Seeing the cooler retention backplate really puts the ITX size into perspective. Due to the restricted PCB space of the ITX form factor some components have been mounted on the reverse side of the board. These include the low profile capacitors which are part of the power delivery system as well as the two Realtek RTL8111E lan controllers.



Behind the small aluminium MOSFET cooler we find the 4pin ATX power connector which is in a fairly hard to reach spot. If you have a fan installed just above the I/O plate you may need to remove it in order to plug your power supply in. In this area we also see the 4+1 phase power next to a jumper, which judging by the manual, is what selects VGA or DVI, you need to remove the jumper when using the DVI-VGA adapter to get a video signal.



Next to the FM1 socket we see the two yellow DIMMs which support a max of 4GB each to give 8GB. This limitation is not an issue as most users of an ITX board like this are either doing so for a HTPC or gaming use, of which 8GB is more than enough memory. Just to the right of the memory slots in the top corner we see the CPU 4pin PWM fan header, moving down the edge of the board we then see the 24pin ATX power connection.



In the bottom right hand corner we see another 4pin PWM fan header, the front panel power, reset and LEDs affair, and the BIOS chip. Just above the 4x SATA 6Gb/s ports you will find the clear CMOS jumper and between the SATA ports and the DIMMs you have the CMOS battery. The CMOS battery is placed inside an edge-on mount, a common PCB footprint saving method.



Tightly packed towards the bottom left we see the Realtek ALC892 high performance audio codec that supports 7.1 surround sound. Immediately to the right of the audio chip we find the front panel HD audio header. a USB 2.0 header as well as a USB 3.0 header in the tell tale rectangular bracket. The header with the plastic yellow base is for the COM and then of course just above the PCIe x16 slot is the mPCIe slot with dual WiFi-N and Bluetooth card installed. Making space for such a device to take advantage of the extra PCIe lanes supported in the chipset while leaving the PCIe x16 lane free is a great feat of engineering and is a feature that is a shame we do not see on full size ATX motherboards.



Here we see the orangy x16 PCIe 2.0 slot, as with all mini ITX motherboards you will usually only get one of these and it is free for whatever device pleases you. If you were gaming you can add in a HD 6570 or 6670 for dual graphics**, for HTPC you might add in a TV tuner card or if the on-board audio doesnt suit you then maybe even a sound card. The A75 chipset is cooled by an adequate non-imposing aluminium heatsink.



Going all out for connectivity ZOTAC have added two VIA VL810 USB controllers, each adding another pair of USB 3.0 ports. In total this board packs 6x USB 3.0 on the rear I/O panel and another 2x USB 3.0 via front panel header. In this image it is clear to see how large a footprint these chips take up on the small ITX PCB, ZOTAC are obviously set on differentiating their products from the competition.



The rear I/O area shows a lot of features and it almost feels like a shame they had to relegate the 4pin ATX power connection into this area as another 2x USB 2.0 would have been a very sweet treat, however, considering the restraints of the ITX form factor it is understandable, likely ruin the neat line up of blue USB 3.0 ports too. In order we have PS2, 2x USB 3.0, 2x aerial connections, clear CMOS button, DVI, HDMI video out, dual gigabit lan, 4x USB 3.0 ports, optical S/PDIF and audio jacks.

**note on dual graphics on 'Test setup' page