ECS A785GM-M Black Edition Motherboard Review :: Layout

CPU Socket

CPU Socket area

Rear of PCB

Board picture

The ECS A785GM-M motherboard comes in a micro-ATX form factor designed to fit in any case of that size or larger. ECS chose to make this board part of their Black Series of motherboards, and the PCB color is a solid black color. The CPU cooler is mounted under the Northbridge. Most CPU coolers will fit without issue in this spot.

785G Northbridge

SB710 Southbridge

8-pin power

24-pin power

The 785G Northbridge is located above the CPU cooler with a low-profile heatsink on the chip to keep it cool. To the right of the NB is the 8-pin power connector. Below the CPU socket is the 4-pin CPU Fan header. Directly below the CPU socket is the four DIMM slots for DDR3 memory clocked at 1333MHz or 1066MHz. To the left of the CPU socket is the SB710 Southbridge which is also cooled by a low-profile heatsink.

IDE

DIMM Slots

SATA

CPUFan header

The bottom edge of the motherboard starts off with a 24-pin power connector. To the left of that is the ATA133 IDE connector. One legacy device this board does not support is a FDD as there is no FDD connector on the board. To the left of the ATA133 connector are six sideways-facing SATA connectors. This allows the user to install six SATA drives without worrying about blocking them when a long video card is installed.

Expansion

USB Headers

Firewire header

CD-In, SPDIF

Expansion on the board is laid out in the PCI Express x1, PCI Express x16, PCI Express x1, PCI slot configuration. This is optimal for the micro-ATX form factor as more and more PCI Express devices hit the market. Dual slot video cards will likely block one PCI Express x1 slot but not the other. ATI supports Hybrid Crossfire which improves integrated graphics performance with a HD 3450 video card, but nothing else. Power users will likely use a faster video card anyway.

FP I/O

Via chip

Capacitors

Realtek RTL8111C

The left hand side of the board starts off with the Front Panel I/O connectors. They are not labeled by the connectors but there is a layout for the FP I/O located above the Reset button. A Power and Reset button are present on the board, allowing for installation of the board outside of the case for testing before installation in a case. To the left of the Reset button are two USB headers and a IEEE-1394 header. Next to those are a CD-In header and a SPDIF header.

Realtek ALC888S

Digital Output

Information

The onboard audio is provided by a Realtek ALC888S CODEC. This CODEC supports Windows Vista WLP 3.08 premium requirements for a sound card. It supports 10 DAC channels that can simultaneously support 7.1 sound playback plus independent stereo sound output (multiple streaming) through the front panel stereo outputs. Each DAC has a 97dB SNR (A-Weighing), each ADC has a 90dB (A-Weighing). The DACs support 44.1k/48k/96k/192kHz sample rate. The ADCs support 44.1/48k/96k sample rate.

Rear I/O

The rear I/O on the rear of the board has gotten rid of the PS/2 port altogether. ECS probably rightly feels that the PS/2 mouse or keyboard are legacy devices that few people will still use. USB mice and keyboards are present in every modern system and the need for PS/2 ports is minimal. Onboard graphics on the motherboard has VGA, HDMI, and DVI-D connections. Two external SATA connectors provide support for eSATA. Six USB 2.0 ports are present providing support for USB devices. A single IEEE-1394a port, a Gigabit LAN controlled by a Realtek RTL8111C PHY and five jacks for the onboard audio are present. Rounding out the Rear I/O is a TOSLink connector for digital audio.