MSI P55-GD80 motherboard main features are:

• Socket: 1156.
• Chipset: Intel P55 Express.
• Super I/O: Fintek F71889
• Parallel ATA: One ATA-133 port controlled by a JMicron JMB363 chip
• Serial ATA: Eight SATA-300 ports, six controlled by the chipset (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10) and two SATA-300 ports controlled by a JMicron JMB322 (RAID 0, 1 and JBOD).
• External SATA: One controlled by the JMicron JMB363 chip. The motherboard comes with two SATA-to-eSATA adapters.
• USB: 13 USB 2.0 ports, seven soldered on the motherboard and six available through three headers on the motherboard. The motherboard comes with one I/O bracket containing two USB ports.
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): Two ports controlled by a VIA VT6315 chip, one standard-sized soldered on the rear panel and one available through a header. The board doesn’t come with an I/O bracket to use this second port.
• On-board audio: Produced by the chipset together with a Realtek ALC889 codec (eight channels, 24-bit resolution, up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both the inputs and outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the inputs and 108 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the outputs). On-board coaxial and optical SPDIF outputs.
• On-board LAN: Two Gigabit Ethernet ports controlled by two RTL8112DL chips, each one connected to the system through a PCI Express x1 lane.
• Buzzer: No.
• Power supply required: EPS12V (ATX12V compatible).
• Slots: Three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (the first two working at x8 when two video cards are installed, the third one always working at x4), two PCI Express x1 slots and two standard PCI slots.
• Memory: Four DDR3-DIMM sockets (up to 16 GB up to DDR3-2133 through overclocking).
• Number of CDs/DVDs provided: Two.
• Programs included: Norton Internet Security 2009 (60-day trial), motherboard drivers and utilities.
• Extra features: Only solid capacitors, Winki, DrMOS voltage regulator circuit, APS (Active Phase Switching) with display, OC Genie with “+” and “-“ buttons, display to monitor the CPU base clock, switches to protect CPU, memory, memory controller and chipset overvoltage, probes for monitoring CPU, memory and chipset voltages with a multimeter.
• More Information: http://www.msi.com
• Average price in the US*: USD 210.00

* Researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this First Look article.