I just want to check up on a couple of 'taken-for-granted' aspects of this mobo that I'm about to get. One relates to my presumption that this board - the GA-P55-US3L - does not have integrated graphics, and the other is perhaps an equally facile question concerning the use of a USB mouse.
Seeing that the odd person or two in these forums have mistakenly bought this or a similar P55 only to discover that it doesn't have integrated graphics, can I safely assume that I will assuredly obtain digital or analgue drive for my monitor if I plug a third-party PCIe16 graphics card equipped with DVI-I outputs into the PCIe x16 slot of this mobo? That's with the appropriate driver for the card added, of course?
Re the mouse query, I've hitherto only used a PS2 mouse but now, with a newer mouse that is USB, I'm obviously thinking of plugging it into the USB port on this mobo that's just above where the single PS2 port is situated. (The PS2 port will be used by my keyboard). But since the USB mouse will need to be connected right from the start when first installing and then configuring Windows, how does that square with the more general requirement that software for a USB device should be installed before ever connecting up the device? With a USB mouse, I can't see how that rule can be applied in the situation where a newly-built system is having its OS installed. Is the USB mouse an exception to this rule? The new mouse is a Microsoft mouse and the installation instructions indicate quite clearly that the Intellipoint software should be installed before the mouse is connected. But, in this sort of situation, that will not be possible. Haven't thought about this before, but does Windows, when the OS is being installed, load just a basic mouse driver and not load the mouse as a USB device? What, then, should I do later, once the OS has been installed? Just reboot with the USB mouse still attached and then install the Intellipoint software? That'll still be after, rather than before, of course?