News - MSI to offer a 55% launch-day discount on P55 motherboards

[JKL]

I've just unpacked the GD65, nice looking board, looks well built too, none of that plastic push-pin rubbish, the heatsinks are bolted down with spring loaded metal screws,
also uses aluminum capacitors throughout, overall I'm well pleased.

[Pob255]

Bah just got an email from ebuyer saying my order has been cancled
That's really annoying esp as it's been sitting on "Allocated" since about an hour after I placed it.

Ho hum, i5 will have to wait for a good long while or come down a heck of a lot before I swap.

I guess AMD will probably end up with my money now.

[Terbinator]

Bah just got an email from ebuyer saying my order has been cancled
That's really annoying esp as it's been sitting on "Allocated" since about an hour after I placed it.

Ho hum, i5 will have to wait for a good long while or come down a heck of a lot before I swap.

I guess AMD will probably end up with my money now.

What about a Gigabyte UD2 board instead - Anandtechs preview suggests they favour it.

[Pob255]

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 vs MSI P55-GD65 ??

Ummm I hope you're not serious?

[Terbinator]

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 vs MSI P55-GD65 ??

Ummm I hope you're not serious?

Quite.

[Pob255]

Ok where to start,
no sli
2nd pci-e graphics card slot is only x4
no pci-e x1
only 2 fan headers
no voltage monitoring points
no cooling on the MOSFET's
6 phase Discrete MOS PWM (vs 6+1 phase DrMOS PWM)
no Active Phase Switching
No hardware base clock adjustment
Software only one click auto overclock (vs a hardware solution for auto overclocking) ok not a biggy as I'd probably oc it myself anyway
5 sata+2 sata+1 esata vs 6 sata+1 sata+1 powered esata

The UD2 is a cheap low end board the gd65 is a midranged board and it shows in the specs.

[nickp8]

Bah just got an email from ebuyer saying my order has been cancled
That's really annoying esp as it's been sitting on "Allocated" since about an hour after I placed it.

Ho hum, i5 will have to wait for a good long while or come down a heck of a lot before I swap.

I guess AMD will probably end up with my money now.

Did you not see:
http://forums.hexus.net/1772352-post221.html
http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...ml#post1772351

[Terbinator]

Ok where to start,
no sli
2nd pci-e graphics card slot is only x4
no pci-e x1
only 2 fan headers
no voltage monitoring points
no cooling on the MOSFET's
6 phase Discrete MOS PWM (vs 6+1 phase DrMOS PWM)
no Active Phase Switching
No hardware base clock adjustment
Software only one click auto overclock (vs a hardware solution for auto overclocking) ok not a biggy as I'd probably oc it myself anyway
5 sata+2 sata+1 esata vs 6 sata+1 sata+1 powered esata

The UD2 is a cheap low end board the gd65 is a midranged board and it shows in the specs.

Hey, im just relaying what Anandtech said, and lets be honest they dont usually talk BS. Obviously i would take the dearer (cheaper) board but if you cant get hold of one and dont want to pay asking price then your going to have to make compromises.

[Pob255]

Hey, im just relaying what Anandtech said, and lets be honest they dont usually talk BS. Obviously i would take the dearer (cheaper) board but if you cant get hold of one and dont want to pay asking price then your going to have to make compromises.

|Let's see what they said about it

This does not mean the board is going to hit 272 Bclks or provide class leading performance. It just means that spending less than $105 for this board and pairing it up with a Core i5-750 is going to lead to some fun times for the P55 budget seekers, HTPC groupies, or the SFF gaming crowd.

Considering the limited board space, Gigabyte did a very good job fitting all of the peripherals onto this board. About the only negatives we can think of is the continued inclusion of the floppy drive port and the lack of passive cooling for the MOSFET area. The board only sports two fan headers so that might also be a problem for users with two or more 3-pin case fans. The board does support CrossFireX operation although we highly recommend against this setup as the second PCIe x16 slot is actually an x4 electrical slot running off the P55 chipset.

If you plan on running this board with Bclk rates above 170 or so, we suggest additional airflow across the MOSFETs to ensure 24/7 stability when overclocking.

