Turning our attention to the PCI-E slots there are numerous options here to satisfy all users. Available in this area are:
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
• 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
• 1 x PCI slot
Having multiple PCI-E slots – there is NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossfireX support too. Those who do go for a multi-GPU configuration though will have the bandwidth drop to x8 or x4 respectively. PCI-E Gen3 is also supported.
Plenty of options for PCI-E
In the very centre of the motherboard GIGABYTE have integrated a connector for mSATA (Solid State Drive). This is controlled by Intel Z77 and allows for SATA 3GB/s mSATA drives to be connected.
Integrated mSATA support
Finally onto the rear IO ports. Again, here there are generous helping of features and connectivity. From left to right there is:
• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector
• 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.0 ports
• 1 x IEEE 1394a port
• 1 x RJ-45 ports (Gigabit)
• 2 x Thunderbolt ports
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out, Side Speaker Out, Line In/Mic In, Line Out)
Dual Thunderbolt ports on the rear IO
