The Layout
The expansion of the VC17 like on the VC15 can be considered maximal for an
845 solution. It features a standard AGP 4X slot and six PCI slots. Three
DDR memory banks are available for memory expansion; note that only one double-side
DIMM should be used in order to take advantage of the third bank. Note that
FIC decided not to use a CNR slot like featured on the VC15.
The VC15 features RAID support via the more advanced Highpoint HPT372 Ultra
ATA133 IDE RAID controller supporting RAID 0+1 functions in addition to the
standard RAID 0 and 1 used on the Promise RAID controller featured on the
previously reviewed SOYO P4ISR and DFI NB72-SR mainboards.
Something that I liked about the VC17 is its use of the C-Media
CMI8378 audio chip offering support for a 6 channel audio setup. While you
can always use the rear audio connectors of the I/O panel for your standard
two channels audio setup, FIC bundled an external audio module featuring all
the necessary digital audio inputs and outputs to fully support a 6 channel
environment.
The audio module features four digital connections; one optical and one spdif
input as well as an optical and spdif output. A center/bass and rear left/right
output jacks are present to take advantage of the 6 channel feature. While
an onboard LAN adapter was an option on the VC15, the VC17 features an integrated
Ethernet adapter powered by the RealTek RTL 8100BL chip as a standard; the
RJ45 connector is placed beside the two USB ports on the I/O back panel.
The
main IDE connectors for the hard drives and the FDD connector for the floppy
are comfortably located at the top of the DIMM slots resulting in cleaner
PCB design. FIC made a good move with the decision of the placement of the
IDE RAID connectors; they are placed horizontally lower the PCI slots 5 and
6.
Clip from the VC15 review: My first objection would go to the placement
of the floppy drive connection, if you have been reading our past mainboard
reviews, you already know that we like all connectors to be in one place in
order to avoid having cables lying around from one end to another. In this
case, I would have appreciated to see the floppy connector placed close to
the IDE connectors.
I would like to applaud FIC for taking in mind my comment about the FDD
connector placement in my previous VC15 review. They re-worked this on the
VC17, the connector is now placed along with the primary IDE connectors.
One design flaw we have found on the VC17 is the interference between the
memory banks and the video card. This little issue has been noticed on several
of today motherboards including on the previously reviewed VC15 board and
generally requires removing the video card in order to upgrade the memory.
