Earlier this week I received some interesting spy shots of an upcoming MSI P55 motherboard that was NOT on display anywhere at Computex last week.  The MSI P55-GD65 looks like it could be a very compelling option for users upgrading to a new Intel Lynnfield system this fall.

Sneak Peek: MSI P55-GD65 motherboard spotted - Motherboards 5

The P55-GD65 is a pretty well laid-out design that includes support for two PCIe x16 slots (presumably with support for both CrossFire and SLI), a PCIe x1 and x4 slot and two legacy PCI slots.  There are four memory slots that support DDR3 memory in a two-channel architecture that we know the Lynnfield CPU’s memory controller will run. 

Sneak Peek: MSI P55-GD65 motherboard spotted - Motherboards 6

Here you can see the LGA1156 socket that those future chips will be installed in as well as the various power regulation devices.  Since the heatsinks are covering up some of them I can’t really tell how many phases the board will end up supporting though.

Sneak Peek: MSI P55-GD65 motherboard spotted - Motherboards 7

The board points the majority of the SATA ports away from the PCIe slots for a much easier and cleaner installation. 

Sneak Peek: MSI P55-GD65 motherboard spotted - Motherboards 8

The backplane on the MSI P55-GD65 shows a good assortment of features including two digital audio outputs, Firewire, dual Gigabit Ethernet and even one of the new USB-powered eSATA ports that will allow for eSATA devices without external power required.

We are definitely seeing some excitement build for the upcoming Lynnfield/P55 launch – hopefully we’ll see the products in just a couple short months!