MSI P55M-GD45 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: DRMOS supposedly keeps PWM cooler and definitely is a lot less cluttered. Haven't tried OC yet to vouch for stability, but I don't really push my PCs anyways. Will push to 160 BCLK for DDR-1600 once I have spent some time learning the system's characteristics at stock speeds. The BIOS fan control has a few more options than other boards (I'm a noise nut so this is important to me). PWM has 12.5% increments for base speed and a temp target, SYSFAN1/2 have ability to select 50/75/100% speeds. On board sound is fantastic. I'm used to old mobos with noisy on-board and have been using an Audigy 2ZS for years because of it. On this board I hooked up my case front panel header and have been enjoying clear audio ever since. The auto-sensing jacks is a nice touch too. The sound drivers work with Win7 x64 and are quite well-polished. I'm very impressed, things have come a long way since I've built my last few rigs.

Cons: Haven't messed with OC too much but some of the memory settings might be a pain. Yes you get lots of configurability, but it might be overwhelming, and you have to adjust for each channel so memory OC might take a bit of work. RAM latch clearance to a pre-installed video card is tight. I was only able to unlatch about 1/2 way, but this was sufficient to put the RAM in. Worse comes to worst you can install RAM w/ no card in but taking video card out to mess with the RAM might be a pain, esp. if you have a water cooling loop limiting video card mobility. You know what you're getting yourself into if you're that serious though. On-board power switch gets a bit hidden down in the corner between the USB and front panel headers. Only 2 SATA cables and I wanted to hook up 3 devices. Not really a big deal since I had several laying around.

Overall Review: I picked this up because I was happy with a previous MSI board I bought for a computer earlier this year. I was leaning towards a cheaper Gigabyte, especially with glowing reviews of it on review sites, but thought the MSI had a few more features fan-wise and the DRMOS might provide a bit more longevity or stability. Worked fine with 8 GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR-1600 CL-9 1.5V (two 2x2GB kits). Do we really need IDE, floppy, COM, and LPT headers these days? Maybe in rare cases but I'd say it's the exception rather than the norm.

Pros: Installed and ran perfectly fist chance. MOBO is clearely marked for an easy installation. IDE for HDD is in a very odd spot making it hard to install if you already have a graphics card in the PCIE slot there. I only had to use it because my SATA DVD rom wasnt there yet... OCing is VERY easy, expecially if you install the MOBO Software utility.. You can even save different profiles for quick changing on the fly... awesome!@

Cons: IDE for HDD is in a very odd spot - no big deal really

Overall Review: actually didnt mean to order the mini atx board - there were 2 promos one for normal atx, one for this one.. i picked the wrong one after researching and having them both in my shopping cart (deleted wrong one) BUT - its ok. Dont need that many PCI spots anyways :D In bios, disable the BLUE Leds on the mobo if you have a window... they flash so much it makes me feel like im getting teretts syndrome... hah

Pros: Good price to value board if you get everthing that is suppose to come with it. Fair overclocking features. Crossfire support in a mirco board. ESATA, Firewire, and lots of USB ports. 4 DIMM slots. Good on-board sound.

Cons: Spacing of the PCIe questionable for most crossfire boards in that they are very close. 2 cards in crossfire would eliminate use of both PCI and PIC express X1. In other words if you install 2 video cards they will cover all expansion slots. Not a real fault of the board, it is a micro ATX, just plan ahead. HDD backup software disk was not in box (instruction manual was) and crossFire link cable was missing (listed in the packing checklist but not in box).

Overall Review: Makes big deal about oc genie but no mentiion of it in manual. Have to enable in BIOS. In my case OC genie set system to high and drove temps up (set volts to high). I manually OC to 3.2 ghz temps staying in 40-60 range on core i5 stock cooler. Used g-skill 1600 memory picked up as 1333 by default set BIOS XMS memory to enable picked up as 1600 at correct timing and volts. (XMS memory option in BIOS not mentioned in manual) Setup disk for MB drivers went without problem. This is a good board would have got 5 stars if parts not missing and user manual updated to include all features. G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM and Core i5 750 installed.

