MSI P55-GD80 is clearly targeted to overclockers, featuring a function called “OC Genie.” When this button is pressed, the motherboard automatically overclocks the system (it must be pressed when the computer is turned off). Previous automatic overclocking functions available by MSI and other manufacturers increased the base clock to preset values; OC Genie relies on a chip that overclocks the system on-the-fly, based on your hardware configuration. You can also manually increase or decrease the CPU base clock in 1 MHz steps by simply pressing “+” and “-“ buttons located on the board. A two-digit display shows the last two digits from the current base clock value.

In Figure 11, you can see all buttons available on this motherboard: Clear CMOS, OC Genie, the “-“ and “+” buttons and, on the lower part, “Green Power”  (which turns off the LEDs from the motherboard), Reset and Power.

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Figure 11: Buttons.

MSI P55-GD80 features overvoltage switches (to prevent you from increasing voltages above a dangerous level where you could burn components) and voltage monitoring points, where the extreme overclocker can install a multimeter to manually monitor the CPU, memory and chipset voltages.

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Figure 12: Switches and voltage monitoring probes.

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Figure 13: Manually measuring the CPU voltage.

Let’s see the overclocking options available on MSI P55-GD80 setup.