I
borrowed the picture below from AOpen's site. One cool thing to that isn't
displayed on this picture is that there is a message inbedded in the PCB just
below the last PCI slot. It reads "We Design This Board With Pride -
Mike Hsiao". I don't know Mike - but I think it says a lot when someone
puts their name square on the product.
It's time
to point out a few details about this motherboard. First, there are no ISA
slots to be found. I don't see that as a bad thing at all - but its something
to consider if you have an ISA component you don't want to replace. The second
big thing to notice is that there is no AMR slot. As far as I am concerned
I think all AMR slots should be removed since AMR components aren't available
to the masses yet. If having only one COM port on the rear computer worries
you take a breath - They include an extra COM port that plugs into the motherboard
and is located in one of cases expansion slots. Keep in mind that may prevent
you from filling up all your expansion slots on the motherboard.
The ATA-66
connector and IDE connector are located just below the three memory slots.
The floppy connector is adjacent to these. One thing that struck me was how
well the ATX power connector is located. It's at the right edge. Once the
board is mounted it will be in the highest area of the motherboard. You know
that your power cable won't interfere with the CPU socket's airflow with this
placement.
I'd
like to take a moment to point out that 3dfxCOOL
sent us the heatsink/fan unit used for testing with this board. The Socket-AHO
(Socket A High Output) was designed for Socket A from the get go. There are
far too many stories of people crushing their pretty new Socket A CPU because
they used a Socket370 heatsink on it. Bart Lane sells these units for only
$20 and you can't beat that price for such a large high-quality heatsink.
It even comes with a high output 60mm fan on top of it. The clip that holds
it on is AMD approved - which is insurance for those who don't want to make
a keychain out of their new CPU. Bart even has other Socket A stuff for your
overclocking pleasure so I recommend you check out his stuff. We've never
had a product that Bart sent us go bad, and his products are always of the
highest quality. Nuff said?
