MSI P55-GD80 is an outstanding high-end motherboard for the socket 1156 platform, with tons of advanced features: three x16 PCI Express slots (although the third one works at x4 and the first two work at x8 when more than one video card is installed), support for both SLI and CrossFire modes, professional-grade on-board audio with terrific signal-to-noise ratio and on-board SPDIF connectors, thicker heat-pipe, high-end voltage regulator circuit, it automatically turns off unnecessary phases from the voltage regulator circuit for best efficiency and shows how many phases are being used at any given moment through an LED display, and much more.

The advanced overclocking features are the highlight from P55-GD80, with the motherboard automatically overclocking your PC by simply pushing a button called OC Genie, the manual CPU base clock configuration through “+” and “-“ buttons located on the motherboard, a display that shows the last two digits from the current base clock, probes for manually measuring the CPU, memory and chipset voltages and a DIP switch for preventing you from configuring voltages above levels that can burn components (CPU, memory or chipset).

If you are into overclocking, this is definitely the socket 1156 motherboard you should buy. The only high-end feature this motherboard doesn’t have is SATA-600 ports, however P55-GD80 costs less than motherboards with this feature, like ASUS P7P55D Premium (USD 210 vs. USD 280).

Of course its price is not what we could call a mainstream offer, but for its intended audience it comes with the right price tag.