The area to the left of the i915P Northbridge chip is quite clean featuring no more than a few capacitors, an IDT clock generator chip, and the secondary, 12V core voltage power connector. This is exactly what we found located in this area on the 915A03-P-8EKRS. Normally, this are houses items ranging from audio controllers to LAN controllers, but this was again not the case with the 915M07-G-8EKRS. Both of these Foxconn motherboards surprised me with how clean this are of the board was. Normally, we’re seeing a larger amount of chips or headers here, but Foxconn has moved all of those components elsewhere leaving a clean area around the Northbridge.

                 

     The expansion slot portion of the 915M07-G-8EKRS features a single x16 PCI-Express slot, along with one x1 PCI-Express slot. At the bottom of the board, we also find two regular PCI slots. We have yet to work with any other i915G/P motherboards based off of a mATX form factor, so it’s hard to say whether or no this will be the general setup on all boards or not. Some manufacturers might choose to add another x1 PCI-Express slot instead of two PCI slots, or vice versa.

     The majority of the components in this area of the PCB are, as always, located along the rear edge of the motherboard. At the top of this section, right under the rear I/O panel we first find the main component dealing with the 915M07-G-8EKRS‘s onboard LAN support, the Realtek RTL8110S Gigabit Ethernet controller. This is a regular PCI implementation, and was also used on the 915A03-P-8EKRS we took a look at last week, among several other boards that have graced our presence. I would have liked to see Foxconn user a Gigabit controller that uses the PCI-E lane, rather than older, and slower PCI bus.

     Below the Gigabit Ethernet controller, we find the High Definition Audio CODEC that Foxconn has chosen to power the 915M07-G-8EKRS, the Realtek ALC880. The ALC880 offers full 7.1 channel audio support, features two 24-bit DACs and three 20-bit stereo ADCs for high quality, high resolution audio, and also features 32-bit, 96kHz support for both input and output S/PDIF connections. If we take a quick look below the CODEC chip, we see that Foxconn has added silk screening and solder points to the 915M07-G-8EKRS to allow for two four-pin audio headers, though our sample was not equipped with either, though there is one black four-pin connection for a CD audio cable along the rear edge.

     The next set of important items can be found along the bottom edge of the motherboard, underneath the last PCI slot. Here, we find the bright read front panel audio header, which is located in an excellent position to allow for proper and clean cable routing throughout the case should the user want to utilize any of their front panel ports. This area also houses the Wake-On-LAN connector, as well as a second four-pin fan power connection. We found only two of these fan power connections on the 915A03-P-8EKRS, so we’ll see if this holds true for the 915M07-G-8EKRS as well.

     Lastly, we’re going to take a look at the components located in the open area to the right of the x1 PCI-Express connection as this area is what we would still classify as the expansion slot portion of the motherboard. This are houses the required components for the 915M07-G-8EKRS’s IEEE1394 support, those being the VIA controller chip, as well as the bright orange header to allow for connection to a rear expansion bracket. Once again, support for this feature is a bit useless unless the user goes out and purchases their own expansion bracket, something we feel should be included if this option is added to the board.