MSI H55M-ED55

MSI H55M-ED55 review

Mega money mobos with features to match are all very well. But most mere mortals want a mobo that ticks all the important boxes without threatening their mortgage payments. At £70, the MSI H55M-ED55 is competitively priced for a board with Intel's LGA1156 socket. Thanks to the H55 chipset, it gives you plenty of options too. Performance freaks can drop in a quad-core Core i7, hook up a discrete graphics card and watch the frame rates flow. Those on a tighter budget have the option of using Intel's dual-core CPUs with integrated graphics. The MSI H55M-ED55's microATX form factor also strikes a handy balance between features, size and cost. With two PCI-e x16 slots along with further PCI-e x1 and PCI ports, expansion options are well catered for. Certainly, the H55M-ED55 is much more flexible than a Mini-ITX board such as the Gigabyte H55N-USB3. Likewise, six SATA ports will be more than enough for most systems even if it's a shame none of them offer 6Gbps connectivity. Plenty of USB ports and headers are also provided but, again, none are USB 3.0 compliant. Is the MSI H55M-ED55 a mainstream mobo designed to deliver maximum value or a performance-oriented board aimed at gamers?