Production-Grade MSI Z77A-GD65 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

At CES, we got to check out MSI's Z77A-GD65 motherboard in its baby-suit, with just basic heatsinks, as the production ones were getting finalized. At the IT Partners show, we got to see the production model of this board, complete with its final VRM and PCH heatsink design.

The Z77A-GD65 uses a 9-phase VRM to power the CPU. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8, depending on the second slot being populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH), and four PCIe x1. Storage connectivity include four SATA 6 Gb/s (two from the PCH, two from a third-party controller), and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports. Display connectivity includes D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. Other features include a number of USB 3.0, USB 2.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio, and features for overclockers such as consolidated voltage measurement points, redundant UEFI BIOS, and OC Genie. It is slated for April.

[THE_EGG]

hmm this looks interesting, it may stop the 8X/8X limitation of the old pci-e gen 2 boards (as it becomes the equivalent of 16X/16X gen 2). I MUST UPGRADE

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by THE_EGG

hmm this looks interesting, it may stop the 8X/8X limitation of the old pci-e gen 2 boards (as it becomes the equivalent of 16X/16X gen 2). I MUST UPGRADE

Yup, as long as the GPU is Gen 3.0 compliant, too.

[Isenstaedt]

Why is the UEFI BIOS redundant?

[dariok]

Originally Posted by Isenstaedt

Why is the UEFI BIOS redundant?

UEFI BIOS is not redundant, it is a redundant UEFI BIOS, a fail-safe.

[Octavean]

No Intel Thunderbolt,.....?

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by Octavean

No Intel Thunderbolt,.....?

The GD80 has it.

[Octavean]

Thanks, good to know.

It looks like Intel Thunderbolt is being positioned only on higher-end boards then. I guess this is fine but Thunderbolt would probably be more widely adopted if it were more like USB 3.0 which can be found on new hardware regardless of whether its high-end, midrange or low-end.