MSI Z77A-GD65 Gaming (Z77) Motherboard Review

For this board to wow me, it needs to show the world why it’s a gaming board and at the same time that it’s very much worth being called a gaming board. It is all good and well whacking the gaming moniker on a product, but if it doesn’t perform in that market, then it’s going to be one huge failure towards the manufacturer. So the big question arises asking if this board can do just that? Has it pulled it off, showing that it is worth every extra penny over a normal GD65?

On the front of styling, I have to say that I love the dragon cross section that as been applied to the VRM heat sink, its unique and its also a bit different – most of all it is NOT anything military orientated, which has been a little big of mine for a while with gaming motherboards. The red colour scheme I also get as it generally associated with gaming, although some other brands use other colours and this is typical of Asus and ASRock on their respective products. The colour scheme is very low key and in its own way I like that, it doesn’t make the board look too gaudy or out of place in a system.

The performance front I’m similarly happy with, although i would have expected just a little more as this board is virtually on par with a GD65, only gaining a few extra points here and there, so it then leads me to ask if the features are where the focus lies. Certainly the Killer NIC is one key area where gamers would see the benefit of this board over a standard GD65, but to be honest I do feel a little short changed on other features. Whilst there is the themed BIOS and also the gaming optimised USB and PS/2 ports on the rear I/O, for the extra money I would have expected to see a little more than this. A prime example of what I feel has been overlooked is the audio. If you’re a vivid gamer, then its not all about fantastic frame rates and low latency; if you don’t have the edge on the sound front then you may miss a footstep of an enemy for example which can be a game changing opportunity lost. There are a number of boards out on the market now that include better audio and this is prime on other gaming motherboards with a huge focus on this as well as the visual performance.

So what else would I like to see, well there are other boards that feature dual LAN or even WiFi, okay so WiFi and gaming generally go hand in hand, but with technology going the way it is, Killer also have a WiFi module, so why not include this. Also a little more presence on the USB3.0 side of things, either with an extra header or some extra ports on the back. To me it seems that spending the extra to get a Killer NIC and a gaming optimised port over a standard GD65 is a little unreasonable and therefore this board does feel a little premature, especially as Haswell is on the horizon and the focus is now on getting the latest motherboards ready for release later in the year.

Bottom line, I’m a little disheartened by the GD65 Gaming, I feel that there could be a whole lot extra put on to the board in terms of features, especially on the audio front and maybe even Killer WiFi. Perhaps a v2.0 later on in the year will be more worthy, but sadly for now I feel that there are better ‘gaming’ motherboards out there to consider.