New Motherboards Designs Good or Bad

[virusone]

Hoss have you guys realized that very soon you won't be able to even use your PCI slots anymore.

I mean all motherboard manufacutrers are making it harder and harder to have a SLI system with basic access to the PCI slots (which they charge us consumers for anyway).

Take ASUS's new M2N32-SLI Motherboard for example... It has all the M2 goodness: wireless, dual chanel memory support, 8 SATA, Fanless Cooling, DDR2 support... but look at the mc layout of the motherboard man... Who are ASUS designers like them fellas don't use PCI slots WDMC

There are so many PCI card available now (sound card, physics processors, tuner cards, wireless adapters, etc) yet the mc's cut down on the PCI slots giving you only 2..., then the layout cuts down the access to them in a SLI rig WDA jed.... why put them 2 small card ports between the PCI-E slots (no real user have need of those)?? It just doesn't make any sense.

Plus when you look at the position of the Processor think of putting your big block liquid cooler or (like most gamers opt for) a BIG CPU Air Coolers it's clear it won't fit in your case with CD Roms etc... steups and buying a new giant case for your new motherboard is a no no (not to go no sweat) meh boy Tek had one of those big blue TT cases and he sell it off

It just doesn't make any real common sense.. Take a look at the pics for youselves you be the judge


   

[Spazosaurus]

The advent of SLI automatically reduced the space availble for pci slots considerably. As far as that goes, effectively u only have one pci slot to play with, but its still manageable nontheless. A decent sound codec is onboard, so that can be crossed off the list. If u are an audiophile, an external sound setup can be had. TV tuners, wireless cards and just about everything can be found for usb these days, so the one pci slot you can use, choose carefully.

What I dont like is the fact that there is only one IDE channel on board. For users like me who really despise sata, this is a problem. I'll probably use my free pci to put in an IDE controller.

The only other obvious flaw i can spot is when a large video card is used, it might block at least 3 of th SATA ports.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

 all the chipset heatsinks around the CPU socket make it harder for people to install/remove big heatsinks as they might not fit at all , or squeeze so that you might damage something..
   the smallish things are PCI- 1 x slots  i believe , we may not use them NOW but a few years in the future after they stop making PCI cards we gonna want them.....

  Truly some mobos are really friggin badly designed with caps in bad places like next to the AGP slot , so whenever you install a video card the caps could get a knock from the heatsink esp if it big..


  Please tell me you can use that i IDE slot for 2 IDE devices .. an optical drive and hard drive?

[TriniXaeno]

PCI? What is PCI again?

To be honest, I have not used a PCI slot in my rig for years. (yes you read right, years)

Onboard Everything FTW (tm) and AGP/PCI-Express graphics card for gaming.

[Crixx_Creww]

ridiculous to not have a pci sound card man!!

and yes trini yu can use one optical one hd buh das bout it
which sucks!!

[Beomagi]

nah onboard sound can rival older sound cards - not an xfi, and sure it wont save cpu cycles like an audigy, but they do have quality that I havent been able to differentiate between. The new motherboards also support azailia which is even better raising the bar for us cheapos.

[Jdcrys_Shinkuu]

All that put aside what was this board originally made for Gaming / Office / Server???
I cant speak for most people but i personally would gladly run this board.... 7.1 sound onboard
PCIe ports even an AGP

i can see that they included some port that no one really uses (the ones highlighted)
are there any updated functions of those ports??? i think not...

but maybe they are accomodating for the space war on the board