During this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, MSI showed off a mainboard based on Intel’s Z77 chipset – Z77A-GD80. It was capable of supporting 22nm processors, aka Ivy Bridge. The second most interesting detail is the fact that Thunderbolt was integrated to it. It is one of the few Thunderbolt mainboards announced today, with one of them being Asus P8Z77-V Premium.
Hardware
|
Specifications |
MSI Z77A-GD80 Motherboard |
| Form factor | ATX Form Factor, 30.5 x 24.5 cm |
| CPU | LGA 1155 socket for 3rd Generation Core i7/Core i5/Core i3/Pentium/Celeron Processors |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 |
| Memory | 4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3
1066/1333/1600/1800(OC)/1866(OC)/2133(OC)/2400(OC)/2667(OC) Dual Channel Memory Architecture |
| Multi-GPU support | Supports NVIDIA SLI, ATI CrossFire, and Lucid Virtu Universal MVP Technology |
| Expansion slots | 3 x PCIe 3.0 x 16 slots
2 x PCIe 2.0 x 1 slots |
| Storage | SATAIII in Intel Z77 chipset:
2x SATA 6Gbps ports SATAIII in ASMedia ASM 1061 chipset: 2x SATA 6Gbps ports SATAII in Intel Z77 chipset: 4x SATA 3Gbps ports RAID: SATA 1~6 ports with Intel Rapid Storage Technology |
| LAN | Supports 1x PCI Express LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Intel 82579 |
Features
- Military Class II components for top quality and reliability.
- DrMOS II which extends lifespan of components via Double Thermal Protection.
- Third-generation PCI Express for 2x faster bandwidth (32Gbps transfer rates)
- ClickBIOS III for graphical user interface, touch screen support, and full system control – including overclocking
- OC Genie II for easy-access performance boosts
- NVIDIA SLI for multiple GPU support
- THX TruStudio PRO which delivers high-quality audio
- SuperCharger for fast-charging
- M-Flash which enables backing up and restoring BIOS to any USB flash drive
- Active Phase Switching which increases power efficiency
