MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING (LGA 1150)

[cadaveca]

Man the ramparts! A dragon is approaching! It's coming to eat our pretty Haswells! Clad in black and red like its older brother, MSI's Z87-GD65 GAMING was genetically engineered out of the base DNA the Z77-GD65 GAMING used, but don't be fooled, the Z87-GD65 GAMING has a few unique abilities.

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[BiggieShady]

Not everyone likes dragons
I love it when hardware is so good that negative points get to be funny

 

[Nordic]

Tried to look up what specifications that fnatic has because that sounded weird to me. I only found this page. I'll go out on a limb and say that their motherboard specifications are a paid sponsorship of their clan...

 

[LagunaX]

Daenerys Targaryan likes dragons...

 

[pjl321]

Thanks for the review Dave. Questioning the new overclocking section though. Do you not feel re-running all the tests at the maximum overclock possible on that particular board would help us decided what board is best to buy?

I understand where you are coming from doing it at a set and very attainable by all 4.6GHz for direct comparability but imagine motherboard 'A' performed really well at this 4.6GHz but was pretty much topped out and motherboard B, C, D... all went on to 5+GHz. From this new lay out it would look mobo A was the best to buy.

I guess I'm saying where has the max overclock gone?

 

[ArchStupid]

How come the first picture of the mobo is called 'vanity.jpg'?
Do you really dislike dragons that much cadaveca?

 

[cadaveca]

Thanks for the review Dave. Questioning the new overclocking section though. Do you not feel re-running all the tests at the maximum overclock possible on that particular board would help us decided what board is best to buy?

I understand where you are coming from doing it at a set and very attainable by all 4.6GHz for direct comparability but imagine motherboard 'A' performed really well at this 4.6GHz but was pretty much topped out and motherboard B, C, D... all went on to 5+GHz. From this new lay out it would look mobo A was the best to buy.

I guess I'm saying where has the max overclock gone?

It was taken away by heat affecting max clocks. Temps can change from mount to mount as well. I had tested multiple boards and chips before coming to this decision. There is no other accurate way to compare boards other than by per-clock efficiency. Memory clocking does vary from board to board, so I showed that. Memory overclocking is what will affect max clocks, IMHO, for 24/7 use.

How come the first picture of the mobo is called 'vanity.jpg'?
Do you really dislike dragons that much cadaveca?

That's what I call that shot. The same shot is there in every board review, and it saves me great time by naming files the same and using the same review template for all reviews. It also helps ensure I cover everything that is needed.

 

[XtremeCuztoms]

Nice review cadaveca..

 

[pjl321]

It was taken away by heat affecting max clocks. Temps can change from mount to mount as well. I had tested multiple boards and chips before coming to this decision. There is no other accurate way to compare boards other than by per-clock efficiency. Memory clocking does vary from board to board, so I showed that. Memory overclocking is what will affect max clocks, IMHO, for 24/7 use.
--

Again, i do understand why you chose to do it that way but surely you must appreciate the importance of knowing what the maximum overclock was with each board you test?

 

[cadaveca]

Again, i do understand why you chose to do it that way but surely you must appreciate the importance of knowing what the maximum overclock was with each board you test?

I do. But I can tell you, I see no difference so far. What I do see, is a difference in voltages needed for my 4.6 GHz clock. This serves the same function as "max OC". A CPU will ALWAYS require the same current to push a specific clock(until damaged). So then, it's matter of how efficient boards supply power...which power consumption testing and load voltages cover.



So, while "max OC" may show one board does better than others, the same data can be gleaned form what I already present, although you might need to think about it a bit.


I have these boards already, with more coming, so my testing is not from limited attempts.:

Also, do keep in mind that in my books, gaming boards are reviewed against gaming boards, OC against OC, mITX vs mITX.... In the coming weeks, I think this may prove to show why I do things the way that I do, but rest assured that I do test every single angle although all results may not be reported in reviews. If a board seems to overclock far better than another, I'll definitely report that. IN the end, I should be picking one "best" board form each user category.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I do. But I can tell you, I see no difference so far. What I do see, is a difference in voltages needed for my 4.6 GHz clock. This serves the same function as "max OC". A CPU will ALWAYS require the same current to push a specific clock(until damaged). So then, it's matter of how efficient boards supply power...which power consumption testing and load voltages cover.



So, while "max OC" may show one board does better than others, the same data can be gleaned form what I already present, although you might need to think about it a bit.


I have these boards already, with more coming, so my testing is not from limited attempts.:

http://img.techpowerup.org/130531/DSCF9101.jpg



Also, do keep in mind that in my books, gaming boards are reviewed against gaming boards, OC against OC, mITX vs mITX.... In the coming weeks, I think this may prove to show why I do things the way that I do, but rest assured that I do test every single angle although all results may not be reported in reviews. If a board seems to overclock far better than another, I'll definitely report that. IN the end, I should be picking one "best" board form each user category.

That's some nice boards there.


Also what's in the Gibson box? a Les Paul?

 

[cadaveca]

Also what's in the Gibson box? a Les Paul?

Yeah, that's my Buckethead sig model.

 

[XtremeCuztoms]

Nice array of boards to review...

 

[Delta6326]

Great review I like these new boards i can't wait till you do the m-atx reviews! I want one to go into a CL Mercury S5.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Looking forward to a gb gaming board review for once to see the audio progress. I'd like to audition that with a LME49990 in vs my Titanium HD.

 

[15th Warlock]

Thanks for the review, really looking forward to your ROG series review as well

This is a nice looking board, and it seems like MSI got their act togheter in terms of features, I've never owned an MSI board before, if you don't mind me asking, in your opinion how does it compare to the ROG line of boards in terms of quality and performance?

