MSI P67A-GD65 Motherboard Review

Final thoughtsThe logic behind this review was to see if there is a P67 board that offers everything that the majority of enthusiasts seek and that also comes with an affordable price tag. We know enthusiasts want a board that will unlock the true potential of their K series processors, offers high speed connections like USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s, has support for multi-GPU setups and once again, doesn’t break the bank. The MSI P67A-GD65 covers all of these areas and while going beyond the minimum of expectations and performing extremely well.

The board is packed with features yet MSI still charge less than their competitors. The GD65 offers similar features to Asus’ P8P67 PRO yet it is around £20 cheaper. It is also cheaper than Gigabyte’s P67A-UD4 but offers extra features such as 2 more SATA 6GB/s ports and UEFI BIOS out of the box. It is hard to understand how this board sells at the price it does when competing brands are charging so much more for boards with even less features. MSI do a really great job in this aspect.

The overclocking capabilities are brilliant. There is no other way to say it! The board got to 4GHz with ease at stock voltage. We hit 4.8GHz before we even had our first BSOD and 5GHz was surpassed with an extremely low voltage that is completely stable for 24/7 usage. The benchmarks showed a pleasing performance gain for no extra cost. The possibilities for even higher frequencies are certainly viable with better CPU cooling.

The UEFI BIOS is acceptable. It still has its teething problems and can be awkward to navigate with the mouse but hopefully MSI will fix this with future updates. The range of settings that can be changed is vast and we definitely aren’t complaining about that.

The connectivity on the board is impressive to say the least. 4 SATA 3GB/s ports, 4 SATA 6GB/s ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports, powered eSATA ports and 5 PCI-E slots including 2 PCI-E x16 length slots are all present. Basically, there aren’t any other connections we could ask for.

Overall, MSI’s P67A-GD65 is a truly amazing board. We would have no problems recommending it to anybody looking for a Sandy Bridge setup, especially at under £130.

Pros

• Brilliant overclocking capabilities
• Price
• Connectivity
• UEFI BIOS
• Multi GPU support

Cons

• Some UEFI BIOS glitches
• Only 1 USB 2.0 header

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