MSI P55-CD53 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: If you're looking for a good board for an older LGA 1156 CPU, you can't go wrong with this, or much of any Intel-compatible MSI boards, for that matter. I'm still using this board to this day, purchased it back in 2010. First implementation I've seen of OC Genie. I'm not an overclocker, so this feature was more of a curiosity for me than anything else. It actually taught me a little about overclocking and got me doing some research, but otherwise I really don't use it, this kit performs well enough without OC'ing.

Cons: Absolutely none. Can't say enough good things about my experiences with MSI products and they've become my preferred motherboard and video card vendor since their GeForce 7950 GX2. Their products have been very reliable for me with military-class components and all-around no-nonsense design. Love the black and blue color scheming they use too.

Other Thoughts: Current system:

Intel Core i5 760
Corsair H55 water cooler
MSI P55-CD53
MSI GTX 560Ti HAWK
16 GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X 1333 MHz DDR3
1 x ADATA S510 120 GB SSD for OS and common apps
2 x ADATA S510 120 GB in RAID 0 for games
1 x WD Caviar Black 640 GB for mass data storage
Creative Audigy 2 ZS (the sound card that would never die)
Ultra 750W PSU
Windows 8 64-bit
Lian Li/Lancool PC-K62 chassis

I'm starting to collect parts for my next build, time to step things up, just ordered a Corsair Obsidian 650D case, and I'll definitely be getting MSI's Z77A-GD65 motherboard and an MSI GTX 600-series video card of some sort, haven't decided on which one just yet.

Pros: The card worked ok.

Cons: I paid for a MSI mothercard NEW. The box was not sealed and the moterboard bag had holes...
So, I paid for brand new matherboard and I got an open box. There is no difference between an open item and a new one.

Pros: inexpensive.....

Cons: Didn't like my power supply, replaced it, was very picky about the seating of the ram, 4 sticks of Gskill Eco cas 7 I paid a lot for and had to play shuffle the ram till the MB was happy. Would not run at all with my 3com Wireless card, and last but not least, the Video card errors if screws are tight, had to leave it slightly lose to get it working......

Pros: Solid motherboard for the price, compatible with cheap ram, plenty of sata ports and bios has a lot of features you wouldn't expect from an entry level board.

Cons: I built 2 computers using this board. One of them had the "usb" bug mentioned in some of the reviews, where some of the rear usb ports would just cut out. I managed to fix the issue with some updates, so I wouldn't take away an egg for that. If you intend on building a PC from scratch you should know how to fix minor issues that come up.

Other Thoughts: I would definitely buy this board again. This was my first time using an MSI board and I was impressed with how easily and error free everything went.

Pros: awesome motherboard, plenty of slots for expansion, pci, memory, etc.

this mobo was deff made with the overclocker in mind, has ton of features that aid in overclocking and a very unrestricted bios showing you every little frequency you can change. theres even HARDWARE buttons on the mobo to overclock the thing...

has these cool blue leds that flicker when the cpu does work

Cons: no sli or crossfire :(

Other Thoughts: Alot of people are saying they have problems with the usb ports, but they seem to be working just fine for me. I have a ton of flashdrives that i copy to everyday at the same time (part of job) and they work flawlessly! I wish this mobo had sli or even crossfire capability... cant have them all eh?

all running fine with
I5 760 (BX80605I5760)
WINTEC AMPX 1333 (3AXH1333C9WS4GK)
680watt psu

Pros: - Great price
- Extremely awesome overclocking tools. OC Genie is very underrated.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I was very skeptical about the OC Genie at first, and started doing my overclocking as I normally do with any other mb. After a while I thought I'd try engaging the OC Genie just to see how well it does.
The OC Genie is practically a 1-button automatic Overclocking tool. I could probably know nothing about overclocking and I'd still have a very well overclocked system just by pressing that button.

Pros: Lots of USB ports

Cons: As another review has mentioned, this motherboard seems to have faulty USB ports. For some reason, it won't recognize my android phone.. and even worse, it intermittently loses connection to my USB wifi adapter (sometimes it happens 10 times in 30 minutes, or other times it's once a day only). This really sucks when I'm either gaming or downloading a file that cannot be resumed. At first I thought it was my router, but after getting a new one, the problem still persists. It definitely has something to do with the motherboard.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,

We would like to apologize for the issue you have experienced with this particular mb. Please email me directly via usersupport2@msicomputer.com your mb's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHP55". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Specs look nice

Cons: DOA. Was able to post for 5 sec then fail. Faulty mobo

Other Thoughts: Wish it Did work. Specs seem promising but yet again 2nd msi board to be doa. Refunded and going with asus.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued MSI Customer,

We would like to apologize for the issue you have experienced with this particular mb. Please email me directly via usersupport2@msicomputer.com your mb's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHP55". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Solid motherboard, booted right up on the first try. Very easy to overclock and tons of usb ports.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Paired with an i5-760 and 8gb DDR 3, I knocked it up to 3.8ghz right away and its been perfectly stable after running tons of benchmarks.

Pros: Great board for the price. Installed it and fired it up with no problems at all. Also, put this board in another computer and it works just as well no problems. Lots of USB ports which I don't really need. Easy to overclock. I'm running an I5 and 4 gigs of ram and nothing slows it down really great to build on.

Cons: One PCI slot. I didn't think it would be a big deal since my current setup can run anything I throw at it. It would be nice to know I could run SLI configuration, live and learn haha

Other Thoughts: RAM is DDR3 only personally I don't see a huge difference in performance for the price.