Table of contents
Network connectivity is provided by two Marvell 88E1116 PHY, each MAC of the chipsets are utilized. Additional a VIA VT6308S firewire controller is integrated. Very odd for an ASUS highend board, this one comes with an Realtek ALC888 instead of an Analog Devices ADI1988B.
The panel-connectors are not colour-coded, but ASUS provides Q-connectors. You can assemble all cables to the Q-connectors and put them later into the board.
While other SLI boards needs a PCIe switch card, ASUs does not, because it has two chipsets, means that the x16 from 650i and 570i do the SLI without any performance loses. nVidia is using Hypertransport to connect its chipset and of course any board manufacture can combine any chipset with Hypertransport they want.
The configuration of the slots is not perfect, using a SLI configuration you will loose the only PCI slot.
The heatpipe-construction can barely keep the temperature of the 650i SLI low. It also covers only three of the eight phases. ASUS did use heat-pads instead of a better thermal compound. There is no chipset fan inclucded, so good case-cooling is paramount.