Board Layout

Click here for a 3000x2500 high-res shot of the board (3 MB download), the backside is here.


Space around the CPU is ok, the chipset heatsink feels a bit tall but is sufficiently far away to accommodate bigger CPU coolers without problems.


PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, Parallel Port, Serial Port, four USB Ports, Ethernet and Audio are standard. In addition to that you have two red eSATA-II headers on the backside which lets you connect external SerialATA devices to the motherboard.


The motherboard's memory slots have been color coded for easy dual-channel configuration. To run your memory in dual-channel mode you have to put the modules into slots of the same color.

Connectors

The ATX power connector is in a pretty bad location, further to the edges of the board would have been better.


Four SATA ports are available for your harddisks.


For your CD-ROM/DVD drives you have two IDE ports available. I think it's a good idea to have two IDE ports on a budget motherboard, many users are probably going to keep their harddisks during an upgrade.


The header for the power/reset switch is not color-coded. At least there are some small labels on the PCB. In the manual the pins' functions are also described.


This is the external SATA port. You wire two of your existing SATA ports across the board and plug them into the headers on the motherboard. Then you have working eSATA on the back IO ports.


Having only two fan headers could turn out the be really limiting.