| ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI Motherboard
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The Basics (continued):
Another notable thing this board is boasting is three PCI slots. Many current motherboards seem to be doing away with these expansion slots, or they have just one located in a spot that is almost impossible to use anyway. It would be nice to see other manufacturers keep more than a single PCI slot as many people still have multiple expansion cards that they would like to use. I did notice that the PCI-E 16/8x slots are a little close together... If you are going to be running SLI or a dual card setup on this board, you will more than likely run into some clearance issues if your card(s) have bigger coolers.
The final thing to note is that there may be a slight clearance issue if you are running a longer video card, as it may block the bottom DIMM latches. This is an issue with many motherboards on the market, and generally just means installing the memory before the video card.
Accessories:
All motherboards come with some extra goodies and the ECS NF650iSLIT-A (V1.0) is no exception. Though not overflowing with extras, this board seems aimed at the middle of the line user and ECS packages what you will need to use this board in a no-nonsense manner.
You get the standard user manual and a quick setup guide for the motherboard/BIOS. The driver disc comes with drivers compatible for Windows XP 32/64 bit, as well as Windows Vista. The other accessories are two SATA cables, a single IDE cable, the SLI Bridge, and a rear I/O shield. I was a little surprised at the lack of accessories, to be honest. I would have liked to have seen four SATA cables and two IDE cables, as there are four SATA ports and two IDE channels on this motherboard. It seems kind of silly to only package enough cables to use half of the ports.
Installation:
Installation of this board is just like any other; position your standoffs in the correct locations, change out the rear I/O shield, and screw down the new motherboard. Plug in your hardware and cables, and away you go. I will not be going into details on the installation process, as it is straight forward and didn't provide any surprises. The only issue I ran into during installation was with the length of the 4-pin power connector, as it is on the far left of the motherboard near the rear I/O and was a bit of a stretch for my power source.
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