• Home
• Content
  • All
  • Audio
  • Cases & Cooling
  • CPU & Mainboard
  • GPU & Displays
  • Input Devices
  • Memory
  • PSUs
  • Storage
  • Software
  • Systems
  • Misc.
• Tech Search
• OC3D.tv
• Community

Comment [20] Email to Friend

MSI P67A-GD65 Motherboard Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Published: 31st January 2011 | Source: MSI | Price: £142.99 @ Aria | Author: Bryan Waters

Introduction

The precursor to the latest LGA1155 P67 series of motherboards, the LGA1156 P55, was probably dominated by MSI. Many manufacturers released very good motherboards, but for consistency and the absolute best then we'd probably just edge our choice to MSI.

You can understand our excitement when we received the MSI P67A-GD65 for review then. The mid-range of the MSI P67 series it comes with all the features we could hope for including the excellent MSI OC Genie button which is a previous winner of our innovation award for the ease in which anyone can overclock their system simply, and effectively.

So does MSIs reputation continue into the latest Intel socket? Only one way to find out.

Technical Specifications

Looking through the boards specifications we have all that we'd expect on a modern mid-range board. SATA 6Gbp/s, USB3.0, SLI and Crossfire support as well as enough PCI sockets for most peoples needs.

About the only surprise is the inclusion of two legacy PCI sockets. There can't be anyone left with a single PCI card, much less two?

Let's take a look at it shall we.

Most Recent Comments

31-01-2011, 05:06:43

tinytomlogan

Following their success with their P55 series of boards, can MSI continue that brilliance with the P67s?

Continue ReadingQuote

31-01-2011, 05:21:41

Aurus_OC

I am pretty disappointed by the results of this board. I expected it to be a great board at that price level. Well maybe next time MSI.Quote

31-01-2011, 06:19:33

PCTwin

lol. 28.8Ghz. Quote

31-01-2011, 06:20:58

Aurus_OC

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCTwin lol. 28.8Ghz.

I just can't understand why it wouldn't boot at those speeds?? Quote

31-01-2011, 06:42:31

SnW

So perhaps the truly brilliant OC Genie will be the solution to the poor stock performance?

If it works as good as it does on my P55-GD65 then weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I finally thought MSI was going good in the mobo section yet this is pretty disappointing to me

EDIT i must be fair i also hear people using it and its perfectly fine,

i guess my luck comes in again....Quote

31-01-2011, 07:16:26

Zeals

I feel crushed I read in all these other sites about how awesome it was, but after seeing this I feel bitterly disappointed as well as being confused how it fared to badly here.

EDIT: Quite a few people seem to get 4.2GHz clock, so I guess MSI is being extremely conservative, in case someone got a half completed chip or something.Quote

31-01-2011, 07:56:44

VonBlade

Speaking personally rather than as an OC3D Reviewer, MSI were my manufacturer of last year. Their AM3 and 1156 boards were insanely good so trust me when I say I'm as disappointed as you all were.

We have to review as we find, and it was just a bit.. meh.Quote

31-01-2011, 07:56:49

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeals I feel crushed I read in all these other sites about how awesome it was, but after seeing this I feel bitterly disappointed as well as being confused how it fared to badly here. EDIT: Quite a few people seem to get 4.2GHz clock, so I guess MSI is being extremely conservative, in case someone got a half completed chip or something.

The point in auto clicking is it is meant to work out the best clock for your chip not just stick everything at the same clock

The board isnt 'bad' just that it isnt a great as it should have been.Quote

31-01-2011, 08:11:54

THD

Thanks for another great review.

Real dissapointment on the results, I had this at top of my list for my new system. Gues i'm gonna have to wait untill another midrange board gets a good (overclock)review.

Or untill MSI can make the 28 GHZ work Quote

31-01-2011, 08:14:32

marsey99

just to play devils advocate here, was you expecting greatness as standard on all msi boards based on last years findings?

its a lower end board so lesser results are to be expected vs some of the others. im happy you was honest and open about your findings but i got the feeling as i read it you was harsh on it because you expected more.

imo (and thats all it is) is i think people are wanting ocing to get too easy, it used to be about soldering bits on to pcb and fiddling with jumpers, then it all went into the bios and now we have fancy gui and 1 button ocing. pfft kids today dont know they are born xD

also, long live pci!! my xfi still kicks arse Quote

31-01-2011, 08:29:00

VonBlade

Yes indeed we were expecting greatness, but we aren't harsh on something just because we expected it to be good.

The results are what they are, and then we review based upon that. In this case although the overclocked results were disappointing if the stock benchmarks had held out we'd have happily accepted it as being potentially great and possibly hindered by the flaky BIOS.

As it is either our test CPU is abysmal, or the MSI just doesn't perform as well as the other boards we've tested. Sure one button overclocking is nice, but if a 4.2GHz overclock gives the same results as a stock chip on other motherboards, it's tough to come to any conclusion other than poor performance.

