MSI P67A-GD55 1155 Motherboard

[sno.lcn]

This review is a work in progress. As I test more CPUs and more graphics cards, I'll be adding more and more results. First, how about some pictures. All of these were taken with my iPhone. I did the best I could, but quality could probably be a bit better. I'm more interested in the test results though. See a picture of the included accessories here. I haven't seen a ton of results on this board, so feel free to post your own experience!

Thanks to MSI for making this review possible.

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[sno.lcn]

Other hardware I'm testing with this motherboard:
RAM: 2x2GB ADATA DDR3 (thanks rdrash)
Cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme Rev.3, and a single stage phase change cooler.
Graphics cards: HD 6970 Lightning , GTX 580 (2x) , GTX 480 (2x) , GTX 295 , 8800 GTX (2x) , 7800 GTX , 7600 GTX , HD 4870 X2 (2x)
*Almost all of these cards are volt modded by me, and will be run at sub-ambient temeratures.




The first CPU I tested: L045B021.

Both of the second two maxed the same, and both were L051B138.

I played with some GTX 295 a little with this CPU so far:

New chips, L050A853. One does 5.4ghz, one is over 5.5ghz.

So here's a quick and dirty GTX 580 run.

And some HD 4870 X2 runs. I'll freeze these GPUs and throw some real clocks on the CPU soon enough.

Some quick testing with a good 5.5ghz chip on air. I didn't want to take it any higher yet without proper cooling.

 

[mothman]

I'm most interested in this board as I could get one today! I've been waiting for Asus and I can't shake the feeling that buying MSI is a step down. I could be very wrong but I group MSI with Biostar. If someone really knows how MSI ranks I'd be happy to hear.

 

[sno.lcn]

No way, MSI actually makes some very nice and highly competitive motherboards, and some of the fastest graphics cards on the planet (Lightning series).

They make very high end, and very low end, just like everyone else. Just take a look at the components on this board

 

[tonytnnt]

I'll be interested to see more of your results, especially because as near as I can tell this board is almost the same as the P67A-GD53 (no firewire) and P67A-GD65 (extra eSATA and 2 extra SATA 6 Gb ports.)

 

[wesleys_dad]

I totally agree msi makes some killer boards...imo there in the same grouping as asus and gigabyte..
ive never had an msi board fail and ive had a number of them over the years...i use them in customer builds also and no failures yet.....ive got 2 x58 big bang boards in customer builds and these guys beat on em pretty good and they are awsome boards....

 

[Unison]

Very nice clocks. I was able to grab one of the GD65s at Fry's today, even though I've been waiting on the ASUS ones to show up. This is nice to see.

 

[TorxT3D]

really nice overclocks, dude

love my gd65. i needed those extra sata ports real bad.
ocgenie is way too simple. immediate 4.2ghz oc @1.3v with my 2500k.
im sure with manual tweaking you can drop that voltage a bit.

every msi board ive owned still works to this day, never had a burned out board, ever... which is why i decided to stick with em again.

 

[Impulse]

I've got the same board as the OP, got the B3 replacement last week, setting it up this weekend I hope. I'm coming from an ASUS as well (from several actually). Pretty pleased so far with the packaging/presentation and the support I've seen from MSI reps here and on their own boards (plenty of BIOS updates). [H]ardOCP's review of the GD65 was pretty glowing too.

The only thing I've found fault with so far, and I'm just nit-picking, is that it only has one USB 2.0 header... Altho it also has one USB 3.0 header and they bundle a bracket for two extra ports.

 

[sno.lcn]

I got some better CPUs last night

 

[niomosy]

I think I may end up going this route. Availability plus the slew of problem posts with the Asus boards have me rethinking Asus for this round.

 

[yossarian]

Of my three home PCs (one's a server), I have one MSI, one Asus, and one Gigabyte motherboard. I like'em all and my board choices pretty much lie with those companies based on price/features.

 

[scooby609]

I got this board couple days ago for $120 from Micro Center (-$25 Micro Center coupon & -$20 rebate)

i5 2500K running 4.8GHz @ 1.375v 24/7 at around 65c under Prime95

very happy with it

 

[Vagrant_Zero]

I got this board couple days ago for $120 from Micro Center (-$25 Micro Center coupon & -$20 rebate)

i5 2500K running 4.8GHz @ 1.375v 24/7 at around 65c under Prime95

very happy with it

What type of cooler are you using? I just ordered the GD65, an i5-2500K, and a CoolerMaster 212+ and I want to get an idea of what kind of temps are acceptable.

I currently have a E8400 that I keep under 60C load.

 

[jpinks]

I was ordering my new rig today until I saw the GD65 is now gone from Newegg!!! I am having a hard time finding whats different between the 55 and 65!! Is it just fewer USB Connections?? It has UEFI bios and the OC Genie feature I think(gd55). What else is different?????

