• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

MSI X79A-GD80 Looks Monstrous

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,274 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Meet the X79A-GD80 from MSI, where active component cooling is making a comeback to motherboards. The Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 socket dwarfs everything around it, in the upper-half of the board. Typical of LGA2011 motherboards,the X79A-GD80 has two DDR3 DIMM slots on either sides of the CPU socket, supporting quad-channel DDR3 memory. The VRM area is above the socket, MSI used a 40 mm fan-heatsink to cool the VRM. Further, a fan-heatsink is used to cool the X79 PCH. With the PCH heatsink the use of fan is more of an effort to keep the heatsink small in size, so active air-flow can compensate for its size. That aside, expansion slots are all-PCIe, including three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x16), and four PCI-E x1 in middle. All 10 of the SATA 6 Gb/s ports from the PCH are internal ports, with just the one eSATA. Other connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio, dual gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
4,016 (0.70/day)
Location
Ohio
System Name Desktop|| Virtual Host 0
Processor Intel Core i5 2500-K @ 4.3ghz || 2x Xeon L5630 (total 8 cores, 16 threads)
Motherboard ASUS P8Z68-V || Dell PowerEdge R710 (Intel 5520 chipset)
Cooling Corsair Hydro H100 || Stock hotplug fans and passive heatsinks
Memory 4x4gb Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 || 12x4gb Hynix DDR3 1066 FB-DIMMs
Video Card(s) MSI GTX 760 Gaming Twin Frozr 4GB OC || Don't know, don't care
Storage Hitachi 7K3000 2TB || 6x300gb 15k rpm SAS internal hotswap, 12x3tb Seagate NAS drives in enclosure
Display(s) ViewSonic VA2349S || remote iDRAC KVM console
Case Antec P280 || Dell PowerEdge R710
Audio Device(s) HRT MusicStreamer II+ and Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 || Don't know, don't care
Power Supply SeaSonic X650 Gold || 2x870w hot-swappable
Mouse Logitech G500 || remote iDRAC KVM console
Keyboard Logitech G510 || remote iDRAC KVM console
Software Win7 Ultimate x64 || VMware vSphere 6.0 with vCenter Server 6.0
Benchmark Scores Over 9000 on the scouter
Oh dear, those fans are probably ridiculously high-pitched and loud. If the one on the VRM is 40mm, then the other one looks like it might even be 30mm :twitch:
 
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
2,356 (0.50/day)
Location
VT
Processor Intel i7-10700k
Motherboard Gigabyte Aurorus Ultra z490
Cooling Corsair H100i RGB
Memory 32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200MHz
Video Card(s) MSI Gaming Trio X 3070 LHR
Display(s) ASUS MG278Q / AOC G2590FX
Case Corsair X4000 iCue
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply Corsair RM650x 650W Fully Modular
Software Windows 10
Oh dear, those fans are probably ridiculously high-pitched and loud. If the one on the VRM is 40mm, then the other one looks like it might even be 30mm :twitch:

Yea, not exactly sure what they are going for there. This thing is like the Frankenboard, a patchwork nightmare from another world...
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
2,665 (0.47/day)
System Name Dire Wolf IV
Processor Intel Core i9 14900K
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z790-I GAMING WIFI
Cooling Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280
Memory 2x24GB Corsair DDR5 6667
Video Card(s) NVIDIA RTX4080 FE
Storage AORUS Gen4 7300 1TB + Western Digital SN750 500GB
Display(s) Alienware AW3423DWF (QD-OLED, 3440x1440, 165hz)
Case Corsair Airflow 2000D
Power Supply Corsair SF1000L
Mouse Razer Deathadder Essential
Keyboard Chuangquan CQ84
Software Windows 11 Professional
Yea, not exactly sure what they are going for there. This thing is like the Frankenboard, a patchwork nightmare from another world...

Probably an early engineering sample without the elaborate final cooling. We use such makeshift coolers on engineering samples at work as well.
 
