MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Board has been running solid for over a year now while overclocking. Nice aesthetics, multiple PCI-E 16x lanes.

Cons: This has only cropped up recently as I typically use the drivers that come with Windows 7 for audio. I needed to use the stereo mix feature on the sound card. After installing the MSI audio drivers the sound equalization enhancement no longer works. Windows gives me an error every time I open the sound properties that one of the enhancements is causing problems asking me if I would like to disable it.

MSI support has been lacklustre at best. I posted my problem on their forums and I received a single reply to which I replied back that their suggested did not work.

Other Thoughts: Because of this issue and MSI's lack of support I cannot recommend this board. Seeing that this board has been discontinued is probably a good thing.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issues that you are having with this product.
There are no known issues with the audio driver that we provide on the website since it's also used by many other customers.

However, you can try the latest driver from the Audio Controller manufacturer - Realtek, by visiting http://www.realtek.com.tw.
Click on "HD Audio Codec Driver", and proceed with driver download.

Please be advised that the forum is not official support forum therefore if you need further assistance you can call us directly at 626.271.1004 option 1, or you can email us at usreview@msi.com, thank you.

Best Regards,
MSI Review Team | usreview@msi.com

Pros: BIOS features

Cons: Ivy Bridge i7 3770 didn't boot. The board works fine with Sandy Bridge i5. New Ivy Bridge 3770 just results in debug beeps and the board shuts off. Ivy Bridge readiness was the only reason I bought this board (implied by PCIe Gen3). I hope MSI comes out with a BIOS fix for this soon.

Other Thoughts: I have the 2/12 BIOS (latest I see on MSI).

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 USUserSupport@msi.com or call us at 1-626-271-1004 Press 1 your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "MSIZ68A-GD55". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Multiple options for overclocking either via frequency multiplier or base clock frequency for locked CPU's EZ overclock genie and speed stepping works very well.

Cons: Would have liked another pair of SATA/3 ports, since I am running SLI cards the room for a PCIe raid card just isn't available.

Other Thoughts: I am running an intel i5 2500K over clocked to 4.3ghz in this board, 16GB of Mushkin black series ram, an OCZ agility 3 120GB SSD for my system drive, 2 WD 1TB caviar blacks in raid 1 for storage, 2 seagate barracudas for red hat, and dual EVGA 1GB gtx460 ti's in SLI. From cold start to launch of SWTOR and vent is 36 seconds on windows 7 pro.

I am very pleased with this board and it's future upgrade potential with the PCI 3.0 slots.

Pros: After debugging this thing you will be over qualified to work for MSI as an engineer.

Cons: I could write a novel on this.
1.Bios changes settings on reboot.
2. Bios is very sluggish.
3. Keyboards dont work when booting from DVD drive EVEN with correct settings.
4. Doesnt know how to set your ram specs to stock.
5. Doesnt change ram specs (timings or voltage)
6. Took me 24 hours to get windows going, I turn my back it shuts down and can never get it to boot again, NO exaggeration.
7. Overclocking does not work.

Maybe its just a doa board. But its my 3rd MSI board and all 3 have had bad experiences. Newegg took care of 2 of them, the second one I had to put up with for 2 years (no ocing my 1055T).

Other Thoughts: Newegg did me a great favor, Allowed me to get a full refund and purchase a new board. So I got cross shipping and no more of MSI's crude products. Double bonus. Im sure its case by case. I am Disney's customer service and Newegg by far is one of the best.

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 USUserSupport@msi.com your MB's serial number and your complete contact information, subject heading "EAHZ68A-GD55". I would like to help you get this resolved.

Best Regards,
User Support
MSI Product Support

Pros: Build on Power On/Reset Button on Mobo.
Easy Overclocking.
Works.

Cons: Nothing so far.

Pros: Works as intended. I did not have any trouble setting it up or installing the other components. No problems to report.

Cons: I'm not sure how I feel about the GUI BIOS. Just used to the old keyboard only BIOS.

Pros: USB 3.0, PciE 3.0, MSI quality

Cons: I wasn't happy with they way the SATA plugs are on the Mobo, when the board is in the case they face towards the front of the tower, with a midtower it can get pretty tight if you like to have your Hdd's in the middle of the tower like I do.

Pros: This baby's everything its advertised to be, just get it!!

Cons: None

Pros: It has all of the features of my asus maximus ,save for the rog connect stuff. It would have been the same price but the rebate was $30 so was a steal!! I haven't even got an ssd and it boots to win7 in 18-22 seconds every time.
I had no issues with the hardware and every slot works great!!

Cons: The only cons with this or any MSI board(I have recently purchased 3 total) is ththe live update feature does not update every thing like it should. In the beginning I only loaded the lan,chipset and bios drivers to make sure I could go online for the rest of the drivers. However, there are quite a few software programs as well as realtek and thx and audio genie drivers as well as other software that comes with the board. so after loading the drivers that the msi website gives for the board, you should run live update and choose auto scan. This performs an accurate scan of all drivers bios versions and software updates and displays current vers. alongside available version so you can see what updates are available.
Once you have done this , DO NOT download and install them as a group because it will not get them all no matter how many times you try.
Instead, after each update on the list is a download and instal button, and it is the quickest way to get all updates successfully.

Other Thoughts: There are a few to many sound choices and software that seems to conflict with each other. I was able to find a setting that worked for everything but I don't remember where.lol. Just keep messing with it and you will get it.

Overall, I am very pleased with the board and would buy another one.

Pros: New build with Corsair LP ram, hyper 212 evo, Corsair 90gb force gt ssd, 2 wd 500 gb hdds. Everything hooked up nicely in my CM 690 advanced. Cooler obviously cleared the ram. After a few days I overclocked my i-5 2500 up to 4.5 at 1.24 volts, with idle temps in the 30's. So did everything I asked it to.

Cons: Had trouble with mouse in uefi and window install, got it all done eventually and everything working well.

Other Thoughts: Boots up like a beast, overclocks well and getting 490 read write numbers. Maual was easy to understand. Happy with purchase so far.