Unboxing the motherboard (2)

When leave the rear-panel connectors for what they are, we see that since we are using a m-ATX motherboard, we are a bit confined in the slot configuration. We have a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, 1 PCI Express x1 and two PCI Slots. Positioning is good. It's not plenty but .. sufficient none the less. Also spot the funky passive design there, both north and south bridge Intel chips are cooled down with a heatsink. And don't worry, they do not get very hot.

When we flip the motherboard around 90 degrees we can have a look at the LGA 775 Socket. It's ready for really any LGA 775 processor from Pentium 4 up-to Core 2 Quad, even the 1600 MHz FSB based QX9770 which we'll use in today's test session.

The one thing that I would have liked to see is an 8-pin power header though, we only get to play with a 4-pin header. There's plenty of space surrounding the processor for most coolers, though that one capacitor all the way up front might be an issue for some CPU cooler brackets due to it's length.

We have 4 DIMM slots supporting DDR2 667/800 and 1066 in overclocked modus. A maximum of 16GB may be inserted. Just below it the FDD header with, to it's left, the motherboard power connector. Colored in fashionable green, an IDE connector for two optical or parallel IDE devices.

Then the front panel headers, and in yellow, five SATA 2 connectors. And now let's take a look at the next photo.

When you look at the top view of the connectors, inside the proper ports are described. I like that, no way to confuse yourself as to what port does what. Simple yet effective.