MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) Motherboard Review

To start this review off let’s first take a look at the Intel Z68 Chipset and what it has to offer. This chipset is essentially just a reworking of their previous P67 Chipset and doesn’t really have too many new features to offer. This chipset’s primary improvement over the previous chipset is that it offers support for Intel’s second generation of Core processors. This means that this board has the 1155 socket as opposed to the older 1156 socket and this socket isn’t backwards compatible with 1156 socket processors.

Another feature that Intel added to this chipset is their Smart Response Technology. This is an amazing feature that allows the user to install a small SSD; of no more than 60 gigs in size, and pair it with a large mechanical hard drive. By doing this in conjunction with this feature the user will be able to achieve nearly the access speeds of a stand-alone SSD. This technology essentially will allow the SSD to act as a smart caching drive that will remember which programs and files that you access the most. It will then load the caching information onto the SSD for improved performance.

This new chipset also features Intel’s embedded graphics technology. This is great for those that don’t require the power of a discrete graphics card, but still want most of the features that a discrete graphics card is able to provide. Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors are built with embedded graphics that enable full HD support. This is also a cost saving and energy saving feature that many will find very useful particularly for business applications. Intel’s development and implementation of this technology shows that Intel understands the changing dynamics of the current market and that they are ready to meet those demands.