WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:08.000 Today I'm going to be having a look at a refresh motherboard from MSI. So this is 00:00:04.319 --> 00:00:10.400 the P-55A G55. It's going to be very 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:15.200 similar to their previous P-55 boards except for a couple of things. First of 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:19.119 all, you've got support for SATA 6 GB per second. And second of all, you've 00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:22.800 got support for USB 3. This also features their military class concept, 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:28.480 which means you've got top quality components, including icy chokes and 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:31.359 solid caps. So Icy chokes MSI claims run 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:36.000 at up to 20° lower than regular chokes and their solid caps they claim has a 00:00:33.760 --> 00:00:39.040 minimum of a 10year lifetime. So it gives you a long lifetime low 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.480 temperature which we've covered already as well as high stability and better 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:45.600 overclocking. Let's get this board opened right up and have a look at what 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:49.840 we find inside. We've got a drivers and utilities DVD. We've got uh a users 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:54.800 guide for their hard drive backup software. We've got a quick installation 00:00:52.239 --> 00:01:00.800 guide. their users guide for MSI Winky software 00:00:58.559 --> 00:01:04.559 control center. So, this is their software for uh system monitoring, 00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:08.080 overclocking, and power saving. Gives you a quick guide on how to use it. Ooh, 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:13.680 full color and everything. Look at that. I love seeing full color uh manuals and 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:17.520 pamphlets. It's just uh it's that those extra little touches. Here's their full 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:23.840 user guide, which is in a number of languages. English, Deutsch, France, 00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:27.439 I don't know how to pronounce Russian. Okay, we've got an IO shield for the 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:33.600 back, which clearly labels your USB 3.0 ports. 00:01:30.240 --> 00:01:36.400 I might point out one SATA cable, uh, 00:01:33.600 --> 00:01:42.560 Molex to SATA power adapter, and an IDE cable. That is an odd odd 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:48.799 load of accessories. I would have expected to see maybe like four SATA 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:53.520 cables and then no Molex to SATA power adapter and no IDE cable. That might 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:57.600 have made a little bit more sense. I've actually talked to MSI about that and 00:01:55.119 --> 00:02:02.719 they're looking at improving their um their their bundles for future 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:06.799 motherboards. So, yeah. How about that? Okay, let's have a 00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:11.200 look at the board itself. The board itself is awesome looking. Okay, really? Hold on. I should go back to this cable 00:02:09.679 --> 00:02:15.680 thing. Realistically, if you're anything like me, look at this. You've got a ton 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:19.760 of SATA cables lying around. It doesn't really matter here. I bet I can find 00:02:16.959 --> 00:02:23.440 more just in this room. Uh what do we got in here? We got some video cards. We 00:02:21.920 --> 00:02:28.080 got some more video cards. Got some SSDs. There we go. Two more SATA cables. 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:32.800 That was hard. Anyway, yeah, SATA cables are not a big deal, but if you've if it 00:02:30.720 --> 00:02:35.280 includes them, then great. All right, so let's have a look at the board layout. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:40.239 First of all, you got your eight pin power connector in its ideal location up on the top left hand edge of the board. 00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:44.400 You've got a nice little heat sink on your voltage regulators. Uh down here, 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:48.640 you've got active phase switching power savings. So what this does is it 00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:53.440 determines how many CPU how many phases of the power delivery system the CPU is 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:57.200 actually look using and when the CPU is under heavier load it'll enable more of 00:02:55.519 --> 00:03:01.599 them for more stable power and when the CPU is under light load it'll actually 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:05.440 disable some for some power savings. So that's a pretty cool feature. Here's 00:03:02.959 --> 00:03:08.800 your LG 1156 socket. This is a load socket so you can be assured that it 00:03:06.959 --> 00:03:13.519 will make good contact with the pins between uh the motherboard and the pads 00:03:11.040 --> 00:03:19.840 on the bottom of the CPU. Next, we have dual channel DDR3 memory support up to 00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:21.200 16 gigs presumably. You've got a 24 pin 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:25.920 power connector on the right hand edge of the board exactly where it belongs. 00:03:23.519 --> 00:03:31.280 Now, in terms of things that you can plug into this board, we've got six SATA 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:35.599 2. And these are actually in a fairly good layout. I saw these ones here and I 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:39.200 kind of went that might be bad. But it's okay because even if you've got a dual 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.920 slot graphics card here, it's only going to cover up to about here, which is 00:03:40.720 --> 00:03:46.159 where they're using the right angle connectors. And if you uh need to use 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:49.519 these, you definitely can, even with a card installed here and a card installed 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:54.080 there. So, that should be fine. And then once again, they've got the two SATA 6 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:59.760 GB per second ports also coming right out of the board. And that shouldn't be 00:03:56.239 --> 00:04:01.920 a problem either because 00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:05.120 the second dual slot graphics card would go here and it would be well out of the 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:09.360 way of that as well. Here's your IDE port. That's a right angle port because 00:04:07.519 --> 00:04:12.640 that would be in the way of a top of a bottom graphics card. And then what else 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:18.479 do we have on here? We've got a couple of OC switches. We've got their H clear 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:21.280 SMOS jumper. Then we have a power switch, which is great if you're 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:26.479 benching this board on an open test bench. We've got two front USB headers. 00:04:24.320 --> 00:04:30.800 We've got our front panel connectors. So that's for your power switch, LEDs, all 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:34.560 that good stuff. And then we've also got a floppy connector just in case you 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:37.919 still need one of those. The audio connector is down at the very bottom 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.120 left of the board uh near the audio chipset which is right here. It's a 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:44.960 realtech chipset. Now in terms of expansion, this is one of the things I 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:50.560 really like about the way MSI engineers their boards. Instead of leaving a spot 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:53.360 here uh like many other manufacturers do 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:57.440 and installing only six uh and installing only six expansion slots on 00:04:55.280 --> 00:05:01.759 their motherboards, MSI actually puts the extra work into it 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.960 does the routing that's necessary to make sure that they can put a slot right 00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:09.199 at the top. And that means that you can install up to seven expansion cards 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:14.400 because really nobody installs seven expansion cards. Very few people. But if 00:05:12.479 --> 00:05:19.039 you're installing two dual slot graphics cards, that leaves you with 1 2 3. If 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:23.120 you only have six, that leaves you with only two. And lots of people want to 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:28.479 install three expansion cards besides their graphics versus two. So there you 00:05:25.919 --> 00:05:33.440 go. That is why I'm such a big fan of the way MSI does their boards with seven 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:38.320 expansion slots versus only six on many of their competitors. Here's the P-55 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:43.280 chipset that is running this particular board. And then let's move around to the 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:45.759 back where we will see all of our um 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:50.320 input and output on the back panel. So we have optical audio out in a location 00:05:47.919 --> 00:05:54.160 that I've never seen it before. But I think the reason they've done this is it 00:05:51.840 --> 00:06:01.199 leaves way more room for tons of USB ports. We have a PS2 combo port, eight 00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:04.880 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, uh 1 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:06.800 GB Ethernet, and 7.1 audio out. Thank 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:14.199 you for checking out my unboxing of the P-55A 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:14.199 G55 motherboard from MSI.