MSI P55-GD85 Motherboard

Conclusions

MSI P55-GD85 is an outstanding high-end motherboard for the socket LGA1156 platform, especially because it costs only USD 30 more than MSI P55-GD80, which is a similar motherboard from MSI without SATA-600 and USB 3.0 ports. One of the main advantages of P55-GD85 is the presence of a PLX PCI Express switch chip, which will allow you to achieve the maximum performance from your system even when using two SATA-600 drives, two USB 3.0 devices and two video cards at the same time. If you are looking for a fully loaded high-end motherboard for your socket LGA1156 CPU, this motherboard is worth serious consideration. We simply can’t find any single flaw on this product.

Of course it is not the cheapest motherboard around, but it provides a terrific cost/benefit ratio for its intended audience, especially when you think that competing products like ASUS P7P55D Premium, which has SATA-600 ports but not USB 3.0, are more expensive.

It is important to keep in mind that P55-GD80 has some features that were removed on GD85, like overvoltage protection switches, display to show the current CPU base clock, display to show the current number of active phases on the voltage regulator circuit and the third PCI Express x16 slot.