P55-GD85 (a.k.a. MS-7585) is the most high-end motherboard for socket 1156 processors from MSI, featuring USB 3.0 and SATA-600 ports plus a lot more goodies like points for measuring voltages from components, two Gigabit Ethernet chips and a PLX PCI Express switch chip to make sure your system will keep up its performance even when you try to use all of its features at the same time.

Since we’ve already took a look at MSI P55-GD80 – which is also based on P55 chipset but doesn’t come with USB 3.0 and SATA-600 ports – we will be able to spot the differences between these two motherboards, especially because GD85 isn’t a GD80 with the SATA-600 and USB 3.0 ports added: there are some other differences.

Like GD80, P55-GD85 uses a cooling solution based on an 8-mm heat-pipe that, according to MSI, is to date the thickest heatpipe used on a motherboard (usually motherboards use 5-mm heat-pipes), which translates in a better cooling capability. GD80 has an extra “arm” to the left on its cooling solution that was removed on GD85.

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Figure 1: MSI P55-GD85 motherboard.