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Choosing the right case for this motherboard is very important since you need to take into account the fact it requires an extra Pentium 4 Power connector.
Currently there only a few MiniITX cases that have this extra connector on the power supply. One of the cases in question is the Chyang Fun CF-668.
Please see here for more details. Using this case brings up one problem with the Commell board as soon as you try to install it. The layout of the power supply connectors are on the far side of the processor and this means that you have to extend the cables in order for them to fit.
A minor problem if you dont mind extending the P4 connector and can solder a few wires, a major problem if you can't.
Connectors
At the back of motherboard we have the normal connectors for you to plug in your devices, the connectors include:
- Keyboard/Mouse PS2
- S-Video
- Parallel
- RCA Jack
- VGA
- Dual USB
- 10/100 LAN RJ45
- IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
- Front Audio
- Center / Bass
- Rear Audio
- SPDIF Audio
On the motherboard:
- 2 x Fan Connectors
- 1x 18-pin DIMM Socket
- 40 Pin IDE Port
- 44 Pin IDE Port
- Floppy Disk Drive Port
- RS-232 Serial Port
- IrDA Port
- 2x USB 2.0 Port
- CD In Port
- Wake On LAN Port
Straight away you should note some odd connector choices with this board. First off is the Serial RS-232 port on the motherboard and not on the back panel.
Second is that there are two different types of IDE port, a 40 pin and a 44 pin port. This difference is due to Commell deciding that due to the space of some of the MiniITX cases,
some manufacturers are specifying that you use a laptop style hard disc or optical drive. If the board has only normal size IDE connectors you would need a converter to allow the
drives to be used. These are quite cheap and easy to find so its not a problem. Now this choice by Commell is both good and bad. I ran into problems using the Chyangfun case
as I was using normal sized components and so I was forced to use the single IDE channel and the cable wouldnt reach both components.
Looking at the other connector choices there is a good collection of them and its nice to see Firewire and USB 2.0 since it gives you plenty of choices when selecting external components.
The TV-Out functions of the board give you a couple of choices; there is both an AV RCA connector as well as an S-video connector on the back panel. The board supports both PAL and NTSC modes.
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