1 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:14,719 All right, guys. This is an exciting motherboard for a couple of different 2 00:00:11,440 --> 00:00:16,320 reasons. Number one, it is made by MSI. 3 00:00:14,719 --> 00:00:22,160 Whoops. Here. Number two, it has a three-year warranty. Number three, it features military class 2 with solid 4 00:00:19,439 --> 00:00:26,240 ferite chokes, high seat caps with tandelum cores, and solid caps with a 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:30,160 10-year lifetime. Number three, they have added a Better Business Bureau 6 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:34,239 accredited business sticker to the outside of the box. So, apparently MSI 7 00:00:32,719 --> 00:00:39,440 is a Better Business Bureau accredited business. This is something I did not know. 8 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:47,360 Number one, two, three, four. Number five, um, it features the world's first 9 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:51,280 PCI Express Gen 3 support. So that means 10 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:54,719 with a supported CPU, you have support 11 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:57,559 for double the bandwidth of PCI Express 12 00:00:54,719 --> 00:01:02,120 Gen 2. Okay. So that means that a PCIe3 8X slot has the same bandwidth as 13 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:08,159 a PCIe2 16x 14 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:09,920 slot. Cool, huh? Okay. Also, Click BIOS 15 00:01:08,159 --> 00:01:16,080 2 has been implemented on this board. So Click BIOS referred to MSI's UEFI mouse 16 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,880 BIOS interface. It has been completely reworked and now it is click BIOS 2. So 17 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:25,200 hopefully I'll have a chance to check that out on this particular board in the 18 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:29,439 near future. This is a certified military standard board. So that's with 19 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:33,360 their military class components. And actually this isn't even right. This 20 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:37,119 board has a 5-year warranty. This sticker is wrong. This is an Eval unit 21 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:40,880 from early on. It's possible the decision for 5year warranty hadn't been 22 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:45,200 made yet. But no, this is a 5year warranty board along with the GD80. So, 23 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:49,680 what MSI has decided to do with this particular military standard board is 24 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:53,280 stand behind it for an even longer period of time than they normally do. 25 00:01:51,759 --> 00:01:57,200 Got a couple other cool features. You got your instant OC in the MSI control 26 00:01:55,520 --> 00:02:02,560 center software. We've got the supercharger which allows you to charge 27 00:01:58,799 --> 00:02:05,520 an iPad, so even a larger device at high 28 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:10,399 speed, even when your PC is shut down. And then we've also got Winky 3, which 29 00:02:07,439 --> 00:02:15,200 allows you to boot up into a pre-Windows OS within the BIOS and do basic things 30 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:20,480 like browsing the internet should you so desire. All right, we've got a drivers 31 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:23,440 and utilities DVD, a quick installation 32 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:27,360 guide in black and white. We have a top quality and stability software 33 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:31,040 application user guide in color on the outside and black and white on the 34 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:36,720 inside, which is just fine. All right, we have a rear panel USB 3 header. So, I 35 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:40,720 can plug that into the onboard header and I can have a couple extra USB 3 36 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:45,599 ports if I don't have front USB 3 on my case. We have an IO 37 00:02:42,599 --> 00:02:47,360 shield. We have the M connectors, which 38 00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:50,959 allows me to easily plug in my front panel connectors without fighting with 39 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:54,959 the individual little pins against the board. We also have, oh, look at that. 40 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:58,800 We've got Vche. So, this board does feature Ve, which allows you to check 41 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:03,120 the voltage directly using a multimeter rather than relying on softwarebased 42 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:07,440 tools. We've got four SATA cables. They are all straight to right angle. And 43 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:11,280 then we have a Molex to SATA adapter. I've actually used that on a number of 44 00:03:09,040 --> 00:03:14,319 occasions for the top uh optical drive sometimes if you don't want to feed a 45 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:20,400 SATA cable all the way up there. We've also got a mainboard user guide 46 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:22,319 here. And finally, an SLI cable. So, 47 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:26,159 let's have a look at the board itself and talk about some of the other 48 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:33,200 features that are applicable to this board because this is a Z68 board. So, 49 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:36,599 besides being upgraded with support for 50 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:40,400 PCI Express 3.0, it has some cool 51 00:03:36,599 --> 00:03:41,599 features. All right, Z68 board. So, what 52 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,640 that means is, you know what, let's start with uh you know what, let's do the general board layout and then we'll 53 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:52,080 and then we'll get into the Z68 features. So, we've got our CPU socket, 54 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:53,840 which is an LG 1155 socket right here in 55 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:57,599 the middle of the board. Around that, we have what's actually a fairly beefy 56 00:03:55,599 --> 00:04:02,480 looking power delivery system. You can see the tantelum 57 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:06,319 core components around the CPU itself. 58 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:08,080 And um we've also got a thick No, that's 59 00:04:06,319 --> 00:04:12,959 a okay. Nope, that's a standard size heat pipe connecting the cooling for the 60 00:04:10,239 --> 00:04:17,359 top of our VRM and the side VRM all around the CPU socket. So, we've got 61 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:22,240 support for Core i3s, Core i5s, and Core i7 CPUs. And then we've got our power up 62 00:04:20,799 --> 00:04:27,199 here. So, we've got an 8 pin power connector in its ideal location. Along 63 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:29,880 the top left of the board, we have four 64 00:04:27,199 --> 00:04:34,080 DDR3 slots supporting dual channel operation. We have our V checkpoints. 