Board Layout:

The board layout is simple and effective; the motherboard ATX power connector is located at the side of the board which leaves the CPU socket area free of cable clutter.



The north bridge cooler is a real eye-catcher:



But unfortunately it is also the cause of some incompatibilities with some of the popular high end air cooling solutions:

Thermalright SP-94


Swiftech MCX478-V


Zalman CNPS7000-CU


Removing the (Z)-logo ring luckily solves all these problems and I was able to fit all those coolers as it should, but not much space is left I tell you:




The CMOS reset jumper is clearly marked and easy in use:



A common issue on motherboards now-a-days has to do with the DDR banks. When installing or removing DDR ram you are forced to remove your AGP video card if the length of the card surpasses that of the DDR banks:



Not a big problem, but it shows that there is always room for improvement