Right now MSI has 14 different motherboard models based on the Intel P55 chipset. Let’s take a look at the P55A-GD65 (a.k.a. MS-7585), a stripped-down version of their P55-GD85.

By the way, we’ve already covered two other motherboards from MSI based on the same chipset, the P55-GD80 and the P55-GD85.

MSI uses a naming scheme where the higher the number on the product name, the more features it carries. So the P55A-GD65 doesn’t have the same amount of features present on the other two models that we’ve already covered, but that doesn’t mean it is a low-end product – far from it.

Be sure not to confuse the new P55A-GD65 with an older model called the P55-GD65 (without the “A”). Despite the name, the two are completely different products:

• The new P55A-GD65 comes with two SATA-600 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, features not present on the P55-GD65.
• The P55-GD65 has two heatsinks on the voltage regulator circuit and a heatpipe connecting them, while on the P55A-GD65, one of the heatsinks was removed, along with the heatpipe.
• The position of the slots is completely different, plus the P55-GD65 had one PCI Express x4 slot, which was removed on the P55A-GD65.
• The previous incarnation had a place for measuring voltages with a multimeter, a feature that was removed on the new product.

In fact, the P55A-GD65 is a stripped-down version of the P55-GD85. Both have the same layout, but on the new GD65 the second voltage regulator heatsink and its heatpipe, second Gigabit Ethernet port, voltage measuring points, and SLI support were removed.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: MSI P55A-GD65 motherboard