GA-EP31-DS3L offers one PCI Express x16 slot for the installation of one video card (this motherboard doesn’t have on-board video), three PCI slots and three PCI Express x1 slots. A floppy disk drive connector is available on the board edge near the slots.

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Figure 10: Expansion slots.

The rear panel is very conventional, coming with mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports, one parallel port, one serial port, four USB 2.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port (produced by an independent chip, since ICH7 south bridge chip offers only Ethernet 10/100 connectivity), six input and output audio jacks (you don’t need to “kill” the line input jack in order to use eight-channel analog speakers) and two SPDIF outputs, one coaxial and one optical. Having at least one eSATA port would be nice.

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Figure 11: Rear panel.

GA-EP31-DS3L doesn’t come with a lot of accessories, only a user’s manual, a quick installation guide, an I/O frame for the rear panel, CD with drivers and utilities, cables for SATA, IDE and floppy units and two Gigabyte stickers for you to decorate your case.

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Figure 12: Accessories.