MSI's P55 board comes with built-in genie.
P55-based motherboards are all the rage, flooding out of manufacturing facilities faster than water from a burst reservoir, and MSI's P55-GD65 is no slouch.
Though we've already seen ASUS' P7P55D EVO and GIGABYTE's P55-UD6, this mobo is a step down in grading from both of those - meaning it should be a more affordable choice in the long run.
Eponymously based on the P55 chipset, the board includes four DDR3 slots (dual-chanel), two PCIe slots that work in 8x mode with two graphics cards (either SLI or Crossfire) and plenty of other features we haven't seen on these boards.
Of note is the on-board voltage measurement panel, automatic overclocking feature called the OC Genie (which supposedly overclocks up to 30% - stably), and the extra-thick heatpipe used on the PWM cooling to pump the heat around even faster.
The P55 Chipset means a LGA1156 socket, and while the CPU takes care of a lot of the PCIe connectivity and memory tasks that also gives way for a row of Packet Switch chips where the traditional Northbridge is placed - to switch the PCIe slots between both modes.
StaticICE is returning an initial price in the vicinity of $325, though at time of writing this couldn't be confirmed, and is most likely subject to change by launch.
There's quite a bit going on here, so head into the gallery to see more pictures and detail, with the full review hitting an upcoming Issue of Atomic.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012