The board
Quick recap lesson. Intel's P55 chip will support the upcoming Core i5/i7 chips, to be released in September, that are based on an LGA 1156 form factor. Differentiated from their higher-end LGA 1366 cousins by eschewing QPI for DMI and running with a dual-channel memory-controller instead of triple, the new chips will have the board-related advantage of integrating the PCI-Express lanes directly from the CPU. This frees up the need for a separate IOH, as found on present X58 boards.
Gone is the garish MSI colour scheme of old, replaced by an aesthetically-pleasing black-and-blue look. We really like it. The layout looks clean and logical, facilitated by not having too many additional ASICs for an over-the-top feature-set: practically everything emanates from the P55 chipset.
Two passive heatsinks are connected by a larger-than-normal, 8mm-thick heatpipe. The 8-pin power connector is located nearby, enabling the PSU cable to be tucked around the edge, assuming it's mounted above. A generous amount of space around the socket should make cooler installation easy, as the closest heatsink isn't particularly tall.
P55-GD65 uses a 7-phase circuit for regulating the power to the CPU, and MSI claims its active-phase switching (APS) technology switches off phases which are not required, thereby saving power.
Dual-channel DDR3 is what'll feed LGA 1156 chips. MSI optimistically reckons the board supports speeds of up to 2,133MHz, and internal testing of P55 chipsets has shown that they're particularly partial to high-frequency DDR3 - certainly better than X58.
The main power plug and PATA port (from a JMicron controller) are also located near the edge of the board. Alongside is an interesting feature that'll let enthusiasts check board voltages - CPU, VTT, DIMM, and chipset - via multimeters. Up to two can be checked concurrently due to the provision of separate grounds. Other manufacturers have this feature on high-end boards, but MSI is the first, we believe, to integrate it across the range.
Swinging on down, the six rotated SATA2 ports are powered off the ICH10R southbridge. The seventh, in blue, runs off the same JMicron that controls the IDE and an eSATA port out back.
The ICH10R's heatsink is low-profile enough not to interfere with a long graphics card positioned in the bottommost PCIe x16 slot.
Notice the gaggle of buttons on the bottom, just below the PCIc slot?
