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MSI P67A-GD55 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £129
inc VAT

This ATX board from MSI is rather expensive but has every feature a keen upgrader or overclocker could want.

Specifications

LGA1155, ATX, Intel P67 chipset, supports: 2nd gen Core i3, Core i5, Core i7

http://www.scan.co.uk

At around £130, MSI’s P67A-GD55 costs almost twice as much as most of the LGA1155 motherboards we’ve reviewed, but has plenty of headers and expansion slots and a lot of overclocking options in. Its performance in our tests was fair, with an Overall score of 171.

MSI P67A-GD55 top down

A pair of PCI-E x16 slots can be used for either ATI CrossFireX or Nvidia SLI dual-graphics-card configurations, although the second slot runs at only x8. There are two PCI and two PCI-E x1 slots, too, although one of each would be blocked if you put a large graphics card into both PCI-E x16 slots. If you use only the true x16 slot for your graphics card, you’ll block one PCI-E x1 slot. Four memory slots can take up to 32GB of RAM, running at speeds of up to 2,133MHz. There are six SATA connectors: four SATA2 and three SATA3.

MSI P67A-GD55 ports

We were impressed by the sheer volume and variety of ports on the back panel. There are ten USB ports, two of which are USB3, a Firewire port, PS/2 port, six 3.5mm stereo audio ports, plus coaxial and optical S/PDIF audio outputs. Although the integrated audio processor is a standard Realtek ALC892, the motherboard comes with Creative’s THX TruStudio PRO audio software, which can process virtual surround sound and environmental gaming audio.

There’s no integrated graphics support, though, so you’ll have to use a dedicated graphics card. Performance is decent with an Overall score of 171 in our benchmarks, but we’ve seen faster boards for less.

If you’re keen on upgrading and overclocking, or if you need to connect a lot of USB devices, this could be the motherboard for you. The three-year warranty is another point in its favour. However, it’s very expensive, making the Asrock H67M-GE microATX board a better choice for most users.

An early release version of the P67A-GD55 had a faulty SATA2 controller, like all Sandy Bridge boards. This has now been withdrawn and replaced with a practically identical fixed version. This fixed board is referred to as the B3 stepping version.

Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor socket LGA1155
Form factor ATX
Size 305x245mm
Processor support 2nd gen Core i3, Core i5, Core i7
Processor external bus 100MHz (20Gbit/s DMI)
Chipset north bridge Intel P67
Chipset south bridge Intel P67
Integrated graphics No
Supported memory type DDR3 1066/1333/1600(OC)/2133(OC)
Maximum memory speed PC3-17000
Memory slots 4
Maximum memory 32GB
Dual-channel support yes

Buying Information

Price £129
Supplier http://www.scan.co.uk
Details www.msi.com

Internal Ports

Power connectors 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX
PCI-E x16 slots 2
Dual graphics architecture SLI, CrossFireX
PCI-E x4 slots 0
PCI-E x1 slots 2
PCI slots 2
Fan headers 5
Floppy ports 0
IDE ports 0
Serial ATA ports 6
RAID chipset (max disks) Intel P67 (6x SATA2/3, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)

Features

Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Sound (ports) Realtek ALC892 (6x analogue out, 1x S/PDIF out header)
USB2 ports / headers 10/2
Firewire ports / headers 1/1
Legacy ports 1x PS/2, serial header
Other ports 2x USB3, 2x SATA3
Cables included 4x SATA, 1x Molex to SATA power, 1x SLI
Brackets included none
Software included drivers, MSI Control Center, THX Audio Genie

Setup and Overclocking

Voltage adjustment CPU/RAM/chipset
CPU clock max adjustment N/A

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