MSI P55-GD80 Lynnfield Motherboard Preview

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MSI P55-GD80 preview

Check that bad boy out, from left to right that's a PS2 keyboard and mouse connector. Then I count a total of seven USB 2.0 ports, 1x firewire,1x eSATA, 2x Gigabit Ethernet. Digital audio in the form of coaxial and optical TOSLINK connectors, and then all the way to the right the analog audio connectors. Well, that certainly is a good start, that back panel is certainly stuffed with goodies.

Audio is managed by Realtek's HD audio chipset (the slightly more expensive ALC889), 8-channel.

MSI P55-GD80 preview

When we flip the board around we stumble into the processor area. We spot the 8-pin CPU power header to the right, see ferrite core chokes and obviously the all new Socket 1156. The GD80 has a 14-phase Dr.MOS PWM design with 8 phases for the processor; that should be more than enough for overclocking and tweakin, 2 for VTT, 2 for memory and 2 for the P55 PCH (platform controller hub).

Notable is that the board has APS, which is short for Active Phase Switching. Much like DES on the Gigabyte motherboards it can en/disable power phases on demand. And that means much better power saving. MSI claims up-to 27% actually. The board incorporates the latest durable components like solid capacitor ferrite core chokes.

Only the best is spotted here. Below the processor socket you can spot the dual-channel DIMM slots, DDR3.

MSI P55-GD80 preview

Once we flip the board around once more we again stumble into the DIMM slots, DDR3 of course. It really is a bit of a shame that Intel decided to leave triple channel memory only available to Core i7 related products. Then again, the new point to point interface on the Core i5/i7 series will maximize bandwidth, and even at dual-channel with Core i5, that will be an lot of bandwidth alright.

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