MSI P55-GD80 LGA1156 Motherboard Review‏

Features

For their new P55 series, MSI have unveiled a new design philosophy called Xtreme Speed, which consists of DrMOS, SuperPipe, and OC Genie. We'll briefly explain those three design elements, and go over a few of interesting new overclocking-oriented features that have been outfitted to the P55-GD80.


The P55-GD80 has been designed with MSI's unique DrMOS (Driver-MOSFET) power component, which differs from standard MOSFETs in that it is a 3-in-1 design with the Driver IC, top MOSFET, and bottom MOSFET all in one package. Because of this 3-in-1 design, the transmission distance between components is shorter, electrical noise is reduced and there is also less power waste. DrMOS also has a 1000kHz switching frequency (ie: frequency at which the MOSFETs are switched on & off), which is roughly 4 times faster than traditional MOSFETs. The faster the transient response, the more stable the power supplied to the CPU is, which is obviously ideal when overclocking.


The Superpipe is a 8mm thick heatpipe, which MSI claims is on average 60% thicker than traditional heatpipes and also the thickest heatpipe used on motherboards. MSI asserts that the Superpipe lowers this motherboard's temperature by up to 50C.


OC Genie feature is a combination of the OC Genie auto-overclocking hardware processor and the OC Genie button, which allows for a minimum 20% overclock in one second flat. In that time, OC Genie manipulates the CPU clock, system voltages, memory clock, and memory timings. From that point, you can keep overclocking with the Direct OC buttons until you achieve whatever overclock your cooling and components will allow.


As mentioned above, the Direct OC buttons allow you to manually adjust the base clock (BLCK). Want to raise the BLCK by 10Mhz? Simply push the + button ten times and bingo, overclock achieved.


If something goes wrong with your overclock, you will be able to see what is wrong via the post code debug display, and you will be able to reboot the system via the touch-sensitive power/reset buttons.


Last, but certainly not least, MSI have boldly included a voltage read point module, which is a design feature that true enthusiasts will undoubtedly rejoice over. Those enthusiasts that really want to push their systems will able to enable the overvoltage options via a handy dipswitch module so there will be no more fussing with jumpers.


What we have see here is just the tip of the iceberg on the MSI P55-GD80, but there are simply too many features to list in this preview. Now without further ado, let's take a look at the motherboard itself.