Hardware First Look: MSI P55-GD80

Packed with features, the P55-GD80 is MSI's premium P55 motherboard and it's built to take an overclocking pounding. We take a first look at these overclocking features, the board's layout and the new tech that MSI has incorporated.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/motherboards/2009/08/18/first-look-msi-p55-gd80/1

 

Looks nice. I want a stripped down version with all the good parts like six 90 degree sata and none of the overclockers tools, no FDD, no IDE and PS2 Ports replaced with usb ports and about 80 pounds cheaper

Like this:

 

stuning looking board.

 

looks sweet

 

Agreed with obi wan, Im not going to use raid, or the automatic overclocking, IDE etc. Just a good preformance and decent manual overclocker.

 

MSI have been doing some nice boards recently; There's been a time when I wouldn't even go near one.

 

I miss the red of their old boards. I wish they had found a way to incorporate it into their new boards. Then again I stopped buying their stuff 2 years ago. Lol

 

IDE header location isn't ideal. Most people are using the IDE for their optical drives and given that optical drives are situated on top of most chassis, the cables would interfere with the SATA cables where hard drives are mounted at the bottom but then again, its just a minor issue.

 

looks great but Im going to stick with my current rig and only consider building a new rig when USB 3.0 becomes common place until then I shall just stick to upgrading my graphics card and try to get my moneys worth out of my current rig lol ^^

 

Thank god they dropped the green and pink!

Someone at MSI actually did some market research a found out how we like are boards to look! Now gigabyte, do the bloody same!

 

It's as if MSI decided to rule 34 motherboards.

 

Too True. At least Gigabyte Mobos perform quite decently.

 

You make me sad, it's as if you're saying Linux isn't a modern OS. Maybe I just read it wrong.

I think I'd be interested in this board if I didn't hear about the Big Bang with a Lucid Hydra chip, kinda shooting themselves in the foot as people who buy boards with more than 2 PCI-Ex16 slots usually buy more than 1 GPU also. That and the fact that the GD65 looks sweet enough for me

 

IDE, FDD, PS/2... For what CPU is this, Pentium 3? Seriously, who on earth still uses even one of those things? Just get over it, already.

 

Eastern Europe and South America.

 

well the very least I say if they cant drop the ps2 then stick with that hybrid version that offers either keyboard or mouse in one plug and drop the floppy, the IDE I sorta see being still useful but ya they could drop that. anyone still using an IDE drive well that drives probably about to die from age anyways so they should upgrade to sata same goes for their optical drives, they are just so cheap now and days you might as well go sata on the optical too.

 

All my computers run Ubuntu and I think the quick-booting-on-board Linux OS is of dubious value. Ubuntu (and Windows 7 for that matter) boot pretty quickly anyway and is it really such a hardship to wait a few extra seconds to gain access to all your stuff?

Plus as soon as SSDs become mainstream normal OS boot times will drop dramatically and quick booting onboard Linux will die a death anyway.

 

Maybe those are also the huge market areas which forced MSI to change the color scheme.

 

<rant>

So the big 3 (Gigabyte, Asus, MSI) build just one motherboard with all included for every person in the world. Ooh wait they aren't...

I thought all motherboard makers wanted to be on top of technology and be the first with the new stuff. They where very fast with removing the ISA, printer, com and AGP slots, AGP lasted 4 or 5 years?. But hell the FDD stays for ever and ever.

There isn't a store in my country where I can buy floppy disks and even if I can, what should I put on a 1.4mb floppy? I guess I can put one jpg image on it (or two if I resize them to 320x480) or use it as a decorative item for my coffeecup to rest on.

And then there is the ps2 port, over the last 4 years I never seen a ps/2 mouse. or even a ps keyboard. Its all USB baby!

Instead of making excuses for motherboard manufactures, you should be calling them and scream in to their ears until they bleed: "We do not want to see any FDD, PS2, and IDE again" its a waste of resources, and motherboard space...

For god sakes I hope the big 3 read this....

</rant>

 

Of course they make one board for everyone. There has NEVER been the resource to pander to everyone's needs - it always goes via the lowest common denominator in that specific market.

For starters - 56% of people reading bit-tech still use XP. You need a floppy drive to install RAID drivers because many people don't have access or the knowledge to get a USB floppy drive or streamline drivers. If anything, blame Microsoft for it's inability to load drivers from USB.

ISA slots remained for YEARS - they finally left in Socket A days.

We use PS2 keyboards exclusively in the lab because of the unanimous BIOS support. Some USB keyboards dont work with some BIOS' straight away.

IDE devices are still being sold, and will continue to be. Not to mention the fact you're talking a mainstream board and many people have old drives they use for storage etc. I still use an IDE DVD drive in my HTPC because it's a slot loader.

If you dont need things - you can always disable them in the BIOS.