MSI Z77A-GD55 Motherboard for Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs Pictured

After we presented you the production version of the Z77A-GD65 motherboard at the end of last week, it’s now time to take a look at its smaller sibling, the Z77A-GD55, which was just pictured by a Chinese Website.

The motherboard is compatible with all Intel processors using the LGA 1155 socket, including the chip maker’s upcoming Ivy Bridge processors, and comes basically as a stripped down version of the GD65.

What this means is that it loses the redundant BIOS support of its older brother, as well as its consolidated voltage measurements points.

Despite these changes, the rest of the features list remains pretty much unchanged, the MSI motherboard featuring the same three PCI Express x16 slots, four PCIe x1 slots, as well as six SATA ports, two of these supporting SATA 6Gbps transfer speeds.

This motherboard is compatible with 2-way Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX configurations by using the first two slots, but these will drop in x8 mode when both are populated, according to TechPowerUp.

Moving to the back of the motherboard, we see that the Z77A-GD55 comes fitted with both a Clear CMOS button and an HDMI port.

In addition, users also get two USB 3.0 ports (driven by the Intel Z77 chipset) and 7.1-channel audio with optical and digital S/PDIF out, while two additional USB 3.0 ports are available through an on-board header angled at 90 degrees. 

Four other USB 2.0 ports, VGA and DVI outputs and an Ethernet jack round up the connectivity list, while the now standard Power and Reset on-board buttons were also added to the Z77A-GD55.

No information regarding pricing or availability was made public by MSI, but more details should be unveiled as we get nearer to the launch of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors.