nForce 430 south bridge supports up to four SATA-300 ports and two ATA-133 ports (four devices), accepting RAID modes 0, 1, 0+1 and 5. However, Gigabyte implemented only two SATA ports and a single ATA port in M61PME-S2P. One detail that should be taken into consideration is that the position of SATA ports makes them difficult to be used if you install a long video card.

 
click to enlarge
Figure 4: SATA ports.

The audio section from this motherboard uses a Realtek ALC883 codec, with 10 channels (7.1+2), offering a signal/noise ratio of 95 dB for the analog outputs and 85 dB for the analog inputs, good numbers for a value motherboard, but in order to work professionally with analog audio capture (converting LPs and VHS tapes to digital format, for example) you will need a signal/noise ratio higher than this (at least 95 dB for the inputs). The rear audio connectors are shared, meaning that you cannot use all six channel outputs with the line in and microphone inputs at the same time. There is no SPDIF output.

The board offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four soldered on the rear panel and four available as internal headers. The network port is an on-board 10/100 Ethernet controlled by the south bridge, aided with Realtek RTL 8201CL transceiver. It is a shame that the manufacturer has saved on this chip, because the south bridge embbeded LAN controller is compatible with Gigabit Ethernet.

The rear panel is simple and traditional: Keyboard and mouse PS/2 connectors, one serial and one parallel port, on-board video output, four USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port and shared audio connectors.

 
click to enlarge
Figure 5: Rear panel.