14 DAY TRIAL // Micro Star International is planning to release a new motherboard aimed at providing support for the latest Core 2 processors from Intel. The Taiwanese manufacturer has designed the new mobo on a black micro-ATX PCB, which uses an NVIDIA chipset. Not that many details are available right now to go on but, from the looks of it, the new product is ready to deliver all the necessary features for a solid HTPC system.
Given the mobo's tech specs, we can only assume that MSI tried to build a product that presented users with a strong platform for a multimedia desktop rig. Based on NVIDIA's GeForce 9300/nForce 730i chipset, the P7NGM brings support for Intel's latest 65nm and 45nm desktop processors. It equips four DDR2-800 memory slots and just one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot. Thanks to the board's integrated SLI-ready GeForce 9300 graphics card, the new P7NGM can easily be used for mainstream computer systems.
Although you would probably not consider this board for a high-end gaming rig, you will most certainly appreciate its overall features. Packing six SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, 7.1-channel audio, Gigabit Ethernet and VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs, the new P7NGM from MSI will surely prove to be an ideal solution for mainstream users and multimedia enthusiasts. From what we can see from the product pictures made available, the backpanel also features 4 USB ports.
With the benefits of the integrated graphics chip, the motherboard can deliver support for Microsoft's DirectX 10, straight out of the box. The GeForce 9300 graphics chip can also offer support for NVIDIA's PureVideo and Hybrid SLI technologies, both of which can improve the system's graphics quality.
As noted above, details on the new mobo are in short supply at the moment, but word in the industry has it that it is expected to arrive in stores later this month. By that time, we will certainly get to learn more details on the product's pricing as well, so keep an eye on this space.