Specifications:Even though the motherboard only has 2 RAM DIMMS, it’s still possible to use up to 4 GB of RAM in total, which should be enough for most people. The MSI motherboard has the following connections for optical drives and hard drives:
• 4 stk. SATA2 porte
• 1 stk. ATA133 port
• 1 stk. floppy port
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The 4 SATA ports support RAID 0,1,5, 0+1 and JBOD. Even though the MSI P6NGM-FD motherboard has an onboard graphics card, the motherboard is equipped with a number of slots for connecting other units:
• 1 stk. PCI-e x1
• 1 stk. PCI-e x16
• 2 stk. PCI 32bit
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If you’re not satisfied with the onboard graphics, it’s possible to put cards as big as the 8800GTX in the MSI P6NGM-FD. As nearly all modern motherboards, the MSI P6NGM-FD also has an onboard soundcard, with the following specifications:
• Realtek®ALC888
• 7.1 channel with jack sensing
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There’s not much to say about the soundcard, it’s standard as you would expect. Besides that the motherboard is also equipped with an Ethernet connection:
• Supports 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek® 8211BL
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Like the soundcard, the features of the Ethernet card are as expected. A nice feature could have been built-in WIFI. All these specifications mean that the MSI P6NGM-FD has the following internal connections:
• ATX 24-Pin power connector
• ATX 4-pin 12V power connector
• CPU x 1 / System FAN x 1 connector
• CD-in connector
• Front panel audio connector
• Front panel connector
• x SPDIF out connector
• 3 x USB 2.0 connectors
• 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
• 4 x serial ATA connectors
• 1 x serial port connector
• 1 x ATA133 connectors
• Chassis intrusion switch connector
• Clear CMOS jumper
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On the back of the motherboard you find the following connections:
• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
• 1 x PS/2 Mouse
• 1 x 6 in 1 Audio jack
• 4 x USB 2.0 ports
• 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
• 1 x Graphic Card port (D-sub)
• 1 x DVI port
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Replacing the DVI port with an HDMI port would be a nice feature, and there’s room for it on the motherboard. But if you want HDMI, this motherboard isn’t the model for you.
The product:Now that we’ve looked at the specifications for the MSI P6NGM-FD, it’s time to take a look at how the board itself is designed. We’ll start off by taking a look at the board from the top, to get an overview.
The layout is pretty standard for a mATX motherboard with PCI-e ports. There’s plenty of room around the CPU socket for a big cooler, and the Nvidia MCP73 chipset is passively cooled. The only bad thing about the design is the location of the P4 plug, which would have been better if it had been placed along the edge. Before going into details about the design and placing of the various plugs, we’ll turn the motherboard around.
