Introduction

It was just about a year ago that Intel introduced the Core i7 1366 family to us and took the world by storm. The hyperthreading capabilities were amazing and the overclocking abilities were second to none. It was as if the CPU world had been turned upside down. The motherboard manufacturers began producing X58 motherboards with excellent performance and plenty of bells and whistles to push the performance of the 1366 chips. Now, this technology is about to hit its middle ages at the ripe old age of one year old and, as computer technology goes, it was time for a new baby to be born.

Enter now, the era of the Core i5 and Core i7 1156 CPU from Intel. The birth of their new baby has taken the benchmark proven strategies of the 1366 and further expanded on its abilities. This brings us to the new motherboards with the fresh Intel P55. These motherboards now have done away with the north bridge and have a totally new technology about them. The various manufacturers are now beginning to release their production models of these 1156 P55 motherboards, including the motherboard giant, MSI.

The MSI P55-CD53 is the mainstream solution for 1156 motherboards. The MSI P55-CD53 incorporates the revolutionary OC Genie technology for one step overclocking. The abilities to fine tune BIOS adjustments to achieve your own overclock, or work with the OC Genie for extremely simplistic, but nicely performing overclocks. Couple this technology with the DR. MOS CMOS backup solution and you have a mainstream board with excellent overclocking features and potential.