In The Box
With a budget board such as this one, the accessories list is small. You only get the very basics to get your system up and running and they consist of the following:
IO shield
2x SATA cables, one of which has a 90° right angled connector
Drivers DVD
Users manual
Image courtesy of Newegg
Considering that this is a budget motherboard, I would not have expected to get much more in the box.
Board Features
| Gigabyte GA-A55M-S2V | |
| Market Segment | |
| Size | Micro ATX |
| CPU Interface | FM1 |
| CPU Support | Desktop Llano |
| Chipset | A55 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100 MHz by Default, 90 to 300 MHz in 1 MHz increments |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 1333 MHz by Default, 800 MHz to 1866 MHz supported |
| Core Voltage | 0.800 V to 1.700 V in 0.0125V increaments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | CPU Dependent, Fixed unless Black Edition processors used |
| DRAM Voltage | 1.35 V to 2.30 V in 0.01 V increments |
| DRAM Command Rate | 1 or 2 |
| Memory Slots | Two DDR3-DIMM Maximum 16 GB, Non-ECC Unbuffered 1066 MHz to 1866 MHz selectable |
| Expansion Slots | 1 x PCIe x16 2 x PCIe x1 1 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 6 x SATA 3 Gbps (RAID 0, 1, 10, JBOD) |
| Onboard | 6 x SATA 3 Gbps 2 x Fan Headers 2 x USB 2.0 header 1 x S/PDIF Out header 1 x Front Panel Connector 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector |
| Onboard LAN | RealTek RTL8111E Gigabit Fast Ethernet Controller |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC887 codec High Definition Audio |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 4-pin 12V |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CHA (4-pin) |
| IO Panel | 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 2 x PS/2 Port 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 1 x Optical SPDIF output 3 x Audio Jacks VGA/DVI-D Video Outputs |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
As mentioned previously, with A55 we do not get USB 3.0 or SATA 6 Gbps as standard, but this all helps drive down the cost. The Realtek audio+network combo which is sold to manufacturers at a discount when paired together would also help lower the overall cost. We would have liked another fan header on board at minimum, perhaps with better fan controllers too.
Software
The installation of the drivers and the software for this motherboard was straightforward. Overall, the software itself personally did not feel as feature packed as some of the other manufacturers, nor does it look quite as nice but it does what it says on the tin.
The main software to use is EasyTune6 – an all in one affair which offers an array of options view information about your CPU and memory as well as your graphics card, and sections to apply overclocking options.
Within EasyTune6, the fan controls are limited but they do work. To change the fan speed, you alter the position of the blue or yellow circle on the graph to make the fans spin at a certain percentage of their maximum speed for at that particular CPU temperature. All you are doing is plotting the graph which the software will interpret and change the fan speeds accordingly.
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