idle voltage (since I did not use llc). I do not use the auto setting for cpu volts, but set the voltage at 1.25 in bios on the gd65. The idle voltage was 1.216, and the load would go up to 1.248.

There is no way to turn off llc on the gd65 board (at least with the bios I'm using).

It does not matter to me anymore since I took out the gd65 board and am not going to use it anymore. I ordered a Gigabyte UD4 to replace it. Right now I'm using the ga ep 45 ud3r which has been a very good board (along with a q9650 at 3.78ghz). Even at this speed though, it just cannot compete with the 2500k.
 
just wanted to share my story

Bought MSI P67A-GD65 B3 board, came with 1.19 BIOS version

Installed it yesterday, all worked flawlessly first try, zero issues at all, booted to windows first power on, very stable, very cool temps, and I'm very very happy with my purchase

This is with 2500K processor, 16gb ram, nvidia gtx 460 card, running 5x sata drives, pcie adapter for an IDE port with 2 IDE drives on that

this is also using a Scythe Ninja Rev. B cooler on the mobo, which is only socket 775 compatible... but if you take out the clips and use screws instead it fits fine on LGA1155 mobo. just incase anyone else has the same cooler and is wondering if it will work!
Temps are between 21-27deg C on all four cores idle, and 40-50degC running Prime95, according to latest version of HWMonitor tool
works a charm


I had a lot of issues with an ASUS board which I ended up RMAing, the MSI one is a very refreshing change from that since it all works first go as it should!
 
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