From my reading of it, they like it as a good low end mATX motherboard but that's all.


Now while andatech didn't preview the p55-gd65 they did look at the p55-gd80 which they really liked.

MSI was considerate enough to send us a production ready unit this week and we have had a blast using it since it hit the testbed. The P55-GD80 features MSI's "Xtreme Speed" initiative. This technological package consists of their OC Genie, SuperPipe, and DrMOS options that we will outline in detail at product launch. Along with these features are several others including Winki 2.0 (Linux core OS with several applications), USB Safeguard, OC Profiles, M-Flash, and U-key.

Truly, the OC Genie will be the one option that most impresses both the enthusiast and newbie when it comes to overclocking this board. OC Genie makes it a snap to overclock the board for beginners and has enough options in it for the enthusiast to squeeze that last little bit of performance out of the board. Of course the cooling advantages from the new SuperPipe (yes, we know the marketing glitz is heavy on this one) design will come into play as will the updated DrMOS power delivery system.

Most of these features are on the GD65 but to a slightly lesser extent.

I was also considering the Foxconn Inferno Katana GTI which again looks like a very good mid ranged board but I cannot find it for sale yet in the UK
But going off the newegg price for this board of $170, it should be roughtly the same as the MSI P55-DG65 or Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 or Asus P7P55D, so a good cost point for a mid-ranged p55.
My big issue is the UK markup, I expect some but it's very high atm, at a direct $ to £ conversion of the US prices put's these boards around £90-100, the actualUK cost is around £130

I think we've been a bit spoilt recently by low motherboard and other costs, go back a couple of years when it was $2 to the £ and we find the £130 prices are far closer to what they would of been then if the exchange rate was what it is now. ($1.65 to the £)

[JKL]

Personally I think the P55 boards are way overpriced, had it not been for the MSI promo offer I would never have paid the full retail £180 for an MSI P55 GD80.
The P55's are meant to be mainstrem boards but they seem to be charging high end X58 prices.

[djfluff]

Got my MSI P55-GD65 from Scan yesterday. There was a dirty big hole punched through the box, which was not even bubble wrapped
The board looks OK, but was obiously not handled with care. Havn't got the rest of the bits for my build yet, so fingers crossed it ok !

[adder]

I'd never pay the full price for it now, knowing that some have paid half the price, and am sure everyone who has read about this offer and couldn't get hold of one feels the same.

Lets all stick it to em. There are better choices or soon will be.

[LuckyNV]

Personally I think the P55 boards are way overpriced, had it not been for the MSI promo offer I would never have paid the full retail £180 for an MSI P55 GD80.
The P55's are meant to be mainstrem boards but they seem to be charging high end X58 prices.

There are many boards that are priced well enough, when i7 was first released the MIN you were expected to pay for a basic board was £210

[JKL]

There are many boards that are priced well enough, when i7 was first released the MIN you were expected to pay for a basic board was £210

The P55 boards sell from approx £100 - £200, theoretically if I had a budget midway of say £150 for a new mobo I would buy an X58 board, the advantages being triple channel memory and 16x16 lane graphics capability should I ever need it.
For P55 to be a viable alternative they need to drop the prices of their top end boards to below £150 because that is most definitely X58 territory. In time this may happen and that's just my personal opinion by the way.

[ag_pusskie]

I'd never pay the full price for it now, knowing that some have paid half the price, and am sure everyone who has read about this offer and couldn't get hold of one feels the same.

Lets all stick it to em. There are better choices or soon will be.

You got a point. I got through to the ordering stage of EBuyer and then had the order cancelled - a good offer but it does leave a bit of a bad aftertaste for the people who missed out! Anyway, for the people who want P55, it is just time to chill out and wait a few months.

[Leepox]

You got a point. I got through to the ordering stage of EBuyer and then had the order cancelled - a good offer but it does leave a bit of a bad aftertaste for the people who missed out! Anyway, for the people who want P55, it is just time to chill out and wait a few months.

is ebuyer going to uphold the price for those who got their order cancelled once you give them a call, or are we unlucky and thats not going to happen?