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.

MSI P55-GD80 provides all the six SATA-300 ports with support for Intel Matrix Storage, which provides RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10, plus two SATA-300 ports (the blue ones) controlled by a JMicron JMB322 chip, supporting RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. An eSATA-300 port and an ATA-133 port are provided by a JMicron JMB363 chip.

The six SATA ports controlled by the chipset and the ATA-133 connectors are placed facing the motherboard edge, which 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 cables on them.

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Figure 5: SATA and ATA-133 ports.

P55-GD80 comes with an I/O bracket containing two eSATA ports, so you can convert internal SATA ports into eSATA. This adapter is targeted to the two blue ports, because they feature Port Multiplier – feature that allows more than one device to be installed on a single SATA port, click here to learn more – and since they also feature RAID, you can install SATA-based external hard disk drive enclosures that support Port Multiplier to connect several drives to a single port, supporting RAID controlled by the motherboard. This I/O bracket also features one standard male peripheral power plug for you to feed external drives. A cable to convert this external power plug into a SATA power plug is also available.

No floppy disk drive controller is present.

From the 14 USB 2.0 ports supported by the chipset, MSI P55-GD80 offers 13 of them, seven soldered on the rear panel and six available through three motherboard headers. The motherboard comes with an I/O bracket containing two USB ports.

Additionally MSI P55-GD80 comes with a FireWire (IEEE 1394) controller, providing two FireWire ports, one soldered on the rear panel and one available through a header. The motherboard doesn’t come with an I/O bracket for you to use the second FireWire port. So if you decide to buy this motherboard, it is a good idea to buy a case with four USB ports and one FireWire port, so you can use all ports available.

Audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC889 codec, which provides professional-grade audio to this motherboard, with eight channels, 24-bit resolution, sampling rate of up to 192 kHz for both inputs and outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs and 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the outputs. With a high signal-to-noise ratio like this you can work professionally converting, mixing and editing audio from an analog source (e.g., converting VHS tapes and vinyl records to the digital format) with no background noise (white noise). This motherboard comes with on-board optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs. The board also has an SPDIF out header (labeled “JSP1”), which can be used to route sound to the video card HDMI output in order for you to have an HDMI output with digital audio on a single connector. As you can see in Figure 6 this motherboard has fully independent analog outputs for all eight audio channels.

MSI P55-GD80 has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Realtek RTL8112DL chips, which is connected to the system using PCI Express x1 lanes, and thus not presenting any potential performance issues.

In Figure 6, you can see the motherboard rear panel with PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs, FireWire port, seven USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and independent analog 7.1 audio outputs.

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Figure 6: Motherboard rear panel.