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Published: Mar 11, 2009 Author: Niko Lupala Editor: Amber Lupala Provider: Asus Share this article:

Closer look at the board

The product:

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This box is a bit bigger than the normal motherboard boxes due to that it has a bit more accessories than the normal board. On the back of the box you can read about the specifications and features. You will notice that there is quite a bit of overclocking features so this board is really aimed towards the overclockers.

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Inside I found loads of various accessories for example you get a IDE cable, SLI bridge, optional fan to cool some components. You also get some SATA power adapters, I/O backplate and also some other accessories that you might find handy.

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A manual and a cd with drivers and software is also included, there are actually a few of the Asus apps that I really like. You get a bunch of SATA cables and E-sata connectors also so this board supports all the new functions required.

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Its time to take a look at the board itself, it got a nice black PCB and all ports are color coded to make it easier for you to plug in all the parts.
There is plenty of space around the cpu socket so you should be able to fit quite big coolers on this motherboard. We are going to give it a shot with the latest Noctua cooler on it later in the review.

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These pictures really show that Asus has focused this board on overclocking, all the main chips have big heatsinks on the to maintain the stability even during high load. This is where that fan might come in handy also that was included with the accessories.

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There is six memory slots on this motherboard which are colored orange and black so you know where to hook up the new tripple channel ram kits that go well together with the Core i7.

There is six SATA ports on this board which are well placed on the edge of the board so it makes it easier for you to clean up your cable mess.

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All the heatsinks are hooked up to each other through heatpipes that transfer the heat between them and gets rid of some of the heat. On the left edge of the board you will find a few of the USB connectors along with the floppy drive connector.