MSI P55 GD65 Review

Thank you, been waiting for this...

Edit: Doesn't look quite as brilliant as I hoped it would, but considering it lives with the Asus in pretty much everything other than overclocking I think it should exceed my needs.

yeah power usage was my big issue concern in this board and it appears to have come up trumps

also the fact that i picked it up for £60 isn't bad

hmm maybe bit-tech should open up a competition to allow us to design our perfect mobo in terms of part layout etc

the judging would have to be pretty strict but would be a great peice of feedback to Asus /MSI / Gigabyte in relation to improving design

i suppose it wont be an easy comp but a few people on here should be more than up to it

Asus doesn't allow i5 750 to 22x manual multiplier....... is there a secret?


im sorry, for MSI, i lost respect for them after they rolled out "roller-coaster" heatpipe. i now see all MSI heatsinks as excessive.

Originally Posted by wuyanxu
Asus doesn't allow i5 750 to 22x manual multiplier....... is there a secret?


im sorry, for MSI, i lost respect for them after they rolled out "roller-coaster" heatpipe. i now see all MSI heatsinks as excessive.

If you thought MSI ever got crazy with their heatsinks, have a look at this chap!

http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data/articles/2007/2355/dq6_silentpipe.jpg

Originally Posted by kenco_uk
If you thought MSI ever got crazy with their heatsinks, have a look at this chap!

*Any Gigabyte Motherboard*

Yes, I was going to say, respect over heatpipes?

Asus Striker Extreme? Numerous RoG boards? Any Gigabyte UD6 or Extreme?

for $60 less here in the states, the msi board is a much better buy...

Yea the States has a great deal with it comes to Lynnfield products :(

I'm a little confused (surprise!) about Drmos. Is it purely related to power-saving, and better turned off? Or what?

Originally Posted by specofdust
I'm a little confused (surprise!) about Drmos. Is it purely related to power-saving, and better turned off? Or what?

It's an IC - we've covered it in previous MSI reviews.

The single IC contains MOSFETs and driver, rather than having all three separate. It saves space and power, but costs more. DrMOS is MSI's branding for it. EVGA use the same ICs on its P55 boards - but more of them.

Who in the design department thought a floppy connector was a good idea?

". For a board in 2009 of this cost not to have an efficient BIOS recovery mechanism is sacrilegious"


Boy....thats just asking for trouble eventually...for tech geeks the idea of being without their hardware for ANY amount of time, no matter how quick the RMA process is. and lets be honest, your lucky if you get a 3wk turnaround..

No way would i risk having this board without a foolproof dual Bios recovery available.

That's a bit disturbing that you "bricked" a board using the onboard BIOS update facility, I mean that's generally considered the safest way to update any BIOS, think I'll be using a USB stick then!

Also silly not to have an accessible Clear C-MOS option, opening up the case to re-set jumpers is caveman technology.

Originally Posted by stan
That's a bit disturbing that you "bricked" a board using the onboard BIOS update facility, I mean that's generally considered the safest way to update any BIOS, think I'll be using a USB stick then!

Also silly not to have an accessible Clear C-MOS option, opening up the case to re-set jumpers is caveman technology.

Indeed.

But having said that I recently bricked an Asus too and that supposedly has a failsafe as well. We also had a Gigabyte update fail some time ago but it's backup worked perfectly :)

Remember I do update BIOS' more frequently than you have hot dinners so I have an elevated usage model :P

I was not making a comment on your ability to update a BIOS, I was expressing suprise that the onboard update facility failed. Also looking at the MSI global site, the latest BIOS availble for download is BIOS v1.2 Dated 2009-08-20 and your review says you were using BIOS v1.41, is this a beta BIOS? The reason I'm interested is because I have this MSI board and I'm now distinctly uneasy about updating the BIOS which is usually the first thing I do, particularly as there is no recovery.

Unless something's broken I won't be updating my BIOS then! Pleased with the review - if the opinion is a 'strongly recommended' at £130, then at the £63 I paid should be a bit of a steal.

Got the board and 8gb of DDR3 sitting on my desk, but my Core i7 is stuck at Novatech because the 2.5-inch Akasa SSD mounting bracket I stupidly ordered at the same time is on backorder. D'oh!

I'm also pleased with the review particularly the benchmarks against the Asus board and will be quite pleased if I can reach a 4GHz overclock.

