Asus and MSI's P55 boards gets pictured

[Chingum]

PC Games Hardware has managed to snap some pictures of both Asus' and MSI's P55 motherboards and although neither company seems to be quite ready at this point in time, we have a feeling that Computex could well be the launch time for socket 1160 processors and motherboards.

Asus is showing off two models, the P7U and P7U Pro, with the difference between the two being that the Pro model has a pair of x16 PCIe slots. Both boards have a single, open ended PCIe x4 slot, two PCIe x1 slots (three for the P7U) and a PCI slot. Then there are four DDR3 memory slots, five SATA, an IDE, four USB 2.0 headers for eight USB 2.0 ports and get this, a floppy connector. Around the back you'll find a PS/2 port, six USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, FireWire and 7.1-channel analogue audio.

The MSI board goes under the name of G7P55-DC or the MS-7581 and it is a higher-end board than the two from Asus. MSI has fitted it with three PCIe x16 slots, two PCIe x1 slots and two PCI slots. There's of course four DDR3 memory slots and MSI has gone for eight SATA connectors, a single IDE connector, four additional USB headers for an extra eight USB 2.0 ports and just like Asus, a floppy connector. Around the back you'll find two PS/2 ports, six USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, eSATA, a DVI and D-sub connector, dual Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio with optical S/PDIF out.

[Golfert]

Even I also heard that when the G7P55-DC also boasts D-Sub and DVI connectors for when a GPU-loaded Westmere CPU is used, and has OC, Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons. Since the Core i5 is set for a Q3 release don't expect to see G7P55-DC anytime soon. Luckily, that will give MSI more time to refine the board (we'd certainly like the 8-pin power connector to be a bit higher).

[Astro121]

The new CPU socket is quite different to the LGA-1366 socket used for the Core i7. It still has a metal lid that needs to be lifted up, but the design has been simplified and the lid is hooked into a bolt that is attached to the PCB of the motherboard. It's easier to open (we had a quick play a few days ago), but a little bit tricky to close, as it's flopping around somewhat due to the hinge construction. It's also worth noting that both Asus and MSI have used very simple, passive heatsinks on the P55 chipset which is promising.

[Bantu]

The MSI looks nice, but how will it perform -- that will make or break it.
I don't like those Asus boards... tight, congested cpu socket area, empty backplate, slot layout is meh, ugly colour... I hope Gigabyte will come out with something better for the lower ranges of P55.