The audio section from this motherboard provides 7.1 audio, produced by the south bridge chip with the aid of a Realtek ALC885 codec. This codec provides a professional-level audio capability to this motherboard, with a 101 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its inputs and a 106 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its outputs. Several motherboards provide a high SNR on the outputs but a low SNR on the inputs, which isn’t the case with this product. This means that you can use its on-board audio for professional applications, like capturing and editing analog audio. It also provides a sampling rate of up to 192 kHz for both inputs and outputs, and several motherboards provide a high sampling rate for its outputs (192 kHz) but usually a lower maximum sampling rate for its inputs (e.g., 96 kHz). Once again, this isn’t the case with this motherboard.

This board also provides one optical SPDIF output soldered directly on the motherboard, which is great as you can easily connect it to your home theater receiver.

This motherboard has 10 USB 2.0 ports (six soldered on the motherboard and four available through I/O brackets) and two FireWire ports controlled by Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A chip (one soldered on the motherboard and another available through an I/O bracket). This motherboard comes with an I/O bracket providing two USB ports and one FireWire port and also with a 3 ½” plastic frame that allows you to use this bracket on the front of your case.

On the rear panel (Figure 4) you can find the two Gigabit Ethernet ports, six USB 2.0 ports, separated analog audio inputs/outputs (7.1 format), SPDIF optical output, PS/2 mouse and PS/2 keyboard connectors. The parallel and serial ports are missing and they aren’t available on this motherboard, not even through the use of I/O brackets.

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Figure 4: Motherboard rear connectors.

This motherboard comes with a POST diagnostics display, which allows you to see what is wrong if your computer doesn’t turn on.

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Figure 5: POST display.

This motherboard uses only solid aluminum capacitors on its voltage regulator, which is great. It also uses passive heatsinks on top of its MOSFET transistors. These two features provide a longer life-span to this product.

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Figure 6: Voltage regulator using solid aluminum capacitors and passive heatsinks.

The other electrolytic capacitors used on this motherboard are conventional ones, manufactured by Rubycon, Chemi-Con and Samxon. The first two companies are Japanese and thus provide very high-quality products, but Samxon is a Chinese company and thus not as reliable as the other two brands. Since this is a very high-end (and very expensive) motherboard we think NVIDIA should have used only solid aluminum capacitors on this motherboard.

This motherboard has a power button and a reset button and also a buzzer (small loudspeaker) soldered directly on the motherboard.

On Figures 7 and 8 you can see all cables and adapters that come with this motherboard.

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Figure 7: Cables that come with this motherboard.

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Figure 8: eSATA adapter, USB/FireWire bracket, plastic frame and SLI bridge.

Finally, it is important to note that this motherboard requires an EPS12V power supply, as it uses an eight-pin auxiliary power connector and not a four-pin one, and also a peripheral power connector installed.

This motherboard comes with two CDs, containing its drivers and utilities.