Intel P55 chipset is a single-chip solution. The basic features provided by this chipset include six SATA-300 ports (RAID support is optional), no support for parallel ATA (PATA) ports, 14 USB 2.0 ports supporting port disable, embedded Gigabit Ethernet MAC (Medium Access Control) and eight x1 PCI Express lanes.

EVGA P55 LE provides all the six SATA-300 ports and they are placed facing the motherboard edge, as you can see in Figure 4. This is a terrific solution, because on motherboards where the ports are facing up the video cards usually block the access to them or even completely prevent you from installing SATA cables on them.

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Figure 4: SATA ports.

Since Intel P55 chipset does not provide parallel ATA port and EVGA P55 LE doesn’t have any additional PATA controller chip, this motherboard doesn’t have any parallel ATA port. It also lacks a floppy disk drive controller.

All the 14 USB 2.0 ports supported by the chipset are present, eight soldered on the rear panel and six available on three motherboard headers. Additionally EVGA P55 LE motherboard comes with a FireWire (IEEE 1394) controller, providing two FireWire ports through two headers located on the motherboard. The board comes with one I/O bracket containing two USB ports and one FireWire port (standard size), so the other FireWire port and the other four USB ports must be used by either installing an additional I/O bracket or using a case that comes with these ports.

Audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC889 codec, which is a professional-grade component, providing 7.1 audio with 24-bit resolution, 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs and 192 kHz sampling rate for both the outputs and inputs. This motherboard comes with an on-board optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, which is terrific. As you can see in Figure 5, this motherboard has independent analog outputs for all eight channels. With these specs you work professionally with audio editing and mixing without the need of a high-end (and expensive) add-on sound card.

EVGA P55 LE has a Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a Marvell 88E8057 chip.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with PS/2 keyboard connector, clear CMOS button, coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs, eight USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet port and independent analog 7.1 audio outputs.

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Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel.

As you can see, this motherboard does not come with a PS/2 mouse connector, so you must use a USB mouse.