MSI P67A-GD65 - No love?

[BBMW]

All the talk about P67 motherboards seems to be centered on Asus and Asrock. Anyone going MSI. The P67A-GD65 seems to have a good feature set at a decent price. Any reason to avoid?

 

[TorxT3D]

love mine.
i keep my 2500k stock speeds, its just too fast for everything i wanna do anyways.
so i cant comment on overclocking or its reliability overclocking, but the oc genie does work great. no problems at all.

the motherboard is equally wonderful, msi keeps the bios updates coming, and they listen to their fan base. While the bios isnt as glamorous as asus, it gets the job done fine. Its been a few months and they keep their software updated regularly, afterburner, control center are pretty much all you need. Their updater app is kinda finicky last time i used it, so i just skip installing it and manually install the other apps i want.

the board looks great with some blue/blk ram and their gpu cards.
i liked this board for the price, number of sata ports, low profile heatsinks (nothing outrageous), lot of ports on the back, and the colors.

some pics
http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g291/TorxT3D/newpc/

 

[JBDan]

I built a SB 2500K 3 weeks ago using the GD53 and it's solid, no frills, great overclocker, and everything has just worked with no hiccups whatsoever. I've always used ASUS, this was my first time venturing away from them and I'm a happy camper

 

[Lightflash]

I have been running my GD65 for about 2 weeks now and it is a solid overclocker with a decent feature list. MSI is constantly improving their BIOS and their site may seem hard to use at first, but the mods make sure to get the right information out if there is a problem that arises.

 

[dweilbacher]

I also order MSI (GD55) and i5 2500k. All my parts arrived yesterday and hoping to have her up and running before the weekend. I will be overclocking... finding a nice place between performance and heat. Probably get about 4.3GHz.

 

[SmCaudata]

I also order MSI (GD55) and i5 2500k. All my parts arrived yesterday and hoping to have her up and running before the weekend. I will be overclocking... finding a nice place between performance and heat. Probably get about 4.3GHz.

Let me know how it works out. MC has a rebate on the 55 and also the Gigabyte UD3. There is a $40 price difference, but you get Crossfire and some other nice features. For the price the GD55 competes with the ASRock Extreme 4 on features. I haven't seen much in the way of performance comparisons.

I ordered the rest of my parts from NewEgg so I have a few days to decide on the motherboard.

 

[wrangler]

My son is using the GD-65 with a 2500K.
He did a manual OC to 4.6 and the thing has been stable as a rock.
He couldn't be happier.

 

[rob454]

P67A-C43 Probably the cheapest P67 MSI sells. No heatsinks on the MOSFETS and stable as a rock @ 4.3ghz with a 2500k.

 

[aggressor]

Friend of mine just used this motherboard in a build he was doing and he's had massive problems with memory compatibility. After 5 different sets, we finally found a pair that works :\

 

[rob454]

Friend of mine just used this motherboard in a build he was doing and he's had massive problems with memory compatibility. After 5 different sets, we finally found a pair that works :\

Newest bios resolves the instability problems.

 

[aggressor]

Didn't help us. Besides, it's not like you can flash it before getting it to work, anyway.

 

[dweilbacher]

Let me know how it works out. MC has a rebate on the 55 and also the Gigabyte UD3. There is a $40 price difference, but you get Crossfire and some other nice features. For the price the GD55 competes with the ASRock Extreme 4 on features. I haven't seen much in the way of performance comparisons.

I ordered the rest of my parts from NewEgg so I have a few days to decide on the motherboard.

Will do. As you stated, I got the board from MC with rebate. Also got the i5 2500K and Hyper 212+ from MC. They have good prices on some items. The rest came from Newegg.

This is a gaming PC for my 14 year old son. So I'm teaching him how to build a PC with this project... hence will take a little longer. We got the processor, HSF, motherboard, RAM and Power support mounted last night. Ran into a small issue with the 8pin CPU cable being a bit too short to run behind the motherboard. Heading to MC today to get an extender. Should be able to power her up tonight.

