Up Close & Personal Continued...

Let's move on to the others parts featuring on the ABIT AN8 SLI mainboard. We will move from one corner of the board to the other by giving details on each aspect that is spotted. Starting with the ATX power connector which is essential for supplying the needful juice to power up the mainboard an related attached components.

The ABIT AN8 SLI comes with four 184-pin DDR DIMM slots for Single/Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 memory modules with memory expansion size up to 4GB. The expansion slots are marked with 2 colors, namely black and red to show which slots are paired for Dual Channel operation. ABIT done this a bit different then we are used to see, as they put the matched expansion slots next to each other.

Just below the memory expansion slot we find the CPU Socket, which is a Socket 939. The CPU socket area is fully clear of obstructions, allowing for the use of larger HSF or water block units. Directly to the right of the CPU socket is the CMOS battery on the left ATX 12V plug. Above the socket we can clearly catch the needed capacitors for the stable voltage supply to the CPU as well as some extra cooling fans to keep em cool.

Below the CPU socket, in the other corner of the board we find the expansion slots. These are dominated by the two full length PCI Express 16x slots that are included which will take care of the SLI ability featured by the nForce4 chipset. The small portion in the middle is reserved for a switching key, which, this allows you to run with either a single graphics card (any vendor or manufacturer), or, if turned around, with a couple of compatible GeForce cards that are bound together by a supplied bridge connector.

We also find back 2 extra PCI slots and in the middle of the two PCI Express 16x we can spot the PCI Express 1x, which becomes a bit useless when a SLI config is applied. Of course ABIT still has one extra PCI Express 1x slot just above the 16x expansion slots. What is also show is the BIOS chip, floppy drive connection and extra ATX 12V connection (for extra system stability).

On the other corner we find the POST code display, this is a LED device to display the Power On Self Test code. The computer will execute the POST action whenever you power on the computer. The POST process is controlled by the BIOS. It is used to detect the status of the computers main components and peripherals. Each POST Code corresponds to different checkpoints that are also defined by the BIOS in advance.

ABIT includes 4 SATA2 ports on the board. SATA2 has a theoretical transfer rate of 3GB/second instead of the 1.5GB/second of SATA1. There are two IDE ports angled sideways on the board. Sideways IDE ports make for easy insertion and removal of the cables and help for better airflow, being out of the way of the air current.

And then we have the AudioMax slot that will fit the AudioMax 7.1 daughter card. Next to the installed AudioMax 7.1 card we will find the rest of the exterior connections available on the ABIT AN8 SLI mainboard. The Q-OTES radiator take up a chunk of the left-hand side, leaving a single FireWire 400, PS/2, 4 USB 2.0, and the ubiquitous RJ45 socket on an abbreviated I/O section.

The AudioMax 7.1 daughter card comes with all the connections you will ever need, going from a S/PDIF-Out (optical fiber connection to digital devices) to a Line-Out for a 7.1 audio system.

The AudioMax 7.1 expansion card fits into a small slot on the ABIT board. Next to that we find back the LAN Controller chip (NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet Controller). You also can see the Q-OTES heatpipe passing just behind the AudioMax riser card going to the radiator.