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  • DanNeely - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Looking at the m.2 slots, they're both oriented the same way, which would stack the SSD on top of the wifi card. There's nothing wrong with that as a space saving option, but it has me scratching my head at why the PCB area below the m.2 connectors and to the right of the sodimm slots is bare of any components.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    I didn't look at the manual, but I have some experience with wild guessing.

    The slot closer to the southbridge looks like a B-key connector. This is provides PCIex2, SATA, USB, I2C, and at least a couple of other protocols. This is usually used by SSDs, but also some WiFi cards. The one further away looks like an E key, which cuts the PCIe down to one lane, no SATA, but the rest is still there. AFAIK, this is commonly used by WiFi cards.

    So the shorter wifi card goes in first, and gets secures. The M.2 SSD slot uses a slot with (still guessing) greater offset from the PCB, which allows it to go over the WiFi card. The standoffs for the screw is probably higher, too.

    Again, I could go read the manual and confirm for myself, but I... didn't.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Apparently, I didn't check my post for grammatical/spelling errors and logical inclarities first, either.
  • The Chill Blueberry - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    It's not bare, there's a heat sink. (Black on black is misleading, but look at the first pic you can see it.)
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Even on that picture it looks more like a streaky soldier mask; but a heatsink would make a lot more sense.
  • Valantar - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link

    It's definitely the chipset heatsink.
  • seamonkey79 - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Below the m.2 slots and to the right of the SO-DIMM slors is a heatsink for the chipset.
  • jeremyshaw - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Allright, I'm not misreading it, since it's on the ECS website, too:

    1 X HDMI IN Port

    The other inputs make it look like it's made for kiosk work.

    I wonder what are the encoding/input specs of the HDMI input (beyond which version of HDMI it supports). It could make for a decent, CPU powered streaming box.
  • parlinone - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    This looks nice, wish there are thin M-ITX with the Zchips available?

    Also, I see a 19VDC input for power which is very nice. But is there also an internal header for 19VDC?

    PS why can't I login with my anandtech forums account? For the front page I need a separate account which is tied to the same mail. It's super weird.
  • parlinone - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    I'm pretty sure there's no internal header, since it's almost always right behind the external 19VDC input. That's already a non-starter for me.
  • CityZ - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    Looks like there's a spot for an alternate power connector next to the 19V jack.
  • McGruberrr - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    I've been looking for an ultra thin itx board for a special project. But I need pci-e x16, and ideally optical/digital audio. (or additional pcie risers) The WiFi and analog surround sound on other boards makes them all too tall! :/
  • bolkhov - Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - link

    What is "HDMI input"?
    How can iGPU be a *receiver* of a video-signal?
  • Death666Angel - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link

    Because it is just digital data? HDMI inputs on non-monitor equipment is frequently used by streamers and reviewers to capture game footage from PC, consoles etc. that don't support capturing on their own or only with severe performance limitations. It is usally done by a PCIe or USB device with it's own chip and software. However, this isn't too unusual.
  • CityZ - Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - link

    It might just be to allow for overlaying the board's output over another device's output.

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