MSI P67-GD65 motherboard review - Introduction

Aah yes .. the next one has arrived, guys meet the MSI P67-GD65 motherboard ! The second P67 chipset based motherboard along a long line of series 67 motherboards we have in queue for a review. See, one of the most talked about topics of technology this year will be Sandy Bridge from Intel and very likely Bulldozer processors from AMD. Intel however started the year fresh and launched a handful of these little Sandy bridge gems already. If you have not done so, please read our reference Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K review to get an update on the new processor architecture and the grand performance they deliver.

Of course with new processors also come new motherboard chipsets. For the consumer desktop side of the market you will basically see two Sandy Bridge based chipsets, H68 for the more generic, mainstream and HTPC usage, and then the P67 chipset as a performance part for the new motherboards series. Now each and every motherboard ODM jumped on P67 as well, it's just a heck of a lot of fun. And the ODMs had time to prep their P67 alright, most of the designs were already finished by late Summer 2010, everybody just needed to wait for Intel to release the processor that goes along with these motherboards.

That extra time was however not a bad thing, it gave more time to R&D departments to refine their designs and perhaps be a little more creative.

In today's article we'll show you a new offering from MSI as we'll review their P67A-GD65 Sandy bridge ready motherboard. You'll notice a very impressive motherboard loaded with features and technologies, and a little extra as well.

Powered by Intel's P67 chipset, the MSI P67-GD65 motherboard comes with two PCIe slots and has both NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFire support, featuring what MSI now calls a Military Class II design that makes use of a six phase power SFC choke setup. This should provide up to 30% better efficiency than standard chokes, as well as good Hi-c CAP's and Japanese made solid capacitors with a hopefully an extended long life-time expectancy. Primary features:

• Military Class II components
• OC Genie II: Auto OC to boost performance in 1 sec
• ClickBIOS: Easy-to-use UEFI BIOS interface
• Super Charger: fast charge iPad/iPhone/smartphone
• THX TruStudio PRO: deliver a better audio experience
• USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s

Next to that MSI as well is making a move towards EFI, the all new graphics user interface that replaces the BIOS. In today's review we'll also be featuring GSkill Ripjaws memory modules, Sandy Bridge allows really high memory clock frequencies, and though your system default would be 1333 MHz on the memory, with merely a flick of a switch in the BIOS we'll be running that Ripjaws memory at 2133 MHZ CAS7.

We'll have a look at that as well of course. Have a peek at the board review from today and then head onwards to the next page, where we'll dive into a photo shoot of the Sandy Bridge  ready motherboard.