Inside Media XP</
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Enclosed in the rather stylish box is the Media XP module itself, 5 various cables that hook up to both the Media XP module and motherboard to provide the necessary connectivity. The five cables comprise of two USB2.0 cables, one IEEE 1394a Firewire cable, one audio cable and one optical out cable for the S/PDIF interface. Also included is a driver CD with retail versions of WinDVD 3 DVD software and WinRip 2.0, a program that doubles as an audio player and MP3 convertor in one. A decent manual is also included. The remote control on the left-hand-side is something we'll talk about a little later.
The front of the panel quite clearly displays the features on offer. The third firewire port on the AT7 / IT7 can be used with the module by simply hooking up the supplied cable to the appropriate header on the motherboard in question. This makes a good deal of sense as it stops you from trying to connect up to the slightly awkward location of the on-board firewire ports mounted on the backplane. The IT7 supports 10 USB2.0 ports as standard. 6 are fed from the ICH4 southbridge and a further 4 are supplied by the VIA VT6202 on-board solution (kind of ironic that VIA make an appearance on an Intel 'board). 6 USB2.0 ports are integrated with another 4 available via 2 on-board headers. Since the IT7 is only supplied with a single USB bracket that can add a further 2 ports, you can simply connect the other header to the module via the supplied cable and bring you up to the full complement of 10. Digital S/PDIF out is also catered for by a supplied optical cable so that you can hook it up to a suitable outlet. Microphone and headphone sockets are also provided. These are self-explanatory and operate when connected up to the motherboard via the supplied audio cable. As you can perhaps see from the top of the module, there is adequate provision for a number of removable storage mediums. Going from left to right, we have in-built drives for Secure Digital / Multimedia cards, Sony's Memory Stick and Compact Flash cards (both Type I and Type II). Again, these connect to the main motherboard via the supplied USB cable shown above. The very fact that readers / writers for various removable media can cost £20+ on their own shows the level of integration present on the Media XP module. The supplied software disc contains the various drivers needed for installation although Windows XP installed the various removable drivers needed for the 3 slots without any intervention from me.
Here you can see how the supplied cables connect up to the Media XP module. The upper USB header controls the actions of the Secure Digital, Memory Stick and Compact Flash slots respectively, whilst the three additional cables for audio, USB2.0 and firewire hook up to the headers at the bottom, nice and simple. The most interesting aspect of the Media XP module is undoubtedly the bundled remote-control. Let's see more of it on the next page. |
