The Basics (continued):
Now let's shift our focus to the bottom of the
ECS PN2-SLI2+. Starting at the bottom-left corner of the motherboard we have built-in power and reset buttons. This is a nice feature if you ever find yourself testing components and don't want to be bothered with installing the system into a case just for the functionality of an on/off switch. In this same picture you will notice a system fan connector to the right of the onboard power switch. In the second picture is a close up of the Phoenix BIOS chip powering this board.
Continuing along the bottom of the motherboard we have a section of yellow pins for a serial connection. To the right of these pins there is a white 3-pin connector for another system chassis fan. If you move up towards the center of the motherboard you will find another nice feature integrated into the ECS PN2-SLI2+, an LED diagnostic code display to help users troubleshooting boot-up problems. When overclocking a system these diagnostic codes will help you get your computer up and running again much quicker. To the left of the diagnostic code display are two sets of USB 2.0 headers (in blue) for external connections on either the front or rear of your computer tower.
The remaining two SATA connectors are found along the right edge of the motherboard stacked atop each other. The port in the picture below is for use with 3.5" floppy drives.
Finally, we examine the expansion and PCI-E slots on the ECS PN2-SLI2+. This motherboard has 3 PCI-E slots (2 of which can be used in SLI) and 2 PCI slots available. In the next picture you will notice a small white latch intended to secure a video card in the PCI-E slot. In the past we have found latches like these to be hard to use due to their small size. This was a problem with the previously reviewed
ECS C19-A SLI. Thankfully, we had no such trouble with the latches on this particular ECS model.
