You are also missing the third PCI-Express 16x slot. This does not matter now, since you can only use dual graphics cards, but this will change very soon. It is time to explore the motherboard.

This is a very clean and basic motherboard. It is similar to the 680i SLI motherboard but with the missing features exhausted off. You can observe here where the pin outs for a third PCI-Express slot should be, but were left off.

The socket area is really clean and cause no problems for any cooler I put on. There is also sufficient space between the memory and socket to put RAM into the first channel.

We also find the main ATX power connector here and sadly, the only IDE connector as well. We have great position to help cable management. Also snuggled in here are 4 of the 6 SATA points. Normally we find these a little further down, but having them here does not cause any problems.

Where are the power, reset, and other pins to connect to the case? Well normally they are down in the right corner, but I tried and failed. In fact, the USB headers do not work well sufficient to power on your computer. They are found up by the ATX, IDE, and SATA connectors. It is starting to get a little confined around here is not it?

As far as slots go we are good. We contain (2) 16x PCI-Express slots, a 1x PCI- Express and (2) PCI slots. This is the best combination of now and future you can obtain.

The chipset cooler here is a billion times better than the one on the ASUS P5N-E SLI. To begin with, it works and cools the chipset efficiently. It has a small footprint and is not tall sufficient to interfere with big CPU coolers.

On the back we find the PS2’s ports, a fire-wire, 4 USB, your Ethernet port, and sound. This is a quite nice mixture of ports; it adds none that are outdated and does not skimp on any ports. The fire-wire port is a very nice feature that is not found in several boards anymore.