Thoughts on the MSI P67A-G45?

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dpodblood

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Hey all; first time posting on [H] :)

I'm looking to pick up a i5-2500k and P67 motherboard for my gaming machine, and I found a good deal on ++++ for a bundle with the MSI P67A-G45 motherboard for $335 + $15 MIR. I can't seem to find any reviews on this board though, which makes me a little nervous. Does anyone here have experience with this motherboard. FYI I do plan on overclocking with this board and would like to reach around ~4.4 - 4.5 GHz.

Other boards I'm considering are the ASUS P8P67 LE, and the Gigabyte P67-UD3. I have heard that the P8P67 LE will not allow manual manual voltage changes though, which may be an issue for overclocking.

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
the msi boards are very good, also the asus LE board your looking at is also very good...the giga board ive read had some issues..everyone seems to like the msi boards this time around...the o/clock your looking to do would be fine for anyone of the boards your looking at....pick the one you like the best..
 
Most people are getting the more expensive GD53/55/65 series tho... I haven't read much about the G45. I got my P67A-GD55 for $150 after MIR (with a free game tossed in).
 
If you get the MSI board, AVOID the software that comes with it, besides drivers. One person blew TWO boards VRM's out with it by setting phase control. With the second, all he did was change the power saving options..

MSI revised their software on the website to take that option away from the user, but who knows whether the CD's in the box will still allow people to change options like that...
 
I've had this board running for a couple of weeks with my i5-2500K at 4.7 solid; also with two 6950s in CFX. Performance has been outstanding on this machine.... I also popped four 4GB G-Skill modules in and it booted up with the appropriate timings immediately without issue. This board was an excellent value IMO.
 
What's the main difference between like the 65, 53, and the 45? I had considered the 45 and the 53 due to their lower price but the 65 got such a good review here on the site that I was concerned I'd be losing the ability to over clock like the 65 if i went for the lower number boards.
 
I think the bigger difference is between the GD and the G series. See this tool.

Differences:

The GD65 has 4 SATAIII ports, whereas the other two only have 2.
The GD65 and G45 have 1 Firewire port, whereas the GD53 does not have Firewire.
The GD65 has 2 eSATA ports, whereas the other two do not have eSATA.
The GD65 and GD53 both support SLI and Crossfire, whereas the G45 does not support SLI, but does support Crossfire.

Otherwise, as near as I can tell, they're the same thing based on the features in that list. There may be other differences in capacitor quality or something, but no note of it is made in the comparison tool. I got the G45 because I also purchased an AMD card so SLI wasn't high on my priorities. I also figure I can get an eSATA card if I ever need it.
 
From what I gathered on the comparison tool, unless you need all those SATA ports, 1394 Firewire, and SLI support.. the G43 is a solid choice as well. If you get the G45, you just get firewire support.
 
Cmustang87 said:
From what I gathered on the comparison tool, unless you need all those SATA ports, 1394 Firewire, and SLI support.. the G43 is a solid choice as well. If you get the G45, you just get firewire support.
Click to expand...

Yup that's what I gathered too. For $5 I figured I'd take it since I have a few legacy devices that are Firewire.
 
I ordered this board recently because of the combo deals chiefvalue.com is running. P67a-G45+2600k for $449 ($20 off, free shipping).

Almost immediately after I ordered they offered more motherboard combo deals (including the GD65) and raised the amount off on the combo I ordered to $25. Figures.

edit: the G45 says Crossfire & SLI support right on the PCB, mentions SLI support in the manual, and also has an SLI test results on the support page. Pretty sure it supports SLI.
 
I just got this board running late last night with a 2500k. Haven't tried overclocking yet. So far so good though.
 
strend said:
I ordered this board recently because of the combo deals chiefvalue.com is running. P67a-G45+2600k for $449 ($20 off, free shipping).

Almost immediately after I ordered they offered more motherboard combo deals (including the GD65) and raised the amount off on the combo I ordered to $25. Figures.

edit: the G45 says Crossfire & SLI support right on the PCB, mentions SLI support in the manual, and also has an SLI test results on the support page. Pretty sure it supports SLI.
Click to expand...

The G45 and G43 have SLI printed right on the PCB as well, they just don't come with the SLI bridge. The G43 is the cheapest SLI supporting board that you can buy at the moment.

I have a G43 being delivered on Wednesday, it should be a huge upgrade from running my current ghetto CrossfireX on a P35 board (PCI Express 1.0 16x/4x). Still need a CPU though :eek:
 
Last edited:
ocellaris said:
I have a G43 being delivered on Wednesday, it should be a huge upgrade from running my current ghetto CrossfireX on a P35 board (PCI Express 1.0 16x/4x). Still need a CPU though :eek:
Click to expand...

I've been staying away from the G43, since from the looks of it a second card in SLI/CFX would block at least two SATA ports. Mind confirming or denying that once you receive it?
 
PiERiT said:
I've been staying away from the G43, since from the looks of it a second card in SLI/CFX would block at least two SATA ports. Mind confirming or denying that once you receive it?
Click to expand...

I've seen a G45 (same port layout), its definitely doing to have some blocked ports if you have longer cards with full shrouds on them. It comes with 2 right angle SATA cables and someone could always buy left angle SATA cables to use all ports underneath cards.
 