 

[Impulse]

I was ordering my new rig today until I saw the GD65 is now gone from Newegg!!! I am having a hard time finding whats different between the 55 and 65!! Is it just fewer USB Connections?? It has UEFI bios and the OC Genie feature I think(gd55). What else is different?????

Same amount of USB ports and headers last time I checked... The GD65 has two extra SATA ports from the Marvell controller, an eSATA port from the same source, and a couple of plugs to take voltage readings with a multimeter... That's about it I believe, they're very similar, almost identical physically. Before the B3 stepping the GD55 didn't come with a USB 3.0 bracket for two extra pets (it plugs into the internal header), but now it does. I went with the GD55.

 

[niomosy]

Ended up with the 65 for the potential of e-Sata ports. The 55 was pretty tempting, though.

 

[joker331]

Same amount of USB ports and headers last time I checked... The GD65 has two extra SATA ports from the Marvell controller, an eSATA port from the same source, and a couple of plugs to take voltage readings with a multimeter... That's about it I believe, they're very similar, almost identical physically. Before the B3 stepping the GD55 didn't come with a USB 3.0 bracket for two extra pets (it plugs into the internal header), but now it does. I went with the GD55.

The GD65 also has dual onboard BIOS(es) for auto-recoveries in the case of failures.

 

[jpinks]

I thought that this new bios update method did away with the need for dual bios boards??

 

[scooby609]

What type of cooler are you using? I just ordered the GD65, an i5-2500K, and a CoolerMaster 212+ and I want to get an idea of what kind of temps are acceptable.

I currently have a E8400 that I keep under 60C load.

I'm using a Zalman Performa, it's a really good, often overlooked, heatsink ... picked up for around $30 shipped a few months ago from Amazon.

 

[MrMetal_53]

So for those who have the MSI P67A-GD55, are you happy with your purchase?

I was going to hold out till the Asus P8P67 Pros or Deluxes came back in stock, but I'm getting tired of waiting. The MSI P67A-GD65 and MSI P67A-GD55 seem like attractive boards because of the good reviews and because they are actually in stock now. I don't think I need the extra features of the GD65, plus the whole "infinite power on/power off" loop worries me. I did a quick search, and it doesn't seem like people are having the same problems with the MSI P67A-GD55; is that the case? At this point, I'm leaning towards the GD55.

Any other information or advice on which board (GD65 or GD55) to get? Thanks in advance

 

[Impulse]

I'm happy with the GD55, haven't had the time to fine tune an OC (or install my 2nd 6950 for that matter) but it worked fine out of the box... First MSI for me, last two mobos were ASUS (w/VIA and Intel chipsets), jumped in because of [H]ard's positive review, no regrets. I'll probably look at MSI again in the future.

 

[Cecil]

Just got the GD55 last night. Its a pretty good board, few quirks. For one, when you try to name the OC profile, anytime you press a key it adds the letter J. Also, sometimes if you reset/restart it wont post without holding down power to turn it off, then it will fine.

OCing is a sinch. Use the "low vdroop" option. If you put in 1.25v, idle will be 1.22v, and load will be 1.248v. "high vdroop" overvolts .02 at idle and drops .02 under what you set at load.

 

[sno.lcn]

I added some bench runs. I don't know what happened to the earlier images I posted, but I'll get them fixed over the weekend.

 

[rudy]

I recently purchased this from microcenter.

I am having at least 2 problems. The first is that I cannot get this thing to post with 4 sticks of ram I have ripjaw 1600 that is suppose to be 1.5V.

I also am getting random lock ups and video driver failures. I have a GTX480. I tried to uninstall the drivers and reinstall. What seems to happen is with drivers I get driver failures without I just get lock ups in windows 7 64 bit.

I see other people compaining of the same problem and I noticed that newegg deactivated this board I wonder if it has some endemic problems why such a short life on a motherboard?

 

[blitzio]

I recently purchased this from microcenter.

I am having at least 2 problems. The first is that I cannot get this thing to post with 4 sticks of ram I have ripjaw 1600 that is suppose to be 1.5V.

I also am getting random lock ups and video driver failures. I have a GTX480. I tried to uninstall the drivers and reinstall. What seems to happen is with drivers I get driver failures without I just get lock ups in windows 7 64 bit.

I see other people compaining of the same problem and I noticed that newegg deactivated this board I wonder if it has some endemic problems why such a short life on a motherboard?

I have the same problem. My build is only 2 weeks old. Here are my specs:

• Core i5 2500K
• MSI P67A GD-55
• PC12800/1600mhz Team Xtreem DDR3 (8GB) (CL9) 4x2
• HIS HD 5870
• Windows 7 64bit Ultimate
• 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black
• 750 GB Seagate Barracuda
• Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium

 

[sno.lcn]

That's weird. Running 4 sticks is harder on the CPU's IMC, so that may be related. I never use fully-populated dimm slots for just that reason. Do you know which revision board you have?