MSI leave plenty of space around the CPU socket for big and bulky high performance heatsinks.

LGA1155 CPU socket

Look at all that wonderful space for heatsinks around the CPU socket!

MSI's P67A-GD65 motherboard has a power VRM design built around special solid state High-C capacitors (pictured above). These Tantalum capacitors take up much less room than the solid state aluminum variety and are said to have greater life spans. The CPU VRM MOSFETs are hidden behind two small heatpipe connected passive heatsinks which surround one side of the Intel LGA1155 CPU socket.

There are two NCE D720200F1 USB 3.0 controllers on the MSI P67A-GD65 motherboard which supply the board with four USB 3.0 ports in totall. Two USB 3.0 ports are located at the rear I/O and two are available via the supplied USB 3.0 bracket off a motherboard header.

A USB 3.0 port offers bandwidth up to a whopping 4.8Gb/s, more than enough for today's large mass storage devices.

USB 3.0 bracket.

Next up PCSTATS dives into Overclocking and hits the benchmarks... but first, a quick look at the P67 chipset and BIOS settings.