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Staying ahead of technology can be a tedious task, specially if you are looking for the latest PC system components to keep you up to date.  With technology changing all the time, making sure you get the most current PC hardware that can keep you ahead for sometime is a challenge.  MSI has released a new model Intel motherboard for the Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPU on the LGA1156 socket.  This P55-GD85 model PCWizKid looks at today contains support for the latest advancement in technologies such as USB 3.0 and SATA III.  This is a high end board from MSI, and like the MSI P55-GD80 there are some similarities, like the 8-mm heat-pipe that, according to MSI is thicker than the average heatpipe used on a motherboards which usually have 5-mm heat-pipes.  The 8mm heatpire translates to better cooling capability which we saw earlier in our MSI P55-G80 review.

MSI has added a PLX PEX8608 PCI Express switch chip on this motherboard, which adds eight more PCI Express lanes to it. The presence of this chip allows you to run two high-end video cards in crossfire or SLI, a SATA-600 hard disk drive and USB 3.0 devices at the same time without any drop in performance. Now thats what I call having the latest in technology.

The MSI P55-GD85 provides all the six SATA-300 ports supporting RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 (these ports are black and are shown in the video review). A seventh SATA-300 port (blue) is available, controlled by a JMicron JMB363 chip, which also controls the eSATA-300 port available on the rear panel. This eSATA port is shared with a USB 2.0 port.  Also two SATA-600 ports (a.k.a. SATA III), controlled by a Marvell 88SE9128 chip are on the motherboard and seen as white.

The audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC889 codec, the two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Realtek RTL8111DL chips, are connected to the system using PCI Express x1 lanes.  Lets not forget the high end voltage regulator circuit, called DrMOS, with a total of ten phases, eight for the CPU (Vcore) and two for the integrated memory controller (VTT rail) making this a very energy efficient and stable board for overclockers. In PCWizKid's Video Review you will see how these phases from the voltage regulator circuit save energy, a feature called APS (Active Phase Switching). Also group of LED’s near the memory sockets indicate how many phases are active at any given moment which is pretty cool if you ask me.

So to test the MSI P55-GD85 PCWizKid has put together an interesting mix of the latest hardware to see how it performs.

PCWizKid's Tech System

Intel Core i5 661 @3.3ghz - 4.3Ghz
ATI Radeon HD5770 Video Card 920Mhz Core  / 1300Mhz Memory clock
OCZ 4GB DDR Platinum Edition Memory 1600Mhz @1.65v 7-7-7-16 Timings
Silverstone Strider 850 Watt Power Supply
Kingston V Series 128GB SSD
Cooler Master TX-3 CPU Cooler
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit edition

Video Review

Specifications

Conclusion

PCWizKid was hoping that the MSI P55-GD85 could top the previous performance of the GD80 model, and it did with flying colours!  Truly an enthusiast board with the support for the latest LGA1156 CPU, the Intel Core i5 661 we chose was a perfect candidate to test this boards overclocking capabilities which toke AIR Cooling to the extreme with a jump of 1Ghz of overclocking from its default 3.3Ghz to 4.3Ghz.  Trying to top this premium board will be hard, with its jammed pack features and future support for SATA III and USB 3.0 devices.  The options for overclocking are above average even if you don't want to touch the BIOS settings directly, which PCWizKid  did and found to be more than adequate.  Overall the performance PCWizKid got was more than expected and recommends the MSI's P55-GD85 for PC enthusiasts seeking a stable high performing board.

Click here for the latest pricing on the MSI P55-GD85 ATX Intel Motherboard