We always make sure we consider each product on its merits, and not against what has gone before. Otherwise you end up in this hell-hole of "well I remember when a 486DX2-66 was brilliant" (personally my first PC was a 386-SX16).Quote

31-01-2011, 08:46:26

SnW

Quote:

Originally Posted by marsey99 just to play devils advocate here, was you expecting greatness as standard on all msi boards based on last years findings? its a lower end board so lesser results are to be expected vs some of the others. im happy you was honest and open about your findings but i got the feeling as i read it you was harsh on it because you expected more. imo (and thats all it is) is i think people are wanting ocing to get too easy, it used to be about soldering bits on to pcb and fiddling with jumpers, then it all went into the bios and now we have fancy gui and 1 button ocing. pfft kids today dont know they are born xD also, long live pci!! my xfi still kicks arse

That's not really true as they where getting into the mobo game pretty good !

also don't think Tom was expecting more...Quote

31-01-2011, 10:25:59

killablade

The results are strange to say the least. I don't think any of the other reviews I read showed similar results. Maybe you just got a bad sample? O.o

Tbh I think an improved bios would to the board a world of good.Quote

31-01-2011, 14:25:11

Zeals

Quote:

Originally Posted by killablade The results are strange to say the least. I don't think any of the other reviews I read showed similar results. Maybe you just got a bad sample? O.o Tbh I think an improved bios would to the board a world of good.

Well if it's a bad sample, than this could mean there are some quality control issues.Quote

31-01-2011, 14:52:17

Bungral

I'm running this board now and can confirm that they are still ironing out the EFI BIOS as the one it shipped with (1.4 I think) was garbage.. They are now officially up to 1.6 I believe but there are plenty of other beta versions out there which make a massive differnce. All the single click and double click crapness is gone from the BIOS with the BIOS I'm running.

Haven't had a proper chance to overclock yet but I did a very quick run in at 4.5 GHz at 1.2v which went in ok before I updated the BIOS again. This new one is meant to overclock much much better.

I'll happily run a test or two again afterwards and post them in this thread with the BIOS I'm running if anyone is interested as my setup is practically the same. Running a 570 along with 4GB of 2133MHz memory.

Oh yeah, at £140 maybe not great value but I got it when the VAT back deal was going so got it for £110.

Oooo yeah one last thing... No dissin the PCI! I've still got my Xfi which I have no need or want to replace... The sound is fantastic so as long as boards support it, I'll use it Quote

31-01-2011, 16:51:33

killablade

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bungral I'm running this board now and can confirm that they are still ironing out the EFI BIOS as the one it shipped with (1.4 I think) was garbage.. They are now officially up to 1.6 I believe but there are plenty of other beta versions out there which make a massive differnce. All the single click and double click crapness is gone from the BIOS with the BIOS I'm running. Haven't had a proper chance to overclock yet but I did a very quick run in at 4.5 GHz at 1.2v which went in ok before I updated the BIOS again. This new one is meant to overclock much much better. I'll happily run a test or two again afterwards and post them in this thread with the BIOS I'm running if anyone is interested as my setup is practically the same. Running a 570 along with 4GB of 2133MHz memory. Oh yeah, at £140 maybe not great value but I got it when the VAT back deal was going so got it for £110. Oooo yeah one last thing... No dissin the PCI! I've still got my Xfi which I have no need or want to replace... The sound is fantastic so as long as boards support it, I'll use it

I'm definitely interested in those results as I'm still interested in buying this board + 2500k if I can get the money (all depends on my birthday )Quote

31-01-2011, 19:08:49

Bungral

No probs.. I'll probably look to do it maybe on Thursday as I'm working late all this week. If not then Sunday night.

Any pref as to the benchies you want to see??Quote

31-01-2011, 19:56:58

marsey99

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bungral No probs.. I'll probably look to do it maybe on Thursday as I'm working late all this week. If not then Sunday night. Any pref as to the benchies you want to see??

at the risk of being a pain could you do some of those from the review but compare the bios revisions to see if thats the root of the issues here?Quote

31-01-2011, 20:11:49

Bungral

I'll see what I can do when I get the time Quote

01-02-2011, 03:46:42

THD

@Bungral, would love to see your results but there is no rush in light of the big new on Intel yesterday (chipset issues)

But hey maybe MSI will take the time waiting on Intel to improve this board

@ OC3D do you guys know any intresting inside facts on the Intel issues ?Quote

01-02-2011, 05:04:32

Zeals

Quote:

Originally Posted by THD @Bungral, would love to see your results but there is no rush in light of the big new on Intel yesterday (chipset issues) But hey maybe MSI will take the time waiting on Intel to improve this board @ OC3D do you guys know any intresting inside facts on the Intel issues ?

Well currently all stores and manufacturers have been advised to cease shipment and sales of all motherboards. The chip flaw is only affects the the controllers of the SATA 2 ports, which are the 4 3GB/s ports. Intel currently advises that all users have devices plugged into the SATA 3 ports, since those appear to be ok. However in the event you have more devices than the available SATA 2 ports, than Intel recommends that high traffic devices; such as hard drives, should be placed on the SATA 3 ports, while CD/Blu Ray drives should be placed on the SATA 2, since those tend to have less traffic. The problem occurs that the more you use the port, errors start to occur, what normally happens in the event of an error, the controller retry sending the information, this slows the speeds, but as time goes on the errors become more and more common, resulting in even slower speeds and potentially corrupt data, and maybe even failure.

So right now if you have a Sandy Bridge motherboard, plug the devices into the SATA III ports, however if you have too many devices, make sure high traffic and more important devices are in the SATA III ports, but it's best minimalize use. In all likelihood a mass recall would probably be initiated.Quote

Reply

Related Content