MSI P67 GD55 owners, have some questions (Beast, feel free to answer)

Hollywood

Hollywood

Hollywood

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As you might have come across in some other threads on the Asus P87 Pro, I have been on of the unfortunates who got a board that's not being cooperative.

While it's on it's way back/RMA, a friend brought over a Gigabyte UD4 and a MSI GD55.

Without going into massive detail, one of the boards is now a spare and I could choose which I wanted.

I told him I was waiting on the Asus Pro to come back, and he asked why I didn't take one of his boards, get myself up and running, and then sell the Asus board?

My initial thoughts were:

A) I chose the Asus Pro, darnit, i want the Asus Pro!
B) A lot of reviews showed it as the stronger brand for overclocking.
C) It has the bluetooth built in
D) The UEFI BIOS is the slickest of all available at this time


But after mulling over it a few days, I'm starting to think that those reasons aren't that great.

So playing self-Freudian games, my counter arguements to myself were:

A) Get over it, you can't always get what YOU want
B) A lot of reviews also show the other boards as strong OC, all 1155 are strong OC.
C) You don't even have any bluetooth devices yet, and you can buy a baby dongle later.
D) The UEFI Bios on the MSI is plenty good for OC, and obviously much nicer than a standard BIOS.

So at this point I was heading down the MSI road and continuing the self-Freudian, I came up with some positive notes:

A)The GD55 has the PCI slots at the bottom of the board. The Asus P87 has one on each side of the second PCI E slot.
This means that your soundcard is smack between two GPUs, blocking one of the GPU intake fans, and also warming up the soundcard unnecessarily. With the GD55 you don't have this problem.

B) The GD55 has it's power led/hdd led/reset/power ground/speaker blocks broken up. On the Asus, the block is one piece on the corner of the board. You can't use a long GPU in the third PCI E lane, because the case power block is in the way.

C) The GD55 overclocked in reviews, to within a few hundred mhz of the Asus Pro; in some cases, it went higher. It should be sufficient that 4.5 ghz on stock air cooling is achievable.

D) The GD55 is close enough as a direct competitor to the Pro. GD80 flagship vs. Asus Sabertooth; GD65 enthusiast vs. Asus P87 Deluxe; GD55 vs. Asus P87 PRO?



Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm really close to using the GD55 and telling Asus to take a hike and selling that board when it returns.


Anyone else considered the same?

Anyone have any personal and insighftul comments about pros/cons of the MSI series so far- and to the point so that I am ok to use the GD55 instead of the GD65 like Beast did?
 
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Well I am vastly more impressed with the MSI board than the Asus. The EFI interface isnt half as nice but, and this is absolutely key, it actually works as opposed to the Asus that imo is not yet fit for sale - There are so many bios issues currently its ridiculous.

I originally went with the Asus Pro mainly for the EFI interface and board layout, as it happens under close scrutiny the MSI has better layout (at least for my needs anyway, GD65)

I've also noticed I suffer much much less vdroop with the MSI - again probably a bios issue with digiVRM control, but im just guessing...

If only Asus spent as much dev time on good bios code rather than a flashy interface they'd probably have a decent product out now - I dont doubt that in a few months time they'll have sorted it and the boards will be great but right now I would forget the Asus, you might be lucky. Chances are you wont.

I would go with the MSI, not much experiance of the Gigabyte but having got both the Asus Pro and GD65 here right now there is no question which one im sticking with.
 
There seems to be quite a few loyal Asus supporters here as this question is popping up nearly daily with Asus likers who are almost hell bent on avoiding MSI for some strange reason.

I was looking at getting an Asus but the unusually high amount of problems floating around put me off, the last thing I want is to be sodding around with an expensive build which isn't working/performing correctly. It sounds like it is luck of the draw with the Asus as some are having no issues but the reported problems were enough to make me look else where.

I took a gamble with the MSI GD65 which I purchased this week, my decision was made by only two things. The HardOCP review and Dave_Beast's findings on the GD55.

I don't regret my decision at all. The board is fantastic and works solidly enabling me to to hit 4.5Ghz by only raising V core to 1.32v

Asus will likely correct the problems sooner or later but it sounds like they have quite a lot of investigating and work to do.

Buy the MSI GD55 from your mate and stop wasting time :p - you could be having fun and enjoying your rig right now.
 
I agree with what you two have said.

Though I should recant my previous statement about GPUs blocking the chassis power headers.
The same thing happens with the MSI boards, but worse than Asus, because at least with the Asus one, it's the THIRD and highly unused PCIE slot, that will end up blocking the power headers. With the MSI board, its the SECOND PCIE slot. You can't put in a full length GPU, and still have your power led and speaker connected.


But more vastly important is the flashing. I have had nothing but trouble with flashing 1155 boards. This is the seocnd in a row now that's failed.

I went into the BIOS, used a flash drive/stick to load the BIOS. The progress bar begins, finshes, system reboots. It beeps a few times then sits there with a blinking cursor.

So I shutdown and clear the CMOS. When it comes back up, it blinks briefly then informs me of some system details and that the BIOS was reset. It asks me to choose between entering setup or continuing(by pressing F1 or F2).

At this point I'm thinking ok, failed flash, no big deal, at least I can get the CMOS reset on this board. Until I press F1 and nothing happens. Nor does pressing F2 do anything.

So here I sit and I cannot do anything because the system won't recognize the keyboard inputs.

It's unreal...
 
I say go the GD65. With the 20% VAT back option I think its cheaper or same price as the GD55 and you get the extras for free.

My GD65 has worked flawlessly since I've had it. Can't say I'm, dissapointed with the BIOS even if some people say its clunky compared to the ASUS one. The thing is its a massive step forward from the old styled bios so I'm happy with any improvements, oh and yes it actually works which helps.
 
The fact that I got it to install Windows and idle for about thirty minutes was great..at least in contrast to the Asus board.

But dealing with another 1155 board that went straight to the pooper after a BIOS flash is sorely dissapointing.

I think it's worse with this board, because the CMOS clear sits me in front of two options, neither of which the system will accept when I hit the keyboard.

I have no idea of how to make it accept the F1/F2 commands now.
 
Sorry to hear your having problems :(

I went with the MSI GD55 as opposed to Asus because there were a few reviews floating around about the BIOS having cold boot issues etc. That tipped my balance towards MSI, I chose not to go Gigabyte as i've had Gigabyte fail on me in the past.

I went for a GD55 as at the time of buying there was no cashback offer on the 65, and I figured I didn't need all the extra connections, which I don't :)

To summarise, great board, stable at up to 4.8ghz so far, but have reached over 5ghz, great voltage control and no issues to report.
 
It may turn out alright, IF I can get it to recognize the keyboard input.

I am using two different ps/2 and also a ps/2 with USB adapter and nothing works.


How can I RMA a board that technically works?
 
An interesting development.

Now, today, without making any hardware changes, when I boot the computer after a CMOS clear, it blinks the cursor a few times while flashing lights on the keyboard. Before, there were no keyboard lights except the numlock, which randomly would be on and other times it would be off.

Then it proceeds to the 'you have cleared CMOS' notification screen.
When I press F1 or F2, something happens. The computer CPU phase lights go up to stage six (from stage three) and the text at the end of the message gets cut off.
Before I press F1 or F2, the last few lines read something like :

"Press F1 to enter setup"
"Press F2 to continue"

After I press either of those keys, the screen then shows this:

"Press F1 t"
"Press F2 t"

It's like some black image has been laid over the letters, that or it's completely borked and damaged.

I thought if I could get it to recognize the keyboard inputs it would work, but obviously not.

I'm ready to pack it in and hope a third board will work.
 
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