Product Showcase
And the KillerNIC again. Interesting fact though, if you look at the motherboards chips just behind the rear IO you'll stumble into a secondary Gigabit Ethernet controller, a Marvell 88E1118R IC. But there's no physical Ethernet jack for it. Redundancy if the Bigfoot fails ?
We're back at the front side here. We already explained the X-Fi audio solutions, which we love.
We're back at the front side here. We already explained the X-Fi audio solutions, which we love.
USB 3.0 on this board is managed by two Fresco FL1009 host controllers. There are 4 USB 3.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header), and supplied is a USB 3.0 bracket which you can mount at an empty PCI slot in your chassis.
There are a lot of smaller headers for additional USB 2.0 ports, up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (8 ports on the back panel, including 2 eSATA/USB Combo, 6 ports available through the internal USB headers).
Last but not least, expansions slots. You get:
- 2 x PCI Express x16 slots, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1/PCIEX16_2)
* For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16_1 slot; if you are installing two PCI Express graphics cards, it is recommended that you install them in the PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX16_2 slots. - 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
(All PCI Express x16 slots conform to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) - 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.) - 1 x PCI slot
Included are SLI connectors up-to 3-way SLI mode, Crossfire as well up-to 3-way is supported.
Overall the motherboard is feature rich and good looking. The board has a good five fan headers btw, RPM manageable in the BIOS.
