Layout
Click for a larger version (700x857, 163.4KB)
Left to right, top to bottom, as usual. The first thing we come across on the board is the power regulation circuitry. Using Onsemi FETs and Sanyo 1500µF caps, it's not the most capable component choice I've seen, but it's not a tweakers board, so it's perfectly adequate. It's two-phase and voltages as measured with Motherboard Monitor were very stable throughout testing.
The CPU socket employs an east-west orientation for optimal trace routing and it's an arrangement you're very likely to come across on P4 boards using VIA's northbridges. Past the socket area there's not much board space before we come to the DIMM slots. The memory controller dictates count, frequency and maximum density so that means three slots, DDR400 maximum and 3GB, fine for the intended usage.
The ATX12 auxiliary connector and main 20-pin ATX power connector sit right on the top edge of the board, above the CPU socket. I adore that placement for those connectors. What's unusual about the PT800TWIN is its added use of the ATX P9 connector. With 6-pins, it sits to the left of the northbridge meaning you need all three possible ATX-spec power connectors to run the PT800TWIN. Newer supplies that are ATX 2.03 compliant drop those connectors, so be careful and do your PSU homework.
The VT6103 Ethernet controller sits to the left of ATX P9 and it's that controller, not the GTS, that powers the Ethernet port.
The northbridge sink is low profile, multi-finned and sans fan. The board itself remains noiseless and, although the same can't be said for the components you may feed it, it does its part in contributing towards a quiet system.
The Realtek RTM360 is a PT800-specific clock generator and it sits to the left of the AGP port. Here lies a layout faux pas, with the slot sitting high enough up the board that longer graphics cards will need removing to change your DIMM configuration. Sub optimal and utterly avoidable on most boards that can sacrifice a PCI slot to facilitate placing AGP a little lower than normal, or that put it a slot down anyway due to northbridge placement. No such luck here.
With the lack of features on the board, you can argue the need for five PCI slots, but it's an argument that holds little weight with this reviewer. Not that taking the graphics card out to change DIMM configuration is particularly hard, just time consuming and troublesome, but since it's avoided by other manufacturers, it's a pain to see the conflict here.
From AGP down it's very standard. The VT8237 sits in the space to the right of the PCI slots with SATA and ATA ports sat to the right. The SATA ports are grouped and are close enough to the board edge to stop cable length becoming an issue.
The floppy port is horizontal at the bottom edge of the board. I'd rather it be vertical and closer to the right board edge, but it's not too problematic. Case headers are labelled (wrongly) and on the right board edge, a good place for them. The extra USB headers are on the bottom edge of the board, under the final PCI slot area.
The grape-coloured PCB does it for me, but it's subjective.
Layout Summary
PT800 doesn't need ATX P9 to function, so I'm not sure why Jetway need it. The FET and caps used don't seem to imply some kind of need for yet another voltage source for stability, when fed from regular ATX and ATX12. Without the P9 connector, they probably could have moved the northbridge down a little, with the knock-on effect that AGP could have shifted too.It's not a bad layout, just curious. When some PSUs may not even be able to drive it, due to lack of the requisite connector, you start to worry.
