Board Layout

Click here for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here.


The space around the CPU area is a bit small, near the connector area, where the black tall capacitors are.


PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, Parallel Port, Two Serial Ports, IEEE1394, four USB Ports, Ethernet and Audio. On the backside panel all common connectors are included, ECS does not use their fan exhaust system here, which we know from other ECS motherboards.


The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color.

Connectors

The placement of the ATX power connector is fine, but the ATX12V connector for CPU power is in a bad spot. It would be better if it was closer to the edges of the motherboard, for optimum cable routing.


Six SATA ports are available for your harddisks. Four from the chipset and another two from a Silicon Image SATA RAID chip.


You will find two parallel ATA ports on this motherboard, for a total of four IDE devices.


The header for the power/reset switch is neither color-coded nor labeled. But it follows the common layout found on other motherboards. The manual also describes the pins and their functions.


Spread around the board are four fan headers.