There was enough room in the lower part of ZOTAC nForce 790i-Supreme mainboard for two PCI, two PCI Express x1 and three PCI Express x16 slots. Two graphics card slots on the sides support PCI Express 2.0 x16, while the middle one is powered by the chipset South Bridge and also works at PCI Express x16 speed, though of the first version.

The storage media connectors are spread out in a little non-standard way. There is an IDE connector next to the 24-pin power connector. Then you see a horizontally positioned block including a FDD and two Serial ATA connectors. It is very convenient from the cable management prospective in case there are long graphics cards installed. The remaining four SATA connectors are closer to the top, next to the DIMM slots. The mainboard is equipped with a POST code indicator, Power On and Reset buttons. The connectors are all color-coded. The mainboard allows connecting up to 6 fans. The COM port is not available on the mainboard rear panel, but is aid out on the PCB. The sound is provided by and eight-channel Realtek ALC889 codec. There is also a Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A IEEE1394 controller and JMicron JMB362 SATA II controller with one port located right next to the PCI Express x1 slot. The second port is laid out on the rear panel in the form of an eSATA connector. The rear panel also has PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, coaxial and optical S/PDIF, one IEEE1394 connector, two network RJ45 connectors and six USB 2.0 ports.

Please pay attention to the reverse side of the ZOTAC nForce 790i-Supreme mainboard PCB. We usually check if there are any electronic components there that could prevent s from installing the processor cooler backplate. This is not an issue in ZOTAC’s case. Besides, we noticed that the entire chipset cooling system is fastened with screws. There is not a single plastic clip that threatens to break every time you try to replace the chipset thermal compound, for instance.

In the meanwhile we would like to give due credit to Nvidia engineers for excellent job on the mainboard design: it is very logical and well-thought, all the details have been taken into account and all features are very attractive. In conclusion to our ZOTAC nForce 790i-Supreme PCB layout discussion we need to offer you the detailed list of its features and characteristics: