MSI X79A-GD45 Plus Review: Building Up
by Ian Cutress on February 14, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- MSI
- X79
MSI X79A-GD45 Plus In The Box
A $250 package in the Z87 arena would/should be numerate in its extras and offer the user something extra. In the X79 space, $250 is rather low on the radar – not the lowest, but there are motherboards that cost over $500 that go all out on the feature set. There is scope for MSI to do something good here.
With the X79A-GD45 Plus we get:
Rear IO Panel
Driver DVD
Manuals
Six SATA Cables
Flexi SLI Bridge
Along the line of few additional controllers on board, the MSI package also lacks any significant additions. Having a full complement of SATA cables is probably a good thing, although having a second SLI cable for multi-GPU allocations might help, given X79 is the focus for >2 GPU setups.
MSI X79A-GD45 Plus Overclocking
Experience with MSI X79A-GD45 Plus
To begin with, all was not well with the X79A-GD45 Plus. The OC Genie button does not seem to do anything from default. The motherboard, when XMP is applied, gives MultiCore Turbo (top turbo when all cores are loaded), and it seems OC Genie does the same thing when XMP is not applied. I expected at least a 4.2 GHz jump here when I tested.
For manual overclocking, our main limiting factor here is more our Ivy Bridge-E CPU sample than anything else. Like the other Ivy Bridge-E refresh motherboards we have reviewed, our limit was around 4.4 – 4.5 GHz, the main issue being OCCT stability before the temperature of the CPU rose above suitable levels.
Methodology:
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.
Manual Overclock:
Our overclock results were as follows:
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chuonglb - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
goodkizi: http://www.kizi10games.net
friv: http://www.friv200jogos.org
yepi: http://www.yepi10games.org
The PC Apologist - Saturday, February 15, 2014 - link
1) How many times have you seen me in the comments?2) Is complaining about poor English or bad grammar inherently bad?
3) Are my complaints illegitimate/inappropriate (calling good grammar bad)?
4) Do you come to this site expecting a pep talk or a well-written article?
5) Does you loathing me count towards the calculus of anything?
Thank you.
Ian Cutress - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Commonly people like to point out that I refer to companies using plural terms, as is the standard in the UK and persistent throughout my UK upbringing. No matter how hard I try and convert into singular style common in the US, it requires a complete reworking of my brain which I cannot do on the fly. So any attempt to try and patch the difference ends up half-baked, as it were.If you have specific suggestions, feel free to email by clicking on my name at the top of the article.
Ian
The PC Apologist - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
No worries Ian.I appreciate the candor and sincerity. It’s nice to know that you’re open enough for constructive criticism and room for improvement, which can’t be said for everybody. But as far as writing goes, I suspect that the problem lies beyond just the confusion of singular vs. plural. Such can just be attributed to carelessness and be called honest mistakes. Rather, sometimes, there seems to be a lack of deeper substance and coherent flow. Other times, the language is simply not “beautiful,” but rather mundane and unenthused.
But like I said, for the time being, no worries. What’s important is that you’re open to suggestion and change. Writing is, among other things, an art, and it’s rather difficult to codify the formula for success. But with the correct attitude, one will eventually evolve and improve with practice, lots of reading (of good writers), and rigorous analytical thinking.
- The PC Apologist
Nfarce - Sunday, February 16, 2014 - link
PCA - just go start your own blog and STFU. We don't need your distractions, pompous jerkwad.khanov - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
I think you are used to reading 'Americanese'. There is nothing wrong with Ian's English.The PC Apologist - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
I think you are used to being "nice." There is nothing wrong with being honest from time to time.DMCalloway - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Unfortunately, the i7 2600k wasn't included in the benchmarks. This would have given the reader a clear overview of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation i7 performance for comparison.Ian Cutress - Friday, February 14, 2014 - link
Most of the results from other processors were derived from the retest required for the 2014 benchmark suite, initiated by the AMD Kaveri review. In time I will be going back and testing older CPUs when the backlog of review hardware falls to a reasonable level.The_Assimilator - Saturday, February 15, 2014 - link
Can you guys please start deducting points for motherboards that still include COM headers?