The audio section from this motherboard provides 7.1 audio, produced by the south bridge chip with the aid of a Realtek ALC888 codec. This codec provides fair specs for the average user, with a 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its inputs and a 97 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its outputs. The maximum sampling rate of its inputs is of 96 KHz, while its outputs supports up to 192 KHz. While these specs are enough for the average user someone thinking of working professionally with analog audio editing and capturing should look for a motherboard with at least 95 dB SNR and 192 KHz sampling rate for its inputs.
This motherboard has independent jacks for all analog inputs and outputs on the rear panel, so you can easily install a 5.1 or 7.1 analog speaker system without “killing” your line in and mic in jacks. On the other hand, it doesn’t bring SPDIF outputs, which is a shame.
On the rear panel (Figure 3) you can find the Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, one Firewire port, analog audio inputs and outputs, one parallel port, one serial port, PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard connectors.
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Figure 3: Motherboard rear connectors.
Some of the capacitors from the voltage regulator circuit are solid, which is great. On this circuit the ones that are not solid are from a Japanese vendor, Matsushita (a.k.a. Panasonic). Outside the voltage regulator circuit we found capacitors from Matsushita and Chemi-Con, both Japanese, but some from Teapo (especially near the USB headers), which is a Taiwanese company (Japanese capacitors have a better quality). We think MSI should have used all-Japanese caps.
Another good thing about this motherboard is that MSI is using ferrite coils instead of iron coils on the voltage regulator circuit, which have 25% lower power loss compared to iron coils.
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Figure 4: Solid aluminum capacitors, Japanese electrolytic capacitors and ferrite coils on the voltage regulator circuit.
On Figure 5 you can see all accessories that come with this motherboard. As you can see, this motherboard does not come with a lot of stuff.
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Figure 5: Motherboard accessories.
This motherboard comes with one CD, containing its drivers and utilities.
