Nvidia GeForce 9300 Launch Roundup :: MSI P7NGM Digital Layout

Part Number	P7NGM
Manufacturer	MSI
Price Check	Find Best Price
Downloads	BIO Drivers Manuals
Chipset	Nvidia GeForce 9300
North Bridge	Nvidia GeForce 9300
Socket	LGA775 Socket
Processor Types	Quad Core, Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium D
Number of CPUs	1
Front Side Bus	1333/1066/800
Memory Type	DDR2
Memory Channels	Dual
Maximum Memory	8GB
External Graphics	PCI Express x16
IGP	GeForce 9300
South Bridge	Nvidia GeForce 9300
Audio	8-channel
IDE	133/100/66
SCSI	None
SATA	3.0 GB/s
RAID	0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10
LAN	10/100/1000 4 LAN Ports
Firewire	IEEE 1394a
USB	USB 2.0
Expansion Slots
BIOS	Phoenix
Form Factor	mini-ATX

MSI chose to use a mini-ATX form factor for their P7NGM Digital motherboard. This means that the board can fit into any case designed for mini-ATX motherboards or larger. Much like the ASUS board the MSI board has no obstacles to installing an after-market CPU cooler in the CPU area. The GeForce 9300 chip has a small heatsink covering the chip.

MSI outfits the board with a PCI Express x16 slot, two PCI slots and a single PCI Express x1 slot. The PCI Express x16 slot has plenty of clearance to install a two slot video card without interfering with the SATA ports. The board has six SATA ports below the first PCI slot, allowing the user to install up to six SATA HDDs or optical drives.

The left hand side of the board has jacks for the Audio, the CD, Firewire, two USB headers to bring the total supported by this motherboard to eight when all the USB headers are in use. Next to the USB headers are two Front Panel headers that allow the end-user to install the cables for the Power Switch, Reset Switch and other front panel IO cables. The bottom of the board has the LPT header, COM1 header, SysFan header, the IDE and FDD connections and the 24-pin power connector.

The 4-pin power connector is on the top of the board above the chipset heatsink. This location is ideal in this day and age where the PSU can be located either on the top or bottom of the case. The board is laid out in an ideal mini-ATX layout making it easy to install everything on the board with good cable management. There are four DIMM slots on this board, meaning that up to 8GB of DDR2-800MHz memory can be installed just like the other GeForce 9300 boards in this roundup.

The onboard audio on the MSI board is based upon the Realtek ALC888 CODEC. This audio is sufficient for most everyone that doesn’t want the added cost of a CL sound card in their system. High Definition Audio has really taken off with support for Dolby Digital and DTS connect common features on most every motherboard audio solution on the market.

The IO on the rear of this board exemplify why this board is targeted towards the Digital user. The board has a DVI port, a HDMI port and a VGA port for the onboard graphics. DisplayPort would have been a great addition but the vast majority of users will have one of the three included connections. Also on the Rear IO are a Firewire port, PS/2 mouse port, PS/2 keyboard port, four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit LAN and six jacks for the onboard audio.