![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , September 08, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI P55-GD80 Motherboard Review
MSI pulled out all the stops in designing P55-GD80. This motherboards sports the new P55 chipset supporting the Lynnfield Core i5 and Core i7 processors. From its sharp looks to its bullet proof design, this board looks about ready to take its X58 based brethren head on.
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel LGA 1156 Core i5 750 CPU with the board base clock running at 133MHz and 2 x 2GB DDR3 memory modules running at 1333MHz were used in subsystem testing.
Audio - Subjective Listening
One of the easiest ways to determine the quality of the audio subsystem is via a subjective sound test. Ideally, a sound test requires audio covering the entire spectrum, from subtle to intense. For this test, I chose to listen to the Lacuna Coil album Shallow Life.
The audio listening experience was enjoyable, with no discernable distortion detected.
Audio - Microphone Port Testing
The MIC-IN input was tested using our standard Labtec Desk Mic 524 testing microphone. Spoken words were recorded and played back using Microsoft Sound Recorder, with the Microphone Boost option disabled and enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the Advanced menu under the Microphone section within the Volume Control menu.
While there was no detected distortion in either case, overall voice pickup and audibility was much better with the Microphone Boost option enabled.
Drive Performance
To adequately test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 connections, we chose to use an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected to both ports. SATA drive tests were performed using Samsung 40GB SATA II hard drives on the SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in a RAID 0 16k block size configuration and in standalone mode on both the Intel P55 and JMicron controllers. All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program
The results I witnessed during this test were definitely peculiar when compared with past performances from other chipsets and boards. The Intel P55 chipset based SATA RAID 0 array matched performance with the standalone SATA drives on both controllers, with the JMicron based RAID 0 array performing at levels barely above the IEEE 1394 based driver. However, the JMicron array’s mediocre performance was most likely due to the lack of block size tuning in the array setup utility. The external drives performed as expected, both on par with one another. In all cases, the CPU utilization remained below 1% during all tests.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used in conjunction with Windows Task Manager to measure the performance of the Realtek GigE NICs. Note that it was found in testing that both NICs performed on par with one another. DU meter was used to measure bandwidth, with Windows Task Manager to monitor the CPU utilization on the test system. For the test itself, a 750MB archive file containing various sized .WMA audio files for the large file transfer test and a 750MB worth of various sized .WMA audio files for the small files transfer test were used in conjunction with an integrated Gigabit NIC on the host system and a crossover cable to connect the host system to the test system. A crossover cable was used to rule out any possible bandwidth losses due to hub or switch passage.
Realtek GigE controller
The large files transfer tests performed better than expected, with the download speeds besting that of upload by almost 20 MB/s at an amazing 49 MB/s average speed. The CPU utilization remained under 5% for the duration of both tests.
The small file transfer results were equally impressive, with the download and upload speeds almost identical, both coming in at about a 27 MB/s average speed. Again, the CPU utilization remained below 5% for the duration of the testing performed.
Synthetic Performance Testing
Test Systems
The following system configurations were used for the system benchmark graphs, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Clock - Memory Type
Sisoft Sandra 2009
Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in Dual Channel mode for all systems with the exception of the Intel X58 based board which ran in Triple Channel mode.
At stock speeds, the P55-GD80 easily matched performance with the other P55 based board, but remained woefully behind the X58 based board even in an overclocked capacity. Take these results with a grain of salt though. At similar speeds, the P55-GD80 displays about two thirds of the performance of the x58, which is where it should be given the dual versus triple channel memory mode difference.
Here we see the P55-GD80 again performing on par with the other P55 based board at stock speeds, with its overclocked performance coming in much closer to the similarly clocked X58 based board.
Hiper Pi
In an impressive should of strength, the overclocked P55-GD80 managed to close the gap with the X58 based board, with the board running on par to the other P55 based system at stock speeds. The board is showing strong, and running exactly as expected.
wPrime
The P55-GDF80 again manages to match performance with the other P55 based system at stock speeds, with its overclocked version coming in between the X58 and stock speed runs.