I have two (2) questions:
1) It was a bit tricky mounting the Hyper 212+, but was able to follow a Youtube video for help. Once completed, I noticed that I could grab the Heatsink (both hands) and twist it. I mean it requires a bit of force, but I was able to get it to twist it about 1/4 inch. Did not expect that. Thought it would be rock stable mount. Anyone else notice this?

2) Front Audio Connector. My Case has 2 front audio connectors. One is labeled AC 97. The other is labeled HD Audio. They are same pins, but slightly different names for each pin. I'm not 100% sure which connector should connect to the GD55 motherboard audio connector. Anyone else struggle through this?

 

[ader098]

All the talk about P67 motherboards seems to be centered on Asus and Asrock. Anyone going MSI. The P67A-GD65 seems to have a good feature set at a decent price. Any reason to avoid?

This board has been running very stable for me, much better than the Gigabyte it replaced.
The only issue with this board (which may be a deal breaker for some) is the vdroop that increases the vcore under load instead of decreasing it, which means you will need to give extra voltage to the cpu or else it might be unstable at idle.
Example: 1.38 set in bios
1.4 at idle
1.44 at load

My 2500k could do 4.5@1.344 under load on the Gigabyte whereas on the Gd65 the vcore idles at 1.336 and up to 1.376 under load. If I lower the vcore in the bios my idle voltage drops below 1.336 and my system will bsod when not under load. There is a vdroop setting in the bios (high or low) that doesn't do anything at this point and I doubt that a future bios update will change that.
Other than the vdroop issue I'm happy with this board.

 

[ader098]

2) Front Audio Connector. My Case has 2 front audio connectors. One is labeled AC 97. The other is labeled HD Audio. They are same pins, but slightly different names for each pin. I'm not 100% sure which connector should connect to the GD55 motherboard audio connector. Anyone else struggle through this?

I'm not 100% sure but i think it's the HD Audio that you would should plug in. I had to by an extender for mine since my front audio connector (Antec 902) couldn't reach the pins on the motherboard.

 

[dweilbacher]

So, I have all parts connected (GD-55) and powered it up. Seems to be working fine. Bios is out of date and need to update that next before doing anything else. I have not figured out how to update the bios while inside the bios. There is not manual or procedure (that I've found) to describe the process.

Question 1): How do I update the bios (no Win7 installed yet)? Just have clickable Bios.

Question 2): While in the bios, I decided to let it run for a few minutes to watch the CPU temp. CPU is running at full speed (3.3Gig) as expected. CPU Temp is about 44C. Based on what I've read, I think that is ok, but wanted to double check with you guys before I get too far.

So what is your CPU Temp while in the bios (non over-clocked, Default settings)?

 

[scbjmshpv]

putting mine tomorrow or sunday (depending time i get) using 2500k and G65 will let you know once it's up.

 

[irse]

Have had mine for about a week. Using the OC Genie and it works pretty good. I like the board. First time with MSI after using Gigabyte and ASUS.

 

[gr8erimage]

1) I noticed that I could grab the Heatsink (both hands) and twist it. I mean it requires a bit of force, but I was able to get it to twist it about 1/4 inch.

The HSF is held in place by springs on the 4 mounts. It is normal for them to twist with enough pressure. I wouldn't recommend twisting them very much. I can imagine with enough twisting, air bubbles would form in the TIM.

 

[dweilbacher]

MSI GD55 + i5 2500K + Hyper 212+

Update: System is up and running, but still loading software. I've not had any major issues yet. Idle temps are (no overclock):
- CPU 0: 31C
- CPU 1: 29C
- CPU 2: 27C
- CPU 3: 25C

I'm a bit dissappointed with the 31C (CPU 0), but not enough to remount the 212+.

