MSI P55A-GD65 Motherboard
Conclusions
Contents
The new MSI P55A-GD65 is basically an MSI P55-GD85 with one of the heatsinks of the voltage regulator circuit and its heatpipe, one of the Gigabit Ethernet ports, the voltage measuring points, and the support for SLI arrays removed. The layout and other features are absolutely the same. The good news is that the new GD65 is way cheaper than the GD85 (USD 170 vs. USD 230)! This is a terrific way to get a high-end motherboard and save a lot of money!
Of course if you really want to build a system with two video cards running under SLI, then you will have to pay more and get a motherboard with support for SLI.
Don’t forget that this motherboard has a PLX chip that prevents performance from dropping when you are running SATA-600 drives, USB 3.0 devices, and games at the same time. You may find cheaper P55-based motherboards around, but make sure you are comparing apples to apples. The P55A-GD65 motherboard is targeted to the enthusiast that wants the latest technologies running at the top of their performance.