MSI P67A-GD65 Motherboard Review

BIOSLike many other P67 boards, the MSI P67A-GD65 features the all-new UEFI BIOS.

For those unfamiliar with the new UEFI BIOS, here’s a little rundown for you. It’s a GUI based BIOS with a fresh interface that gives simplicity a new meaning. The new EFI BIOS brings the board into the current time and doesn’t feature the dated BIOS that we’re all used to.

The main screen for MSI’s BIOS is fairly decent. It features quick access to settings which are Green power, Utilities, Overclocking, Games and Settings. The top right hand corner also features Language and Close icons.

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The Green Power section opens up the ability to tweak settings such as the CPU Phase control and Intel C-state control. It also displays all of the system’s main voltage readings.

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The utilities page allows us access to utilities like a memory test and HDD backup as well as the MSI Live Update utility and the option to modify the boot screen.

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Memory test. This is very convenient for quickly checking the possible cause of system instabilities.

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Boot screen settings. The ability to change boot screen settings is something that I personally have never seen. Very nice touch MSI.

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The next section on the list is the overclocking section. When you click into the overclocking section, you are met by a wall of settings and readings. The readings which are a dark yellow colour indicate current values such as CPU frequency and DRAM frequency. The readings in white are used to give the freedom to change the overclocked settings. The bright yellow text is showing which setting is highlighted.

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There is a useful chart in the top right hand corner which shows current CPU frequency and temperature.

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There are plenty of settings that can be modified including CPU Ratio (on compatible CPUs), DRAM frequency, CPU Core Voltage and DRAM Voltage.

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VDroop can be set to high or low.

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There are warnings along the right hand side of the overclocking section clearly stating MSI’s areas for concern regarding high voltages.

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Up to 6 custom overclocking profiles can be saved.

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Separate sections list the CPU and RAM specifications.

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Another separate section lists the CPU Features including HyperThreading status and Turbo Boost limits.

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Moving on to the Settings section reveals even more settings sub-sections.

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The “integrated peripherals” section allows the SATA configurations, LAN configuration and Audio configuration etc to be modified.

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USB configuration section allows you to modify the USB settings, including USB 3.0 settings.

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Fan speeds can be modified in the Hardware Monitor section. CPU and system temperatures are also displayed.

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The security section in the settings tab allows an administrator password.

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The boot section shows the order in which the connected devices boot. The settings are easy to change to allow a different boot order.

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The primary hard drive has to be set in a separate tab under the boot section.

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The save & exit section allows you to save and discard changes as well as set the defaults.

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The BIOS itself looks great and functions well the majority of the time. The mouse function doesn’t work very well with the arrow icon constantly flickering and a double click sometimes registering as two selections instead of one. I found myself using the keyboard for overclocking once I was in the overclocking section.