Conclusion
Performance
MSI did a masterful job with the design of the Z87-GD65 Gaming motherboard. Its stock performance is top-notch with it remaining close to the other top boards performance-wise across the benchmarks run.
Pricing
As of June 02, the MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming was available at Newegg.com for $189.99. The board was also available from other retailers such as Amazon.com for $189.99 with Prime shipping and TigerDirect.com for 189.99.
Conclusion
Before continuing with our final thoughts on this board, we would like to take this opportunity to give our friends at MSI a hearty “Thank You” for giving us the opportunity and pleasure of reviewing the Z87-GD65 Gaming motherboard. I had high expectations coming into this review after having such a good experience with the previous revision of the board, the Z77A-GD65 Gaming. I was not disappointed. Not only does the Z87-GD65 Gaming board live up to the reputation of its predecessor, but it raises the bench in quite a few ways. MSI pulled out all the stops with this board, making it the ultimate gamer's board. From its black and red coloration and dragon-themed chipset heat sink to its plethora of add-in features, this board screams performance. The layout is superb with MSI taking the time on some small things that can become troublesome. The CMOS battery placement was masterfully done with it remaining accessible except in the case of running dual or tri-card configuration. The mSATA device port and primary PCI-Express x1 slot placement are further evidence of this design mastery.
Strengths
- Stock performance
- CMOS battery placement – accessible under most conditions
- Board layout and design
- Killer NIC
- Accessible PCI-Express x1 slot with all PCI-Express x16 slots filled
- UEFI BIOS design and usability
- Motherboard manual information
Weaknesses
- CMOS battery and reset jumper location blocked it board used in multi-GPU configuration
CMOS battery and reset jumper
CMOS battery and reset jumper location blocked it board used in multi-GPU configuration
Wish they didn’t go with red
Wish they didn’t go with red but silver or all black instead.
I see the under
I see the under drivers/software listed for this board it shows Lucid Virtu MVP 2.0.
Does that mean its got a full license included with the board, or is it just trial version?
Morry
Did you notice that the
Morry
Did you notice that the mb clocked the CPU to 3.9 at idle? Mine clocks the CPU to 3.9 at idle and the CPU will not drop down to 800 like it should. Did you notice this behavior on your board?
Does anyone know if the MB
Does anyone know if the MB com port is already enabled and just needs a 9 pin connector installed or is it enabled in the bios
Thanks
what are the best graphic
what are the best graphic cards to bring this mother boards system to its highest potential?
finaly a board with msata
finaly a board with msata 6gb/s