ECS KN3-SLI2 Extreme AM2 Motherboard Review :: ECS KN3-SLI2 Extreme (V1.0) Layout

ECS has had many of their motherboards come in a Purple PCB. Ugh. I much prefer the standard black PCB found on many motherboards on the market today. The KN3-SLI2 Extreme has a black color, much more appealing to the eye. The battery on the board is in the upright position, saving a little space. The JP1 jumper is next to the battery for clearing the CMOS.

Black PCB

CPU area

24-pin ATX power

Battery+JP1 Jumper

The CPU area is clear of obstructions, allowing the use of after-market cooling solutions for the CPU. The 24-pin ATX power connector is on the bottom part of the board next to the floppy drive connection and IDE connector. There is a 2nd IDE connector on the far left of the board, controlled by the JMB363 chip. ECS decided to give the video card plenty of room so as to not interfere with the insertion/removal of memory.

NB

SB

USB headers

IEEE-1394 headers

Rear fan

LPT1

PMC

CASFAN header

Rear of rear fan

The Northbridge is an nForce 590 SLI chip. ECS recognizes to utilize the MCP55XE as the Southbridge. The Southbridge is cooled by a heatsink. The Northbridge is cooled by a fan surrrounded by a heatsink with the ECS logo on it. There are three USB headers bringing the total on the board possible to 10. Two IEEE1394 headers are also present, bringing Firewire support to the KN3-SLI2 board. There are five fan headers on the ECS board, but two of them are taken up by the Southbridge fan and the back IO fan. One cool addition is the inclusion of LED lights that light up when the board is in operation. The Panel1 connectors are labeled apart from the connectors.