Software: I am a bit confused with the Live Update 5. I ran a scan which found 9 updates. I then clicked the radia butten next to each and clicked Download. It took 45min to download. However when done, it gave me NO option to install. There is no button to install the downloads (What??). So then I click the down-arrow icon next to each item (if you mouse over it, is says download and install). It then re-downloaded the software and when done, installed the software. Pain in the a@@ because I now have to redownload each package... and do it manually.

I think there is a bug in the Live Update 5 when attempting to download ALL the software at once. Or am I missing something?

 

[you2]

I have the GD65. It was not my first choice but the board I wanted was not available (and is still not available). The build was clean and I had no issues but have a few comments:
documentation is a bit weak (esp if things do not work out of the box); I.e, the board has virtually no diagnosis so those with problems are fairly loss (i read the support boards and the most common issue seems to be ram incompatibility which results in reboot loop). The board will beep on boot up if you have usb devices plugged in. In theory the beeps have other meanings but none of this is documented so who knows.
-
Only other real complaint is that jfp2 blocks the second video card. This is minor irritation and I've studied various boards layout as to why this happened (compare the layout of the gd65 to the asrock extreme 4 or biostar xle and you can see exactly what msi did and why). The vendor fix would be to supply a 90% adapter (similar to sata ports) or for the user to pend the pins (for me the only one that care about is the power led).
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The live update feature is basically broken so I don't use it; also the most important drivers can be obtained directly from the vendor (intel, realtek, ...). The most important thing to update if yuo have issue is the bios and they strongly recommend you use usb and not live update (see http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=113295.0 which is a user forum not official company view).
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The only outstanding issue i have is that if the system enters sleep mode while under full load (running prime95 for exampel) it will turn off rather than go to sleep (bsod). If idle it will do the proper thing. Not sure this is an msi issue but not sure it is not an msi issue.
-
Other than those comments no complaints; if it stay stable for the next couple of years i'll be happy.

 

[dweilbacher]

FYI. I updated bios (GD-55) from version 1.8 to 1.9. Did so using Live Update 5. No problems.

Questions:

1) Seems I might have forgot to set the SATA mode to AHCI before installing windows. Is there any concern with using IDE mode?

2) Board clearly does not detect my RAM timings correctly, so will have to set manual. Also noticed that the Ram Voltage was 1.633v. Should be 1.5v. I'm curious why these boards don't detect the proper Ram settings.

3) Live update seemed to install something called DirectOC. When I attempt to run it, it states my board does not support it. Before I remove this software, anyone using this?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I just rebuilt a Protools DAW machine for my best buddy this weekend using the P67A-G45 paired with a 2500k, and so far it seems like a great board. Install was a snap and the board appears to be a great little overclocker.

Since this is a purpose built machine I just wanted a mild O/C on stock volts and stock cooling and it was stupid easy on this board. I could actually get 4.5ghz without uping the volts but the temps were higher than I would tolerate on the stock cooler so I dropped it down to 4.1ghz and temps were acceptable after 2 hrs of prime small files.

So far really pleased with this board

 

[Nebor]

I have the P67A-C45 with an i2600k. Only complaints are that BIOS updates are a pain in the ass. In fact, their website in general is just crap. I'd go with Asus.

 

[Mem]

I have the P67A-C45 with an i2600k. Only complaints are that BIOS updates are a pain in the ass. In fact, their website in general is just crap. I'd go with Asus.

I think it depends on the area , USA site is crap compared to their EU site,ie GD65 used here for an example http://eu.msi.com/product/mb/P67A-GD65--B3-.html ,easy to navigate to specs,downloads etc...

Btw you could argue this goes for other brands as well depending on area and what site you use.

 

[dweilbacher]

I have the P67A-C45 with an i2600k. Only complaints are that BIOS updates are a pain in the ass. In fact, their website in general is just crap. I'd go with Asus.

I updated my Bios using MSI Live Update 5 (Windows Based). Worked great and was very simple. Live Update tells you what Bios you have and what is available. Simply 1 click of the mouse and it down loads, installs and reboots.