MSI Z77A-G45 & Lightning GTX680 Review

MSI are using a very clean UEFI style bios with six separate subsections. Main settings, Overclocking Settings, ECO energy saver settings, Browser, Flash and Live Update utilities and Password Security.

The main settings panel gives a brief overview of the system alongside SATA, CPU and memory configurations.

There are a series of submenus within the main ‘Settings' panel, as shown above.

The boot configuration is always one of the first places to visit, especially if you are installing the operating system from a USB bluray drive, like we are.

An overview of the overclock setting panel. We are using Corsair Dominator 2,666mhz memory and the Z77A-G45 has defaulted to 1,333mhz, a safe first boot option.

The ECO energy savings panel shows the PC health status and some options for fine tuning power saving settings.

We adjusted the memory settings to use the XMP profile, as shown above. A quick reboot and the system was running at native 2,666mhz memory timings of 10-12-12.

Overclocking with the MSI Z77A-G45 was extremely straightforward. We pushed the Intel Core i7 3770k to 4.8ghz with 1.3 volts and set the VDROOP to +100% for added stability. It really was as simple as that. We have used this particular processor in many reviews and this is the limit with a modest voltage boost, ideal for a 24/7 configuration.

System validation is available over here. The memory was running at 2,666mhz (checked by CPUz), although the online validation showed 2,400mhz.

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