Desktop Board Features 
17 
VGA Displays 
The DVI-I port supports VGA displays when a DVI-I to VGA converter is used.  The 
maximum supported resolution is 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA). 
The DVI-A port is enabled for the POST whenever a monitor is attached. 
PCI Express* x16 Graphics 
The Intel Core i7, Intel Core i5, Intel Core i3, and Intel Pentium processors in an 
LGA1155 socket support discrete add-in graphics cards via the PCI Express 2.0 x16 
add-in card connector.  The board supports the following PCI Express speeds: 
•  PCI Express 2 frequency of 2.5 GHz which results in 5.0 Gb/s in each direction 
(500 MB/s) per lane.  The maximum theoretical bandwidth on the interface is 
8 GB/s in each direction, simultaneously, when operating in x16 mode. 
•  PCI Express 1.1 frequency of 1.25 GHz resulting in 2.5 Gb/s each direction 
(250 MB/s) per lane.  The maximum theoretical bandwidth on the interface is 
4 GB/s in each direction, simultaneously, when operating in x16 mode. 
Audio Subsystem  
The board supports Intel High Definition Audio through a Realtek ALC892 audio codec 
as well as through the HDMI interface. 
The Realtek ALC892-based audio subsystem provides the following features: 
•  Advanced jack sense for the back panel audio connectors that enables the audio 
codec to recognize the device that is connected to an audio port 
•  Stereo input and output via back panel connectors 
•  Headphone and Mic in functions for front panel audio connectors 
•  97 dB Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) playback (DAC) quality and 90 dB SNR recording 
(ADC) quality 
•  Content protection for full-rate loss-less DVD Audio and Blu-ray Disc* audio 
content playback (with selected versions of media player software) 
The audio subsystem supports the following audio interfaces:   
•  7.1 analog back panel audio connectors 
•  Optical S/PDIF-out back panel audio connector 
•  S/PDIF-out header with support for optical or coaxial S/PDIF output 
•  Front panel audio header with support for Intel HD Audio and AC ’97 Audio 
Table 3 lists the supported functions of the front pa
nel (FP) and
 back panel (BP) audio 
jacks.