Originally Posted by stan
I was not making a comment on your ability to update a BIOS, I was expressing suprise that the onboard update facility failed. Also looking at the MSI global site, the latest BIOS availble for download is BIOS v1.2 Dated 2009-08-20 and your review says you were using BIOS v1.41, is this a beta BIOS? The reason I'm interested is because I have this MSI board and I'm now distinctly uneasy about updating the BIOS which is usually the first thing I do, particularly as there is no recovery.

I can send you 1.41 if you like? It's "retail" but they may have not updated it yet. We stay away from betas.

00se7en - It's a "moderately strongly recommended". It'll do well for £130, but it's hardly rolled me over into suggesting it for everyone ;) For £63 though, I'd be laughing :P

thanks, by the time I get my CPU it will probably be posted.

Ah, for £60 I'm happy with that...

But as a general question, what are the possibilities of a motherboard coming out that dynamically changes the base clock as the turbo boost changes the multiplier? So that when overclocking with turbo boost the 4 core speed isn't limited by the frequency limits of the 1 core speed, but the 4 core frequency limits don't limit the 1 core speed as they do with turbo boost off.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Yes, I was going to say, respect over heatpipes?

Asus Striker Extreme? Numerous RoG boards? Any Gigabyte UD6 or Extreme?

but none of them make that as their major selling point.

anyway, yes, my point does seem stupid, now that i've posted out "loud"

bindi seems to be handing out BIOS' :P

Richard,

You wrote in "First Look: MSI P55 GD65":

Originally Posted by Richard Swinburne
Due to the limitations of the P55 chip though, using the x4 will disable the other two x1 PCI-E links above, so beware.

This time you didn't mention that at all. Is this still true? I noticed you wrote

Board Features
- Two Gigabit Ethernet controllers: Realtek 8112L and 8110SC

That's different from the manual (it says dual RTL8111DL). RTL8110SC is a "PCI" Gb LAN controller (that's a big chip, but I don't see it in the picture you posted) and if this is true, there should be no limitations you mentioned in the First Look.

BTW the ASUS board uses 8112L+8110SC to avoid exactly the same limitation.

Welcome!

Originally Posted by renethx
Richard,

You wrote in "First Look: MSI P55 GD65":



This time you didn't mention that at all. Is this still true? I noticed you wrote

.

No, I was wrongly informed (at the time) the P55 chipset had only four-six PCI-E lanes not eight. It, like every board that's setup the same, won't have to switch.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Welcome!

Quote:

Originally Posted by renethx
Richard,

You wrote in "First Look: MSI P55 GD65":



This time you didn't mention that at all. Is this still true? I noticed you wrote

.

No, I was wrongly informed (at the time) the P55 chipset had only four-six PCI-E lanes not eight. It, like every board that's setup the same, won't have to switch.

Yes, P55 has 8 PCI Express 2.0 lanes (but the bandwidth is the same as PCI Express 1.x!). The MSI board uses

- PCI Express x1 slot
- PCI Express x1 slot
- PCI Express x4 slot
- RTL8111DL Gb LAN PCI Express controller
- RTL8111DL Gb LAN PCI Express controller
- JMB363 2xSATA+1xPATA PCI Express controller
- Total: 9 PCI Express lanes

This is simply impossible! I suspect that if you use the PCI Express x4 slot, then one of the two PCI Express x1 slots will be unusable. (Can you experiment that? Insert a graphics card to the PCI Express x4 slot and a TV tuner or a sound card to a PCI Express x1 slot should be enough.)

Or it could be that the MSI board actually uses

- RTL8112L Gb LAN PCI Express controller
- RTL8110SC Gb LAN "PCI" Express controller

instead of 2 x RTL8111DL PCI Express controller and circumvents the issue. RTL8110SC is as big as the VIA IEEE 1394 controller chip and you would see it immediately with your naked eyes. Here is a picture from your P7P55D Deluxe review:

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2009/09/asus-p7p55d-deluxe/2.jpg

Which is true??

BTW ASUS chose the latter route and GIGABYTE the former.

Oops,

- RTL8110SC Gb LAN "PCI" Express controller

should be corrected to:

- RTL8110SC Gb LAN "PCI" controller

Originally Posted by renethx
Which is true??

It looks like I found the answer. From the GD80 manual:

- the PCI_E5 supports up to PCIE 2.0 x4 speed
- all PCIE x1 slots will unavailable when an expansion card was installed into PCI_E5 slot.

Basically GD65 is a stripped down version of GD80 and this should also apply to GD65. Not important for most users, but should be noted.