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Messages
749 (0.14/day)
Location
Netherlands
System Name gaming system
Processor 2600k @ 4.2 ghz
Motherboard MSI Z77 MPower
Cooling Thermalright ultra extreme 120 rev.C w/noctua NF-S12B push/pull
Memory 16gb corsair vengeance 2400 c11 @1.5 v/
Video Card(s) GB gtx670 WF3x sli @1080/1372/6660(core/boost/mem)
Storage 2x samsung 850evo 250gb raid 0 ,2tb wdblack, 3TB wd purple
Display(s) Samsung Syncmaster P2770FH, asus VH242t/19" lg 1440x900
Case fractal design r4
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Corsair HX1050
Mouse Razer abyssus
Keyboard corsair k70
Software Windows 10 pro x64
Whats wrong with those mb engineers?? All x79 boards looks like shit, and why fans? Make a bigger heatsinks, plz make a board that looks like rog boards or 790i by xfx/evga
 

95Viper

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
12,645 (2.24/day)
Probably an early engineering sample without the elaborate final cooling. We use such makeshift coolers on engineering samples at work as well.

+1 My guess, too.:toast:

I am sure they will pretty it up, before shipping 'em out.

The thing ain't that big, if you actually look at the mounting holes... it is a spec board.
:)
 

mustang9

New Member
Joined
May 31, 2011
Messages
12 (0.00/day)
guys... its pretty unlikely the final version will have fans.

Ofcourse this is not the final version, its an enginering sample. This wont even look like the GD80 at all when its finished!
 
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
513 (0.09/day)
Location
You are here.
System Name Prometheus
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950x
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming
Cooling EKWB EK-240 AIO D-RGB
Memory G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 4070Ti Ventus 3X OC 12GB
Storage WD Black SN850 1TB + 1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB
Display(s) DELL U4320Q 4K + Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 4K
Case Jonsbo A4 ver1.1 SFF
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Corsair SF750 Platinum SFX
Mouse Logitech Pro Wireless
Keyboard Vortex Race 3 75% MX Brown
Software Windows 11 Pro x64
Still an ES board. So look at it and then forget about it.
 

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer
Joined
Aug 31, 2010
Messages
12,944 (2.61/day)
Location
Loveland, CO
System Name Ryzen Reflection
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master
Cooling 2x EK PE360 | TechN AM4 AMD Block Black | EK Quantum Vector Trinity GPU Nickel + Plexi
Memory Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem 2x16GB B-Die 3600 @ 14-14-14-28-42-288-2T 1.45v
Video Card(s) Zotac AMP HoloBlack RTX 3080Ti 12G | 950mV 1950Mhz
Storage WD SN850 500GB (OS) | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) | Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s) Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS | Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS | Asus 24" IPS (portrait mode)
Case Lian Li PC-011D XL | Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s) FiiO K7 | Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition
Software Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit
yeah. LGA2011 is looking ridiculous to me. Why is Intel trying to put everything on the CPU die? The boards for LGA2011 look retarded. My platform upgrade will probably be Z68 and Ivy bridge on one of those or Bull dozer. I know they are ES boards but they still look lame with the memory slots around the CPU and the CPU socket looks giant!
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Messages
2,665 (0.47/day)
System Name Dire Wolf IV
Processor Intel Core i9 14900K
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX Z790-I GAMING WIFI
Cooling Arctic Liquid Freezer II 280
Memory 2x24GB Corsair DDR5 6667
Video Card(s) NVIDIA RTX4080 FE
Storage AORUS Gen4 7300 1TB + Western Digital SN750 500GB
Display(s) Alienware AW3423DWF (QD-OLED, 3440x1440, 165hz)
Case Corsair Airflow 2000D
Power Supply Corsair SF1000L
Mouse Razer Deathadder Essential
Keyboard Chuangquan CQ84
Software Windows 11 Professional
yeah. LGA2011 is looking ridiculous to me. Why is Intel trying to put everything on the CPU die? The boards for LGA2011 look retarded. My platform upgrade will probably be Z68 and Ivy bridge on one of those or Bull dozer. I know they are ES boards but they still look lame with the memory slots around the CPU and the CPU socket looks giant!

Because it is cheaper to make a system out of one piece of silicon with everything on it, rather than make multiple ones and interconnect them on the motherboard PCB. That increases profit margins.
 
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
1,166 (0.20/day)
Location
Hampton Roads
Processor Xeon x5650
Motherboard SABERTOOTH X58
Cooling Fans
Memory 24 GB Kingston HyperX 1600
Video Card(s) GTX 1060 3GB
Storage small ssd
Display(s) Dell 2001F, BenQ short throw
Case Lian Li
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply X750
Software Mint 19.3, Win 10
Benchmark Scores not so fast...
Top