Pros: This board has everything I was looking for in a home for my Core i5. It doesn't have too much or too little features. The SATA ports also accept clamp and latch SATA cables (definate plus). Driver CD comes with Windows 7 drivers on it. I don't know about all of these boards, but mine has a Lotes socket (seeing as how the Foxconn sockets are having some issues currently). This will make a difference if you plan on doing heavy (and I mean heavy) overclocking.

Cons: I wish the eSATA ports on the back were powered ones, oh well, no big loss. Also, the graphics card slot does have the graphics card coming very close to the memory slots. Please keep in mind if you are getting a card with a passive heat sink on the back of the card (I knew this when going in and did get such a card, but fortunately mine just barely fit).

Overall Review: I usually don't use anything but ASUS boards, but decided to try the MSI board, and I'm definately glad that I did. This is definately a great board that's easy to set up. If you don't like lights showing out of your case, go into the BIOS and turn off the LED lights for the power phase indicators (they can be a bit distracting). Definately keep to the approved memory list for this board, seeing as this is a first generation board with an Intel chipset, and Intel chipsets are notorious for being picky about the RAM they want to work with.

Pros: -easy to read instructions/manual -easy to install all parts -fits nicely in my emachine case which is...tiny -works as expected

Cons: -Any decent video card will cover the express x 1 slot -the ide connector has to wrap around pci sound card, and my pci-e x 16 video card just to get to the dvd rom bay

Overall Review: -I have to google some of the features in the bios, there's so many -again...so many features

Pros: This uATX board has plenty of "USEFUL" features at a great price, and it fits the application perfectly: HTPC. It's nice to disable unneeded devices like IDE, 1394, COM, LPT, etc. Even for a "budget" uATX P55 board, it has overclocking features and the ability to adjust memory clock ratio (no need to be stuck with synchonized clocks when overclocking the CPU). So for HTPC, this board is perfect and runs great out of the box with 4x2GB DDR3 memory loaded and paired with i5 750.

Cons: With the OrigenAE s14v case, the right angle SATA ports are blocked by the drive cage. With a 9.5" dual slot graphics card like the HD 5850, the card covers over the SATA ports. So the card needs to be pulled when changing SATA connections. Also, the ports are a bit weak so it is easy to tug and pull the SATA cables without pressing down the clip.

Pros: USB ports... and lots of them . Easy install with Window 7. MSI put a power button on the motherboard! Overall a very nice stable motherboard. My first MSI product and I am very pleased. newegg super fast shipping and processing of my order!

Cons: My only nitpick is the IDE slot. I saved $30 by re-using my IDE DVD-R, but I wish the IDE and floppy slots were reversed. You will need a long IDE cable to stretch across your video card to the IDE slot at the bottom of the motherboard. Not enough to take away and egg because I should have gotten a SATA DVD a long time ago!

Overall Review: If your like me and do not read manuals... when you first turn on the power you will be greeted by three beeps. This is the first desktop motherboard I have seen where the DIMM1 is the second slot. No biggie...RTDM (newegg made me take out the F). Make sure you install your SATA cables BEFORE your video card or maybe before you put the motherboard in the case. Not a big fan of the side mounted SATA ports... but it does help cable management. At least in my case... I could not get my finders in between the hard drive and the video card to plug in the SATA cable.

Pros: 5 eggs for Newegg for rushing my order 5 eggs for Fedex fast shipping and handling 5 eggs MSI for producing a good quality p55 micro mobo

Cons: not a con, here are my specs: windows7 pro 64bit i5 core sapphire 5770 (5870 is just an over kill) 8G of ddr3 2000 ripjaw ram (2G/slot) 1T WD HDD MSI P55 GD45 1156 micro LG bluray lightscribe Antec 900 II 750W corsair cooler master cpu heatsink fan 1156

Overall Review: never thought a micro is all that i would ever need. ..onboard audio is pretty good, didnt have to install Xfi soundcard best of all, it booted right away on first attempt. didnt have any problems what-so-ever. did see any reason for OC'ing my chip. all games that i play run flawlessly on high settings (crysis, fallout and farmville) hahahahaha. cpu runs only on 45% capacity when playing games and manipulating layers on photoshop. i didnt care much about benchmark points, those are just for showing and bragging.