Msi p67a mb

[qandelin]

I have put together a couple of PCs using your guide in the past.

You are recommending the MSI P67A MB but reading the reviews on Newegg indicates a lot of people are having serious problems with this MB, boot loops, down level firmware, etc.

Are you still recommending this MB and do you have any recommendations getting started with it.

[ARchamps]

Be wary about Newegg reviews. Most of the time, people will post negative reviews when they have problems and not post positive reviews when they dont. This will skew the rep of the product. I have an ASUS P8P67 and Newegg reviews are bad.. but the product is flawless. It all comes down to reading legitimate reviews (Google) and experience with certain brands. Compare product features as well, such as USB 3.0 ports, SATA 3 ports, SLI/xFire slots etc.

[qandelin]

I have another question about video. I thought I might be able to take advantage of the integrated video in the Sandy Bridge processors but it looks like with this MB I will have a video card. Is that correct?

[Bryon]

If I am reading it right, that board has no onboard video chipset. (Wait for a Pro to confirm lol)

Bryon

[ARchamps]

The onboard video comes from your CPU. For example, the i5 2500K processor has a HD2000 GPU. If you want to utilize the onboard video on your CPU, you need a board that supports the outputs. The P67 chipset does not have that capability, so you would need a video card. You can get an H67 mobo (older) or a Z68 mobo (newer) to use on-board.

This concept confused me as well. Check out this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_card).

Btw, I'm no pro lol. I just try to share my experience as I recently built my first PC. :)

[Bryon]

Ah, I see! Thanks for the link I will check that out :)

Bryon