ECS A790GXM-A Black Series
Motherboard Layout:
The layout of the components on the ECS A790GXM-A is quite different from the A780GM-A. There are still the four DDR2 slots that support up to DDR2-1066MHz memory and next to that is the 24-pin ATX power connector as well as the lone IDE connector. Below the IDE connector is the FDD connector and the six Serial ATA 2.0 ports supported by this motherboard. Near the SATA ports is a physical reset and power switch, which we are quite fond of having directly on the motherboard. There are also three USB 2.0 headers. The AMD SB750 Southbridge provides this connectivity. The SB750 has all the same features as the SB700 found on the 780G motherboards, but this newer model adds in RAID 5 support, enhanced overclocking abilities, and other minor improvements. The SB750 is cooled on this motherboard by a very small passive cooler.
The expansion slots on this motherboard include two PCI Express 2.0 x16, two PCI Express x1, and two PCI slots. The two PCI Express x16 slots are ATI CrossFire compatible, however, they will be limited to PCI-E x8 bandwidth. Above the expansion slots is a 4-pin molex connector for use if you will be using two graphics cards in this system but with only a 4-pin ATX +12V power connector as opposed to using an 8-pin version.
With the A780GM-A the Northbridge had fit between the upper expansion slots and the CPU socket, but with the A790GXM-A it had to be pushed further back on the motherboard. The AMD 790GX Chipset is covered by a rather large aluminum heatsink. The 790GX provides the Radeon HD 3300 integrated graphics. For the integrated graphics there is 128MB of DDR2-800 side-port memory. Above the 790GX is the 4/8-pin power connector and beyond that is another passive heatsink that's cooling some of the motherboard's power circuitry. With the A790GXM-A it is also important to note the use of all solid capacitors.
The AMD AM2+ CPU socket resides between the four DDR2 memory slots and the 790GX. Supported are AMD Phenom, Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron AM2/AM2+ processors.
The ports at the rear of the motherboard include two PS/2, one VGA, one serial, six USB 2.0, one HDMI, two Gigabit Ethernet, and six audio ports. It is a bit unfortunate this motherboard has no DVI connector for the integrated graphics, but at least there is HDMI. The 8-channel HD audio on this ECS motherboard is provided by the Realtek ALC 888S ASIC. Two Realtek RTL 8111C controllers provide the dual Gigabit Ethernet.