One small downer about the G45 in an Antec 300 is that the front audio port cables are barely long enough to reach the header (it's on the bottom left corner of the board if you have the processor as up and the PCI slots as down.) It would have been nice if the header was actually located near the front side for cable management.

The rest of the board is pretty good. If you are running SLI/Crossfire with two large cards, two of your SATA ports will be blocked unless you have angled cables. The board does have its PCIe and PCI slots arranged well though. You'll never be blocking all of your PCIe x1 slots, for example.
 
As a follow up to this thread I did end of going with the G45. So far it's rock solid, and I have no complaints. I cannot comment on overclocking capability as I haven't tested that yet, but I assume it will be similar to other MSI P67 boards. One thing I am curious about is whether or not the board actually supports SLI or not since "True PCI-E 2.0 SLI & Crossfire X" is printed right on the PCB, but maybe this is just a left over from a different model. I have a ticket with MSI about this issue, and I'll follow up with the results for anyone interested.
 
dpodblood said:
As a follow up to this thread I did end of going with the G45. So far it's rock solid, and I have no complaints. I cannot comment on overclocking capability as I haven't tested that yet, but I assume it will be similar to other MSI P67 boards. One thing I am curious about is whether or not the board actually supports SLI or not since "True PCI-E 2.0 SLI & Crossfire X" is printed right on the PCB, but maybe this is just a left over from a different model. I have a ticket with MSI about this issue, and I'll follow up with the results for anyone interested.
Click to expand...

If you check the PDF documentation online, they also qualified the board for SLI configurations with 15 or 16 different video cards.
 
Im using the G45 as well.

I have a thread over in the Intel CPU board about overclocking my 2600K.

At least with my 2600k I had to turn off phase control under the green power options in BIOS. 4.5Ghz is easy for seems like the majority, however for me im having to run volts at 3.45 and the G45 will over volt up to 3.84 under %100 load.

my VID is 1.242 so I dunno why its so difficult to get a lower voltage at 4.5Ghz.

Stable at 4.3 w/ 1.3volts.

As far as SLI/Crossfire on MSIs page for the G45 ( http://www.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-G45--B3-.html ) they only list crossfire.

Also I dunno how crossfire will work out with these very long cards from ATI. There are 2 sata ports that will be either blocked or will need 90 degree angle sata connectors.

Other than that this board has performed well. I like it because its not bloated with a bunch of features I dont use and causes the price to go up.
 
Ok; here is the question I sent to MSI:

Q: On the specification page for the P67A-G45 motherboard SLI is not listed as a feature, however on the phrase "True PCI-E 2.0 SLI & Crossfire X" is printed on the PCB itself (see the attached image). Can you confirm whether or not this board supports SLI, and if so in what configuration (8x8, 16x4, etc).

question_77537_20110406205923.jpg


A: Regarding your concern,for the p67a-g45,it supports nvidia 2 way SLI.For more details,please refer to the test report on MSI website.First you should connect two vga card with SLI bridge, then install vga driver from MSI website. At last, please enable SLI in control panel referring to attached picture.

reply1_94304_20110407093820.jpg
 
That's pretty badass. Mine should come in tonight. Now I don't have sli cards, but it is a nice option.
Any idea whether it is 16/8 or 8/8?
 
So if the G45 does SLI, what features does the GD series have on the G series besides eSATA on some models?
 
Got mine the other day, 2600K @ 1.28v. Very happy with this board!

I did notice with the latest BIOS every time you alter something in the Overclocking section it automatically disables C-State(and one other setting I don't remember...) which causes Speedstep not to work. Kind of annoying, hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
 
strend said:
Got mine the other day, 2600K @ 1.28v. Very happy with this board!

I did notice with the latest BIOS every time you alter something in the Overclocking section it automatically disables C-State(and one other setting I don't remember...) which causes Speedstep not to work. Kind of annoying, hopefully it'll be fixed soon.
Click to expand...

Mine i5 is overclocked and speed steps appears to be working, I didn't touch anything after I set went into Overclocking to set the CPU. Hrmm...
 
PiERiT said:
I've been staying away from the G43, since from the looks of it a second card in SLI/CFX would block at least two SATA ports. Mind confirming or denying that once you receive it?
Click to expand...

My second 6850 blocks 4 ports. With right angle SATA cables I was able to easily use those ports though.
 
So I just got mine, and it's up and running. HOWEVER... it takes FOR EVER to boot. Not so much into windows, but getting through POST. Any ideas?
 
blackhawk777 said:
I've had this board running for a couple of weeks with my i5-2500K at 4.7 solid; also with two 6950s in CFX. Performance has been outstanding on this machine.... I also popped four 4GB G-Skill modules in and it booted up with the appropriate timings immediately without issue. This board was an excellent value IMO.
Click to expand...
HOW DID YOU DO IT!!! :) i cant mine past 4.3 ghz please instruct me or something
 
Update: it turned out to be an issue with my logitech mouse and keyboard set. I was getting the boot code 98 while it took so long. Took them off, and the issue was solved.

Also, FWIW, I have to say I really dislike the UEFI setup. Sure, you can use a mouse for navigating the major areas, but after that you are back to the arrows and enter. I'd rather it be consistent one way or the other.
 
My issues with my logitech keyboard on my GD65 board were cleared up after the most recent bios update. I assume the same would be, or will be, addressed on other boards.
 
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