The dimensions of the yellow-colored motherboard are ATX compliant (304mm x
245mm, 12’’ x 9.63’’).
Comfortable socket location must be noted. The socket is
moved from the motherboard’s edge and turned on 90°. CPU installation
procedure is very comfortable and simple because there are no any switches
or connectors near the CPU socket. On many types of motherboards the power
connector is placed close to the socket and power cables seriously
obstruct access to the CPU. On the reviewed motherboard is moved further
to the IDE connectors. The only thing, that can cause inconvenience when
using too big CPU heatsinks, is close location of DIMM sockets.
As we can see, Asus engineers allowed serious variance of reference-design.
I will tell if it is good or bad in a section devoted to overclocking and
stability.
There is a small cooler installed on the north bridge of the chipset.
Actually, now all motherboard manufacturers pay particular attention to
stability in non-standard conditions, if they orient to overclockers.
There is one AGP Pro slot, five PCI slots and one ACR
slots on the motherboard. It can be said that now AGP Pro is completely
worthless for ordinary users. It is notable that there is no such popular
feature as AGP retention clip for video card fixation. Anyway, an average
Asus motherboard owner would hardly assemble his computer in a cheap case.
Likewise, a good power supply is needed for stable work of the
KT266A+Athlon XP bundle.
As have already noted before the power connector is installed at the
very bottom of the motherboard near IDE connectors. This sometimes leads
to difficulties with connection of IDE cables caused by protruding power
cables. It was my luck that I have tested the motherboard without a RAID
controller and extra IDE connectors (as it can be seen on the snapshot
above), otherwise I should have been dealing with heaps of cables. I’ll
remark that the Promise 20265R ATA-100 controller is installed on
motherboards with RAID controller.
Nevertheless, the FDD connector is placed near PCI slots (more
specifically, between PCI4 and PCI5) that interferes its usage in some big
cases (only in those where FDD is placed in the very top of the case).
I should note the presence of a special green LED, indicating power in
PCI slots and memory modules. The most of the m/b manufacturers usually
place this LED near DIMM slots; Asus however often places it in the area
of PCI slots. In the neighborhood, there is a C-Media 8738 built-in sound
chip with six-channel sound output capability. Many m/b manufacturers use
such chip, e.g. Chaintech on its 7 AJA2 board.
Unlike 7 AJA2, there is no an extra bracket with audio output connectors.
Line-In and Mic-In connectors are used to implement central and back
output channels respectively. From my point of view this is an optimal
solution. Super-IO Winbond W836276F-AM chip for input/output subsystem,
CD-in and AUX cable connectors and smart-card connector are arranged
around the sound chip. In one word, the quantity of connectors allows
plugging anything that is supported; nevertheless it can be a challenge
for an assembler. Also, I’d like to mention the possibility of
connecting of Asus iPanel extension unit.
And finally, the BIOS chip. I must say that A7V266-E modifications with
soldered BIOS chip can be met on offer. This leads to an idea that at
least two different modification of the motherboard were manufactured. As
you can see, on my board the BIOS chip is installed into the socket.
That’s why if a failure occurs during BIOS updating, it would be easier
to revive the motherboard.
The BIOS itself is based on the Medallion 6.00 version from Award and it
contains standard set of settings.
A few words should be said about system monitoring. It is performed by
means of ASUS ASIC(AS99127F) chip.
System monitoring allows monitoring
of the following values: CPU and chipset voltages, board voltages, CPU
temperature, system temperature and rotation speed of fans.
A separate BIOS section provides tuning of DDR memory and AGP bus settings.
It’s easy to see, that if a user has high-grade memory, he can tweak
memory timings and slightly increase overall performance.
Back panel connectors are colored according to PC99 standard.
I have already told about all the motherboard components. The only thing
more I’d like to note is a layout of additional USB ports connectors.
They are installed at the edge of the motherboard, near the ACR slot. The
jumper for CMOS clearing is called CLR_RTC and is installed near the
battery.
It is possible to connect 2 additional fans. There are 4 connectors in all,
but one is reserved for CPU cooler and other one is for chipset cooler.
