ECS KN1SLI Extreme (nVidia nForce4 SLI)
Expansion capabilities
Like the remaining boards built on nForce4 Ultra\SLI chipset, the ECS KN1SLI Extreme offers support for 4 SerialATA-II channels. Respective connectors are fitted near the chipset, which essentially facilitates plugging in cables.
Two more SerialATA channels are implemented with a Sil3132 chip made by Silicon Image. The respective connectors are also colored orange.
In the end, 10 hard disks altogether can be plugged in to the ECS KN1SLI board: 6 disks through the SerialATA II, with 4 more through the ParallelATA. It is nice to note the possibility to bring one SerialATA II port outside the CPU unit with a special bracket (available in the bundle).
Then, the board offers two LAN controllers. The first one is the 88E1111 chip made by Marvell (connected to the PCI bus) of 1000 Mbit/s bandwidth:
The second one is the RTL8100C chip made by Realtek (also connected to the PCI bus). Its bandwidth is 10/100 Mbit/s.
Thus, we get two RJ45 connectors on the rear panel of the board at a time.
KN1SLI Extreme uses a controller to support the Firewire.
That is the TSB43AB22A chip made by Texas Instruments. Therefore, the board offers support for two IEEE1394 ports: both are connected with a bracket (available in the bundle).
Besides the Firewire, the board supports 10 USB 2.0 ports, four of which are positioned on the rear panel, with 6 more plugged in via brackets (the board comes bundled with a bracket for 2 ports).
The last thing to dwell on is the integrated audio. ALC850 chip is used as the codec, which supports output for 8 channels.
The board's rear panel looks like this:
You can see the lack of one COM port as well as a LPT port. While the last one is implemented with a bracket, the second COM is missing completely. However, engineers at ECS had to make that move to position an output hole for the cooling system on the rear panel, as well as an optical and coaxial SP-DIF output.
ECS KN1SLI Extreme uses two jumpers: JP1 to reset the CMOS settings (in the bottom left corner of the board), and JP3 to protect the BIOS against reflashing. It is positioned near the BIOS chip which is welded into the board.
However, you shouldn't be afraid of unsuccessful flashing (or other damage to the BIOS code). Together with the board, there comes a TopHat Flash module that is meant to restore the BIOS flashing:
The module is put on the welded chip and thus the use can launch the system (from the backup BIOS chip) and restore the damage BIOS flashing. By the way, we had to look closer at the BIOS settings.
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