Layout & Features
In true ASUS tradition there is hardly a spot of motherboard left blank. The board is jam packed with components and connectors. Asus have decided to go with a passive cooling solution for the KT400 chip - this shouldn't effect stability or overclocking capability as the chipset doesn't get particularly hot and they have compensated by using a fairly hefty heatsink.
Layout wise, the ATX power header is in a good position although it could prove to be an obstruction in a narrow case with CD-ROM drives in the top bays. The IDE and floppy connectors are in their tradition places, the extra raid connector is mounted horizontally to the board. The lower ram 'clips' may hit long graphics cards such as the Geforce 4 Ti 4600 - this doesn't stop the use of the RAM slots, just makes it a bit fiddly getting them in and out with the card inserted.
A closer look at the top of the board reveals a typical layout, with the CPU Socket mounted horizontally and having a good amount of clearance around it - the largest of heatsink's should easily fit. The purpose of the red LED below the AGP slot is to warn the user that they are trying to use an older 3.3 volt AGP card (only 1.5v cards are supported). Judging by the number of MOSFET transistors in the power section to the left of the socket, ASUS appear to be only using 2 phase power as opposed to 3 phase power setups on some other motherboards. Three phase power reduces the power load on the MOSFETS and can provide a cleaner output under high loads. Overclocking tests at higher voltages didn't reveal this to be a limiting factor, but in long term it could mean premature failure of the MOSFETS when operated out of spec (i.e. with voltage mod devices etc.)
Looking at the bottom half of the board we see the headers for the firewire and USB brackets. The blue PCI slot is a special slot that ASUS call their 'proprietary slot' to be used with their Wireless LAN and bluetooth cards, the slot still functions as a normal PCI slot and will accept ordinary cards. The AGP slot has a retention clip on it that will keep the right end of the card from working its way out (a common problem with some cheaper cases which pull on the card). On the lower right of the board are the two serial ATA connectors along with the extra RAID IDE connector. Finally there is also a connector for the ASUS iPanel - a front bay module which reports diagnostic information and provides easy access to I/O ports.