Now that NDA is lifted, do you mind sharing the price on the ROG boards also?

Once again, thanks for the awesome review

 

[ChaoticG8R]

Looks like you finally got a Sabertooth

"To take a quote our recent news article:" I think the end of your article is missing the word "from" (or something equivalent).

 

[smoke22]

Please, focus also on loudness of audio from like before, because there are even 50% differencies in terms of loudness.
For example Realtek ALC889 is OK, but Realtek ALC898 volume is very low and in your motherboard reviews you've mentioned it's very quiet, also.
So, thank you and please don't forget to focus on this

 

[cadaveca]

This is a nice looking board, and it seems like MSI got their act togheter in terms of features, I've never owned an MSI board before, if you don't mind me asking, in your opinion how does it compare to the ROG line of boards in terms of quality and performance?

That's a tough call. Overall, MSI has really stepped up their game, using high-end VRM and having excellent memory clocking, something we'd find on ROG boards.

At the same time, I haven't put a lot of time on the ROG boards, but what I have seen is a bit more impressive, at least for memory clocking. Because of the inclusion of the iVR into the CPUs itself and the Z87 having such great functionality, boards are packed with even more extra features to help distinguish themselves on the market. Each brand seem o have a new product, and those are the boards that will cover these pages first. MSI has the gaming line-up, ASUS has the ROG Hero and the new mATX Gryphon, and Gigabyte has the Z87X-OC, a "value" OC-focus product. how these new SKUs place themselves in the market will be quite interesting.

Looks like you finally got a Sabertooth

"To take a quote our recent news article:" I think the end of your article is missing the word "from" (or something equivalent).

Thanks G8tor, I'll amend that right now.

Please, focus also on loudness of audio from like before, because there are even 50% differencies in terms of loudness.
For example Realtek ALC889 is OK, but Realtek ALC898 volume is very low and in your motherboard reviews you've mentioned it's very quiet, also.
So, thank you and please don't forget to focus on this

Of course. When reviewing boards, I set them up in my test bench, do some stability testing, and then I clock up the board, test stability, and game on it with guys on our TS server. If mic quality is different, or anything of that nature, I do get feedback from these guys about that. Audio is ALWAYS tested, and not just with RMAA; I actually use each board for 7 days before writing up my review.

 

[15th Warlock]

That's a tough call. Overall, MSI has really stepped up their game, using high-end VRM and having excellent memory clocking, something we'd find on ROG boards.

At the same time, I haven't put a lot of time on the ROG boards, but what I have seen is a bit more impressive, at least for memory clocking. Because of the inclusion of the iVR into the CPUs itself and the Z87 having such great functionality, boards are packed with even more extra features to help distinguish themselves on the market. Each brand seem o have a new product, and those are the boards that will cover these pages first. MSI has the gaming line-up, ASUS has the ROG Hero and the new mATX Gryphon, and Gigabyte has the Z87X-OC, a "value" OC-focus product. how these new SKUs place themselves in the market will be quite interesting.

Thank you very much for your reply cadaveca

I'm kinda disappointed with the OCing potential of Haswell, but from your review it would seem like this platform greatly benefits from higher memory OCing, and that's probably where most differentiation will reside when it comes to comparing Z87 boards, as most of the power circuitry resides in the CPU itself, like you pointed out, and it would seem from your experience like this board has what it takes to get some crazy memory clocks

I've been a very loyal ROG user, but there're no boards available anywhere for some reason, you can find Asus full LGA 1150 lineup, but the ROG boards are unfortunately MIA at the moment.

I'm seriously considering this board, to build a mid range Haswell rig, but I'll wait for your other reviews before I make my decision, once more, thank you for your thorough reviews, they're greatly appreciated

 

[cadaveca]

I've been a very loyal ROG user, but there're no boards available anywhere for some reason, you can find Asus full LGA 1150 lineup, but the ROG boards are unfortunately MIA at the moment.

Likewise.


I just received the ROG boards during this past week. That means I haven't had much time to play with them yet, as I have had boards and CPUs for several weeks now. I have multiple chips on-hand right now to test with because I need to do both board and memory reviews, and my memory testing rigs are built once and then sit in that configuration until the platform changes, while with boards I change the chip into another board every week, so I've got more than one rig testing at once. I've a lot of ground to cover here before I can devote good attention to the ROG boards... I'm also eager to get the ASRock OC Formula boards as I see that John Lam has spent some considerable time already getting the BIOSes tweaked for memory clocking this weekend.

I get my ASUS boards direct from the factory, so I understand that they might have been a bit later getting out the factory than some other boards did. ASUS has many products ready right now, so it must have been a literal logistical nightmare to get everything off the assembly line and out the door, PLUS dealing with Computex prep...and every company is doing this. The UPS guy has been at my door every day for several weeks now.


I've got other MSI products to cover, too. I'm really impressed with how each board, no matter which brand, really is more of a "platform" that just a board product...they really seem to have envisioned complete builds that users would do, and then built these products around those configurations. That means that each has a specific focus that doesn't carry over from product to product, and doing that correctly is truly a majestic feat.

 

[wot]

typo?

Specifications table says "8 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (six via Intel Z77, two via ASMedia ASM1061)"

Edit: Oh first post here

 

[cadaveca]

Specifications table says "8 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (six via Intel Z77, two via ASMedia ASM1061)"

Edit: Oh first post here

Fixed, thanks.

And welcome to TPU.

 

[DOM]

Where's the OCF .

 

[Ikaruga]

A very good review, thanks and well done. I love how passionate you are about the new "Dragon series" from MSI, but it's understandable since they are offer some truly great value indeed.