ABIT Fatal1ty F-I90HD - Overview continued
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The CPU area is a little crowded, but I've seen worse. It's extremely hard for the engineers to clean out the CPU area on a mATX motherboard with its limited space. The RAM slots are far enough away that they won't pose any of the problems I've faced in the past with mATX motherboards.
Speaking of the RAM slots, there are four of them! Games require more and more RAM, so you may end up using the other two later on. It is a positive point here for future upgrades.
The main ATX power connector is snuggled next to the side of the motherboard. I have seen the connector put in odd places on mATX motherboards, but this one is in one of the best places possible.
Here we have one IDE connector and four SATA cables. One IDE connector is now the norm these days, but only four SATA connectors? I'm disappointed. This is probably the fewest I have seen recently. I guess one could always use add in cards.
We have three additional headers for USB ports here. It seems like everything uses USB, so it's great to see the ability to add a few more USB ports if needed.
Yes, the floppy has not died yet. Why oh why?
You get a PCI-Express x16 slot, 2 PCI-Express 1 x slots, and a single PCI card. I'm going to miss that second PCI slot badly, as I had two PCI TV tuners. Do we really need two PCI-Express 1x slots? The computer industry isn't switched over to PCI-Express yet, so why are we ditching PCI?
On the back we have the connectors. First we have two PS2 connectors for your mouse and keyboard. On top of those is the VGA connector for monitors; no DVI, however you can use DVI with the HDMI connection, which is next. We have an onboard HDMI connection which will be great for connecting to my HDTV. If you are a DVI user, included is an adapter for converting HDMI to DVI.
Next up is the audio. We have your typical audio connections that come with onboard audio, as well as optical audio out. Rounding it out is four USB ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port. More USB would have been great, but the included two USB headers make it not an issue. Missing, however, is any kind of hope for firewire. No headers or ports on the entire motherboard. It looks like you are going to need to use one of the few slots the motherboard has for firewire.
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