MSI P67 and H67 Motherboard Preview

Details of MSI’s new socket LGA 1155 P67 and H67 motherboards show up, IDE connectors finally absent

Details of MSI’s new socket LGA 1155 P67 and H67 motherboards show up, IDE connectors finally absent

MSI has sent out details this week showing what looks like the majority of their range of Sandy Bridge motherboards.

P67A-GD65

First up is the highest specification board, sporting a very impressive array of features:

ATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
2x PCI-E x16 slots, supporting ATI CrossfireX & NVIDIA SLI
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
4x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
2x eSATA
4x USB 3.0, 10x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
3x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, DrMOS, ClickBIOS x2, Super Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

Noteable features here include high quality components and USB 3.0 ports for front and back if you’re lucky enough to have a case that supports it. Also note that there is no IDE port included in this board (or any of them). This is a welcome space-saver and also a good excuse to finally move to SATA if you’re still using IDE and its bulky cables. MSI also adpots a dual BIOS design for this board, preventing corruption or bad flashes to require an RMA (in most cases). Voltage check points and power buttons also feature. All suggestions from MSI say that this is their highest end board, but the possibility of there being an even higher end overclocking/gaming board can never be ruled out.

P67A-GD55

Next up is the GD55. This drops some SATA 6Gb/s ports, Dual BIOS and Voltage check points as well as the eSATA connection and part of the cooling assembly. If these features aren’t important for you it may be a decent saving over the GD65:

ATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
2x PCI-E x16 slots, supporting ATI CrossfireX & NVIDIA SLI
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
4x USB 3.0, 10x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
3x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, DrMOS, ClickBIOS, Super Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

P67A-C45

Next is the C45, a more-budget orientated board with a thinner PCB, no multi-GPU support as well as a few other cut-backs across the connectivity options:

ATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
1x PCI-E x16 slot
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
4x USB 3.0, 10x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
3x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, ClickBIOS, i-Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

P67S-C43

The final ATX option drops, amongst a few changes, heat sinks for the CPU power VRMs and USB 3.0 support:

ATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
1x PCI-E x16 slot
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
14x USB 2.0
3x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, ClickBIOS, i-Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

H67MA-ED55

Now for the mATX boards. These sport the same attractive black and blue design and feature many of the high-end options seen on their bigger brothers. The ED55 is the highest specification model, note the total absence of PCI slots on this board and the other mATX models. Note also, although it carries most of the features of the GD65, it has no front panel USB 3.0 and despite having 2 PCI-E x16 slots, it does not support CrossfireX or SLI as a limitation of the H67 chipset:

mATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
2x PCI-E x16 slots, Integrated graphics with HDMI/DVI/D-Sub outputs
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
2x USB 3.0, 12x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
2x PCI-E x1
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, DrMOS, ClickBIOS x2, Super Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

H67MA-E45

The next mATX board is the E45. This loses some of the high end features of the ED55, but retains most of the core functionality:

mATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
1x PCI-E x16 slots, Integrated graphics with HDMI/DVI/D-Sub outputs
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
2x USB 3.0, 12x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
3x PCI-E x1
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, ClickBIOS, i-Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

H67MS-E43

Now we see the most basic offering from MSI, the E43. Although the same basic PCB as the other mATX boards, we lose more features such as heatsinks and USB 3.0 support:

mATX Form Factor
LGA 1155 socket utilising Intel 6-series chipset
4 DIMMs (max 16GB)
1x PCI-E x16 slots, Integrated graphics with HDMI/DVI/D-Sub outputs
8-channel (7.1) HD audio with S/PDIF out
1GbE LAN
2x SATA 6Gb/s, 4x SATA 3Gb/s
12x USB 2.0
2x IEEE 1394
3x PCI-E x1
Other features: Military Class II, OC Genie II, ClickBIOS, i-Charger, Intant OC (Control Center II), Winki III, THX TruStudio PRO

Overall a very impressive range of boards from MSI, I think most will agree they look attractive enough, now we have to wait until January before we can see some representative performance figures.

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