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It's been a long time since we've had a look at a board from MSI, but the release of a new chipset from Intel seems like the perfect time to look at one. Today we'll be looking at the MSI Z68A-GD80 which is one of the two Z68 boards MSI are currently listing on their website.
Now that Intel's finally released the Z68 chipset, motherboard vendors are scrambling to meet the demand. With the odd restrictions of the P67 and H67 chipsets removed, the Z68 allows users to make use of Sandy Bridge integrated graphics as well as overclock their processors. Add Lucid's Virtu software for intelligent switching between the integrated GPU and a video card and Intel's Smart Response Technology for using an SSD as an intelligent cache for your main hard disk, and the features and advantages of a Z68 motherboard become very attractive. Benchmark Reviews looks at MSI's Z68A-GD80 motherboard in this review. MSI builds it with "military class" components, but does this make any real-world difference? Let's find out.
We have always had good experiences with MSI motherboards, their MSI X58A-GD65 has been at the heart of our main graphics card test system now for the last year. The new Z68A-GD80-G3 is loaded with ‘Military class’ components and is supplied with a new graphical user interface and touchscreen support.
Just after the launch of the Z68 chipset, we managed to look at a mATX board from ASRock in the form of the Pro3-M. Priced at $114.99 US, it's a good value board, but with a maximum overclock of less than 5GHz on our 2600k, our hopes for something that could offer a bit more power while sticking to the mATX platform would continue.
With the new Z77 platform on the horizon, we take a first-hand look at what MSI will be offering with three of their models.
Every manufacturer of computer components has a particular line of products that stand out above the rest for one reason or another. On the consumer level this is either because of their feature enriched boards that are designed to meet the demands of the everyday user, but more commonly we find boards that are geared towards the high end user such as the power hungry gamer or the overclockers. Overclockers as we know don't care about how many USB ports a board has or how many different accessories come with the board. What they care about is how well the board clocks and what the manufacturer has done to make it stand out for this reason alone.
MSI should be well known to most of our readers, and today Benchmark Reviews checks out their new MSI Z77 MPOWER LGA1155 motherboard. This time around MSI is aiming at the performance enthusiast and overclocker: the MPOWER is an "OC Certified" motherboard. What, precisely, does "OC Certified" mean? Join us as we put this board through its paces and see if it can serve as the foundation of an overclocked system.
Excellent overclocking performance at an affordable price. We have waited years for a motherboard like the Z77 MPower. Why? Because every time a manufacturer comes with a motherboard aimed at overclockers, it is filled with other features that aren't useful for overclocking. MSI kept those extra features to a minimum on the Z77 MPower board. If you are an overclocker, then the Z77 MPower should be on your wish list, it's as simple as that.
Mostly we cover high end motherboards at the Shrimps due to our enthusiast reviewing nature. However not everybody has the funds to opt for a 200 or more Euros board. Sometimes a balance has to be found between the different components used, to stay below a certain budget. Most compromises have to be made in onboard features. Users tend to cash out more on the fastest CPU and/or GPU they can afford. In builds it's usually with motherboards where cutbacks are done and sometimes even a motherboard with a lower specced chipset is chosen. For socket 1155 MSI offers the budget minded user the choice to be able to buy a motherboard, based on the high end socket 1155 Intel Z77 chipset, yet all at a very affordable price. That's where the Z77A-G43 pops up, time to give the board a spin in the Madshrimps lab.
Many people will be heading into 2013 with plans of upgrading their system. MSI sent us their capable, but competitively priced Z77A-G45 Z77 motherboard and we are pairing it up with the monster Lightning GTX680 graphics card. We test a system using these components with the latest games and try our hand at some overclocking. Are these products worthy of your money?
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