Installation
I like to take the boards I review and Install them into a standard ATX case, so the user looking to make a potential purchase, can get a general feel if the layout is sufficient for their needs. Nothing sucks quite as bad as purchasing a motherboard, only to discover the port placement makes it impossible to install your hardware, or route your cables. This will be an ongoing feature of my reviews. I do not take to the time to perfectly route each wire, so it will not appear as clean as a meticulous enthusiast level build.
Shown here is just the board mounted in the case.
Next up the some cables are routed. The layout is pretty clean and makes for any easy installation. The only exception was the 8-Pin CPU power socket. With a large CPU cooler in place, it made it somewhat difficult to reach, and plug the cable into the socket.
A close up image of the 8-pin CPU power conundrum I faced.
The rest of the cables routed effortlessly, even with the large 9800GTX video card in place.
A close up view of the board switches in action. The blue LED lighting makes them very easy to locate during testing, even in a dark room.
This is a picture of GIGABYTE’s DES LED Hardware Design in action. Which according to GIGABYTE:
“GIGABYTE’s Unique LED Hardware Design Allows Users to See the Dynamic Gear Shifting in Real-Time.”
So essentially its a appears to be an onboard LED readout to indicate how many power phases are at work, or how much the system is being geared down, so to speak, to conserve energy.
