The Verdict
It really is rare that I am as impressed as I am now with a motherboard like shown in this review. And props to MSI for that, they did their homework as from beginning to end the motherboard is exemplary.
The GD80 has so many additional features that you'd almost forget about the simple stuff like dual Gigabit Ethernet, Multi-channel audio over both analog and digital connectors, CrossFireX and SLI support, 8 SATA II ports, 9 USB 2.0 ports, 1 FireWire ports, 1 eSATA ports. Then features like the new OC Genie real-time overclocking processor with accompanying OC Genie & DirectOC buttons, touch-sensitive onboard power/reset switches, phase LEDs for every major component, a post code debug display. Nobody will disagree with me that this really is one of the most feature rich motherboards we have ever laid our hands on.
Quality typically comes at a price, and as such the P55-GD80 is priced roughly at 200 USD and that's the same in EUR. For a motherboards series intended in a somewhat enthusiast mainstream segment it might be a little too high for some of you. But trust me when I say, every penny spent on this motherboard is worth it, the GD80 is a beast.
Any negatives then? Well ... the P55 chipset only has 16 PCie lanes available on the graphics ports. So if you decide to go 2-way SLI or 2-Way crossfire the ports will be split into x8 slots. Now the honest truth is that to date it hardly matters. A test a long time ago was showing a 1 to 2% offset with high-end SLI and as such was insignificant. But with graphics technology advancing in the upcoming year .. it might become a wee bit of a limitation. Furthermore for a motherboard designed for LN2 overclocking festivities the capacitors close to the CPU socket seem a little out of place. But that's aesthetic at best and for the rest of the 99.999998% of the end-users not even a remote worry.
We also noticed that baseline performance was a tiny little bit below Intel stock defaults, it's really a tiny bit, but it's there alright. It's easily tweaked out and likely fixed with a future BIOS update.
Other than that from ground up the GD80 is well thought through. It's silent due to the passive cooling design, yet being equipped with high-end 8mm thick heatpipes it offers enthusiast cooling performance. The DrMOS design is just lovely as well, high quality components, active phases, shutting down when in idle over a total of 14 phases, it's all good.
Overclocking then. For the not so savvy tweakers, the OC Genie button is a on step dream come true as it makes overclocking completely painless. On average both our tested processors were overclocked 800 MHz faster with just a touch of a button. For the true tweakers the BIOS is a nice Walhalla to drown in. Loads of features there, high voltages options and a lot of diversity will make your manual overclocking experience grand. And then for the true masters of overclocking the voltage monitoring points, the voltage switches and on the fly DirectOC buttons are just totally l33t features.
Yeah, from ground up this motherboard was designed to set a new standard. Much can be said about this motherboard, but let me just cut it down and trim this conclusion a bit as you already can understand the generic consensus.
The P55 proofs to be a high performance chipset, and combined with a motherboard like the P55-GD80 from MSI, the sky is the limit. Everything you want and then some more can be found on this motherboard and as such we can do only one thing ... grant it our most exclusive award, the one that we merely hand out maybe once or twice a year .. the award for best hardware.
You guys really, I honestly do not know how much more fun a motherboard can get ...
Oh and hey you guys, did you read out Core i5 750, Core i7 860 and 870 review already ? Click here.
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