MSI Z77A-GD65 (Z77) Motherboard Review

We’re back again with another board from MSI, this time from their Z77 product lineup, which as we know is the latest Intel chipset offering a few new added extras over Z68 including PCI-Express 3.0 and native USB 3.0 to name a few of the major aspects.

Lately we’ve taken a look at boards from other brands including the Asus Maximus V Gene and Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H, but we can assure you that we have plenty more along the way from a variety of manufacturers, though today is all about MSI.

When the Intel Z77 chipset was announced, MSI were quick to jump on board with a range of boards including the Z77A-G43, Z77MA-G45, Z77A-G45, Z77A-GD55 and the board we’re looking at today; the Z77A-GD65. The GD65 is the top Z77 board from MSI, and while from the offset it seems to offer some strong features, it also comes with an attractive price tag at $189.

With this being an MSI board, and our experience generally sits with other manufacturers, we are extremely keen to see what this is capable of in terms of performance. With that in mind, we would normally take you on a tour of the board, but we already did so in our Z77 preview, which can be found here and without wanting to cover old ground, we invite you to check it out if you are interested in the features that are on offer.

In terms of performance, we’ll jump straight into it and pair this board up with our i7 3770k Ivy Bridge processor and Radeon 7970 to see what it’s capable of at both stock and overclocked levels.