The Basics (continued):
The below left image takes a look at the board in the corner where the four 240-pin DDR2 slots are found. The board is rated for 800MHz DDR2, which struck me as a little outdated considering that modern features like processors with 1333MHZ frontside buses are supported. Hopefully the memory can be overclocked, and it will at least make use of 1066MHz modules. This image also shows the six SATA-II headers, the 24-pin ATX power connector, and all of the onboard fan headers. Unfortunately, "all" only amounts to three fan headers, with one providing a 4-pin PWM connection for the CPU, and the other two providing standard 3-pin connections.
 
The above right image shows the expansion slot area of the board. There are two yellow PCI-E x1 slots, a red PCI-E x16 slot, and three black PCI slots. I really dislike ECS' release mechanism for PCI Express graphics slots. I have seen the same little tab on every board I have reviewed recently, and with a typical card installed it is very difficult to reach the lever to pop the card out. If they just put the lever on the other side of the tab, it would be so much easier to actuate. Other items in this area include three USB 2.0 headers, an IDE connection, and up a bit higher is a black CD-in connection, a purple SPDIF header, and a purple HD audio header.
The next set of images take a closer look at the corner of the board where the front panel connections are found. While there are no serial or parrallel ports out back, headers have been provided in this area, just in case you need to connect something via these older interfaces. Another older item that you may have realized is missing is a floppy drive connection, and I can't say I will miss it. By far one of my favorite additions to the board can be found just to the right of the front panel connections. The below right image provides a closer look at the integrated red power button and yellow reset button. These come in extremely handy while setting a system up, and are quite useful if your system doesn't run inside a typical case.
 
The final image in this section of the review takes a look at the rear I/O connections. From left to right we have two PS/2 connections for a keyboard and mouse, a 15-pin VGA connection, an HDMI port, a total of six USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA port, an RJ-45 Gigabit LAN connection, and six 1/8" jacks for analog audio.
My only wishlist item relating to these I/O connections would be for ECS to drop the 15-pin VGA connection and provide a DVI connection instead. The system is obviously capable of outputting digital video, and it is just much easier to adapt from a DVI to a VGA connection, if you happened to need this older interface.
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