With Intel's LGA1156 socket settling nicely into the market, it's given motherboard manufacturers time to fine tune their product lineups as the Core i5/i7 offerings start to mature. Yet after little time, new products are being released that address the latest USB 3.0 and SATA III 6Gb/s standards. While these may not be mainstream just yet and relegated to the enthusiast crowd for the time being, things will be moving in that direction. And capitalizing on these new standards are the Big Three manufacturers, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.
Today we're looking at MSI's foray into the USB 3.0 and SATA III market with their premium LGA1156 board, the P55-GD85. Based on a very similar design of the GD80, this new board looks to build upon the success of its predecessor, offering the same enthusiast features including MSI's OC Genie, the popular auto overclocking utility that brings performance to the masses.
With an impressive pedigree, the P55-GD85 looks great, offers robust features, and comes with a rather reasonable price tag to boot, so we have high expectations today. What's the key ingredient here that isn't mentioned? Performance. Around here, Performance is King, so let's push the GD85 and see how well it responds.
Thanks go to MSI for supplying the review sample.
"Founded in August 1986, MSI has continued to uphold a business philosophy that stresses "Award-winning product quality and outstanding customer service." MSI specializes in the design and manufacture of motherboards, graphics card, add-on cards, servers/workstations, iPC, barebones, communication devices, CE products, Notebooks, car infotainment products, and All-in-One PC. “Quality Products Create Faithful Customers” is a motto that guides all that we do at MSI. For this reason, MSI goes all out to be the best of the best in research and development."
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