MSI P55-GD80 review - Introduction

Aaaah finally .. information is able to be disclosed. Hello all and welcome to the first of a series of P55 motherboards reviews. We have a lot of motherboard articles lined up for you guys alright. As you know and probably have read here on Guru3D.com, Intel launched three new processors. These processors come from the Nehalem family of processors and are classified with the codename 'Lynnfield'. To make some sense out of that, the 1st generation Core i7 processors had codename code-name Bloomfield.

In paper Lynnfield processors are a small step down from that uber-high end Bloomfield based processor architecture.

The three most significant changes can be found in dual-channel memory, locked multipliers and lower TDP. Please read all about that in our Lynnfield processor review. Unfortunately the difference in-between Bloomfield and Lynnfield also entails a socket change, as such the really high-end Bloomfield processors like Core i7 920, 950 and 975 will be based on a Socket LGA 1366 design whereas the new Core i7 870, 860 and Core i5 750 will have to be seated onto Socket 1156. Chipset wise Bloomfield processors are paired with the X58 chipset from Intel, Lynnfield processors however will be paired with P55 chipset based motherboards. Overall the benefit of the P55/Lynnfield combo should be a better price performance ratio. Features wise on the motherboard side it all looks and feels fairly similar.

So to facilitate the new Lynnfield architecture processors Intel has been working on the P55 chipset, this chipset will replace P45. Lynnfield processors feature an integrated memory controller, like current Core i7 processors, and that they're outfitted with 16 lanes of embedded PCI Express connectivity, there's no need to pair the processors with a second chip (Southbridge). Instead, the processor will connect only to the one P55 chip.

So there we are, the first in a series of P55 reviews. The motherboard we'll look into today is the MSI P55-GD80 ... and I can already whisper in your ear that it is an astounding motherboard for the enthusiast PC aficionado, with a healthy taste for performance of course.

MSI's P55-GD80 motherboard will be the flagship P55 motherboard, it oozes with features and performance and stands out alright.  Looking back in the history of testing motherboards this editor feels that only very few motherboards really made an impression, motherboards like the initial nForce 680i SLI or more recently the X58 Rampage II Extreme .. and now we'll be adding this motherboard along the same lines as we seem to be very much impressed with it. The P55-GD80 features MSI's "Xtreme Speed" initiative, which boils down to McDonalds's version of super-size me.

Head on over to the next pages please, where we'll startup this review on what is a really snazzy motherboard. Next page please. But first have a peek ...