The GA-P55-UD6
is Gigabyte's flagship Intel P55 Express motherboard, so it's loaded up with features
that you won't find on basic motherboards.
No more fishing for a jumper to turn the board on!
Right next to the memory slots is a big, illuminated power switch that's easy to find, and very helpful
for when the motherboard is being tested or tweaked outside of the PC
chassis.
Combination USB/eSATA ports not only save space for more goodies
on the I/O panel, they also allow certain eSATA devices to receive USB power, which
is very handy for high-speed, high capacity eSATA based storage devices.
Gigabyte include dual port "L-port" style eSATA/power bracket with
the GA-P55-UD6 motherboard. These are the same kind of connections
internal SATA hard drive cables use. The expansion bracket uses the
internal Serial ATA ports as well as having the option for power through an
internal molex power connector. Gigabyte includes two Serial ATA L-to-I cables
along with one external molex to Serial ATA power connector. This allows you
connect internal or external Serial ATA devices to your computer without having
to open it up.
Gigabyte puts a 2oz copper layer into its high-end motherboards, which
improves heat dissipation and gives better insulation from electromagnetic
interference.
Overclocked a little to far? The Gigabyte
GA-P55-UD6 has a PORT 80 card located right next to a physical reset button
and CMOS clear button. PORT 80 codes are an industry standard method
of diagnosing boot-up errors. It's a lot more convenient than diagnosing beep codes.
Underneath this heatsink are a pair of SATA controllers,
one is a JMicron JMB632 controller that powers two SATA 3Gb/s ports in RAID 0, 1
and JBOD modes. The second is Gigabyte's own SATA2 controller which supports another two SATA
3Gb/s, also in RAID 0, 1 and JBOD modes. The board also comes with dual
BIOS chips so there is essentially no likelyhood of a bad BIOS
flash killing the board (and requiring a lengthy RMA process).
Before we move on, let's get a little familiar with the Intel P55 Express
chipset...
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