i5 750, MSI P55-GD65 System Build
CPU and Motherboard
It's only been a week or two since the last review as I start writing this new article. It's been a little slow while I save up money to get Christmas shopping done for my daughter and the little gift to myself. This little article will follow the process of getting a new Core i5 system up and running. Things run a little on the long side, so it will be divided up into 5 pages instead of my standard four. Also, because of the increased length, I have included content labels for navigation instead of simple page numbering.
The Core i5 processor is a Lynnfield based processor which traces it's origin to the Bloomfield architecture found in the initial Core i7 900 series processors. Lynnfield is a more mainstream market architecture including the Core i5 750, and the Core i7 800 series processors. Some Bloomfield boards have triple channel capability, whereas Lynnfield is restricted to dual channel. Lynnfield processors also comes with on die 16 lane PCIexpress 2.0 connectivity. In the future this may reduce latency between the CPU and devices using PCIexpress sockets on the motherboard. However, 16 lanes of PCIexpress connectivity means that when a two PCIexpress video cards are used each PCIexpress slot is then 8x. This is rarely an issue, but with higher end dual video cards performance may be hampered slightly.
Right now there is only one Core i5 processor on the market. The Intel Core i5 750. The i5 750 is a quad core cpu with a base core clock speed of 2.66GHz, and an uncore speed of 2.13GHz. The i5 has only 4 threads whereas the i7 upper echelon Lynnfield chips have hyper threading capability providing 8 threads. Another limitation the i5 750 has is it's 2.13GHz uncore speed, while current i7 800 Lynnfield CPUs have uncore speeds of 2.4GHz. This limits the memory speed to 1333MHz for the i5 750, while the i7 800 chips have a max memory speed of 1600MHz. Both the i7 and i5 Lynnfield CPUs have 8MB of L3 cache, and a 95W TDP.
The i5 750 does have the 'Turbo Boost' feature the i7 Bloomfield CPUs have. This provides short periods of increased clock speed under load. With all cores active the i5 750 max turbo boost speed is 2.8GHz. This is slightly lower than the i7 800 series offerings.
To support the new Lynnfield chips Intel has come up with a whole new socket. LGA1156 is a smaller socket compared to the LGA1366 socket used for the Bloomfield Core i7s. The size of LGA1156 is comparable to the old LGA775 socket, while squishing in 1156 pin connections.
Lynnfield uses the Intel P55 express chipset. There exists a few options at varying price points from the major motherboard makers. I decided on a middle of the road offering from MSI. The MSI P55-GD65.
Not exactly the fanciest board, the GD65 is a little bit sparse and open in it's layout. However, that doesn't exactly mean it is lacking in function. Lets take a closer look.
Around the socket itself is the a reasonably heat spreader with super thick heat pipe. Underneath is a power phase count of 6. While this seems a little sparse, I've noticed no problems. The upper model board from MSI, the GD80, has only two more.
As you will notice there is no more northbridge and southbridge heat spreaders, or separate chips on the board. All is found under the small heat spreader in the middle of the board labeled MSI. This heat spreader is very low profile. If you have a large video card that overlaps this area, even an oversized cooler should not impact the heat spreader.
At the edge of the board the SATA connections are stacked in groups of two. This worked out fine for my case configuration, but for some who have cramped quarters it could make things a bit tricky. Just beside the Sata connections is the IDE connectior. This wasn't used in my configuration, as I ( along with most others ) have moved on to entirely SATA hard drives, and optical drives.
There is, of course, the 4 DDR3 memory slots in the common layout for dual channel configurations. The memory slots didn't impact CPU cooler mounting, and the memory retention clips didn't impact the video card. Also shown is the motherboard power connections. Oddly the 24 pin power connection is not at the edge of the board. It wasn't a problem for me, but I prefer this power connection to be at the edge. However, what is at the edge of the board is a small plastic probe receptor adapter. This will allow for multimeter pins to be inserted. You can monitor memory, chipset and CPU voltages without any real hassle. This is handy for those overclockers who don't trust software to monitor voltages.
The GD65 has a reasonable array of connections for peripherals. Two full PCIexpress connectors, and an open ended x4 PCI express slot. The board isn't certified for triple GPU configurations, and the space between the the bottom two PCIexpress slots isn't enough to fit a double slot cooler anyhow. I don't suggest trying it.
Near the bottom of the board there is a selection of buttons that aren't commonly seen on most boards. The one that interested me the most was the OC genie button. I will discuss this button more later, but the basic concept of this toggle switch button is that in one press overclock presets can be applied. Just to the right of the OC genie button is a small power button. The camera flash washed out the etching on the button, but there is a little power symbol on there. To the right of the power button is a plus and minus button to increase or decrease the base clock frequencies.
The back panel is pretty standard. A good amount of USB connections, an eSATA connector, firewire etc.