65 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:39,280 This is a great feature because it allows you to get actually accurate 66 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:41,280 voltage readouts on the uh we've got two 67 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:47,360 grounds. Okay, so we've got the PCH, VCC, DDDR, CPU GFX, CPU VTT, and VCCP. 68 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:52,080 So, all those settings will mean something to you if you're the kind of person who actually needs to measure 69 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:55,040 them. All right, finally, we've got the or not finally, we've got the OCG 70 00:04:53,919 --> 00:04:59,520 button. So, that's your one-touch overclocking, our 24 pin connectors in 71 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:03,040 its ideal location along the right hand edge of the board. And we've got some 72 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:07,479 more fan connectors. I'll summarize the fan headers after. We've got plenty of 73 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:15,919 SATA ports. So, we've got Hm. Uh, four SATA 3 6 GB per second 74 00:05:11,840 --> 00:05:18,400 ports and two SATA and four SATA 2 3 75 00:05:15,919 --> 00:05:22,320 Gbit per second ports. Although right now it's hard for me to tell you guys. 76 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:26,000 It looks like these two are running off the Intel chipset for 6 gig per second 77 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:29,360 ports. And these two are probably running off this Marvel chipset right 78 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:33,520 here, but it's hard to say 100%. Let me just see if I can see where those traces 79 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:36,720 are going. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it looks like. It looks like those two are 80 00:05:34,639 --> 00:05:41,280 running off the Marvel chipset. So, moving down, we've got a couple of front 81 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:44,120 USB headers here. This one with red behind it. That's the one that supports 82 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:49,600 the additional power. We've got our USB 3.0 header 83 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:54,400 right here. And then we've got built-in reset and power switches here. And 84 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:58,240 finally, our front audio header here. I always like to see motherboards with the 85 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:01,440 maximum number of expansion slots cuz that does give you more options, 86 00:05:59,759 --> 00:06:05,680 especially if you are installing two dual slot graphics cards. So, right here 87 00:06:03,840 --> 00:06:12,319 we have um three PCIe 1X slots, two PCIe 16X 88 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:15,520 slots, and two PCI slots. So, if you were to install two dual slot cards, 89 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:21,600 you're going to be left with a single PCI and two PCIe 1X, which I feel is a 90 00:06:18,639 --> 00:06:25,280 good mix given the state of expansion cards right now. You might have some 91 00:06:23,039 --> 00:06:29,039 legacy PCI card, but anything new you're buying, you're probably going to get a 92 00:06:26,479 --> 00:06:33,039 PCI Express version. So, let's go over how many fan headers there are on this 93 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:38,720 guy. So, we've got one four pin PWM here, one four pin PWM here, two three 94 00:06:35,919 --> 00:06:43,840 pins here, and a three pin here in the middle. So, that's a total of five on 95 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:49,840 this motherboard. Moving around to the back of the board, we have 1 2 3 four 96 00:06:46,319 --> 00:06:52,319 USB 2.0 ports, one of those PS2 keyboard 97 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:56,800 mouse combo ports, a clear SMOS button. I I love the clear SIMOS button on the 98 00:06:54,160 --> 00:07:03,440 back. Big fan. Okay, we have optical as well as coaxial audio out, HDMI out, DVI 99 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:07,919 out, and VGA out, giving you an option for what you want to use if you do use 100 00:07:05,280 --> 00:07:12,080 the onboard video, USB 3, gigabit Ethernet, and 7.1 audio. So, this 101 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:17,599 onboard audio brings us to one of the features, and that is Virtue by Lucid is 102 00:07:15,599 --> 00:07:21,440 a soft. So, that's a software that's licensed by Intel for use on this 103 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:26,800 particular platform, which allows you to use Intel Quicksync technology, which is 104 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:30,880 built into the onboard GPU and your CPU. The onboard GPU and your CPU, the 105 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:35,039 graphics that are built onto your CPU, but use your dedicated graphics card for 106 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:38,639 gaming, and it will actually help you switch dynamically between those two 107 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:43,440 different components when you're doing tasks that are optimized for them. Okay. 108 00:07:41,759 --> 00:07:50,000 The other feature that is unique to the Z68 platform is the ability to use Intel 109 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:52,319 SRT or super smart response technology 110 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:57,120 which enables you to use a boot hard drive such as a 1 TB Western digital 111 00:07:54,639 --> 00:08:00,479 black or blue for example. And remember, don't use a green for boot because it's 112 00:07:58,639 --> 00:08:05,599 not optimized for that. and then take an SSD of 60 gigs or smaller capacity and 113 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:10,879 use it as a cache for your big hard drive in order to get up to a four times 114 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:14,080 uh performance increase in real world applications. And it does work, by the 115 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:17,680 way, in case you guys were wondering. This board is fully SLI and Crossfire 116 00:08:16,479 --> 00:08:21,039 ready, which is something I hadn't mentioned before. And I think that 117 00:08:19,759 --> 00:08:26,560 pretty much covers it. Thank you for checking out my unboxing of the world's 118 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:29,440 first PCI Express 3.0 ready motherboard, 119 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:34,080 the Z68A GD65. Well, it's actually the world's second and first cuz the GD80 120 00:08:32,240 --> 00:08:37,279 supports the same thing. Remember to watch out for the G3 and the part number 121 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:41,440 in order to make sure that it does support Gen 3 PCIe graphics. And don't 122 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:45,680 forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other 123 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,680 computer videos.