MSI P55-GD80 LGA1156 Motherboard Review‏

A Closer Look at the MSI P55-GD80

Although we would have liked to see the 8-pin CPU power connector and 24-pin ATX power connector placed right on the edge of the motherboard, all the other connectors and headers are ideally located on the edges. We definitely like the sleek black and blue theme that MSI have recently adopted on most of their motherboards which is a huge step up from the horrible red PCB that was their trademark for oh so many years. Frankly, our only criticism of this layout design is that we would have liked to see the bottom PCI-E x16 slot in another colour to highlight the fact that it is supplied by the P55 PCH and always operates at x4. If we are being really nitpicky, we would have also liked to see the 2nd and 3rd PCI-E x16 slots to be where the PCI slots are, since that would have prevented a dual-slot graphics card in the 3rd PCI-E x16 slot from overhanging the motherboard. Very, very few users will ever encounter this issue though.


Obviously, the centerpiece of the CPU socket area is the new LGA1156 socket and the retention module design. The other eye-catching feature is DrMOS 8+2 phase power design, as evidence by the 10 sealed ferrite core chokes. There are 8 phases for the CPU and 2 phases for the VTT (aka: Uncore/L3 Cache/Integrated Controllers). The MOSFETs are cooled by reasonably low profile heatsinks and connected to each other by the 8mm Superpipe. We don't anticipate any interference problems with any popular CPU coolers. Once again, we are not too impressed with the numerous capacitors surrounding CPU socket, but that's an issue that will only affect those attempting to insulate the socket for sub-zero cooling runs.


The dual-channel DDR3 memory slots support overclocked memory frequencies up to DDR3-2133 and benefit from a 2-phase DrMOS power design. For the curious among you, those RENESAS components are the 3-in-1 DrMOS MOSFETs. The v-switch and v-check points are located right beside the memory slots and right on the edge of the motherboard for easy access.

Above the memory slots, MSI have outfitted two pairs of LEDs that reveal how many phases are in use for both VTT and the memory.


The P55-GD80 features six right-angle SATA II (3Gb/s) ports which are supplied by the P55 chipset and they support AHCI and RAID 0/1/5/10. The blue SATA ports are provided by the popular JMicron JMB322 controller and they support RAID 0/1 and JBOD. A JMicron JMB363 controller supplies the IDE port and the eSATA/USB combo port on the I/O panel.


The P55 PCH is cooled by a slim, low profile finned heatsink. As with the memory, the chipset benefits from a 2-phase Dr.MOS power design and MSI have also fitted this model with LEDs displaying how many PCH phases are in use.