Board Layout:

Even before we begin with the board layout, we must say this is perhaps the oddest board layout we have seen from Asus, or from anyone else for that matter in quite a while (new chipset, more flexibility with layout). It looks like Asus and others set out to design something that looked nowhere near the industry set standards with the nForce3. Regardless, let’s see if this layout can pull through.

The area around the socket isn’t much different than what you usually find on Asus boards. As usual, Asus has kept the premises fairly clean, so not to cause thermal issues by blocking the region with cluttering wires. Although you can’t see, the 4-pin, 12v power connector is situated towards the far top corner of the board, an ideal place in our opinion. The only thing that might cause heatsink incompatibility issues is the row of capacitors that are adjacent to the socket. For that, we suggest you check computing forums and manufacturer websites to make sure that the heatsink of your choice is compatible with K8N series.

Above the socket, you will find three memory slots that support DDR400, 333 and 266 modules with up to 3GB in capacity. The DIMM slots are located far off the socket area, in return allowing enough space between the two components. The two IDE channels, supported by NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 chipset, are based at the very edge of the board. Thankfully, Asus improved the PATA and main power connector locations with their NVIDIA chipset boards. This is more or less an ideal solution. The main power connector is located right next to the aforementioned connectors, thereby not interfering with the cables of any sort. For some reason, Asus decided to place the 20-pin main power connector in between the DIMM slots and IDE connectors with their K8T800 based boards. It’s great to see that they have moved everything to its desired location that is preferred by many users in the community.

Now that we are done exploring the areas in and around the socket, let’s take a look at Asus?innovative regions on the far right side of the socket. If you notice, the board maker has integrated two SATA connectors in between the AGP connector and the socket. Needless to say, this is a very odd configuration. Usually, the SATA connectors would be at the bottom of the board for easy cable access in large cases. Generally, the chipset would replace the SATA connectors and would be somewhere near the DIMM slots and the AGP connector. For K8N series, however, Asus has moved the chipset right next to the southbridge, if there was one. Considerably, NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 series of chipset does not include a separate northbridge and a southbridge, which is a good thing in this case. Apparently, this is the main reason why the board makers decided to completely rehash the layout above industry standards and went their own way. While we usually commend companies on innovations, we must say Asus probably did not pay attention to all possible scenarios. The thing to point out is the potential cable issue. Usually, even when the SATA connectors are located near the bottom edge of the board, some users have a hard time reaching the serial ATA cable from the port to the drive. Now, Asus has moved the ports even farther on the board, almost to the middle, which means that the cables issues will occur more frequently. Though this matter can be resolved with third-party, longer SATA cables, it will add to the end-user motherboard cost that many users won’t be too delighted with. Hopefully, Asus will think through all possibilities in the future and design accordingly. That being said, Asus isn’t the only one with this issue. Since NVIDIA’s 250 series of chipset eliminate the need for a southbridge, almost all motherboard makers have moved the SATA ports upward.

The bottom end of the board is not too exciting, since everything is moved to the top. The floppy connector is located towards the far end of the board with a green power LED and color-coded power, reset, hard drive and speaker connectors. Since this is more or less an economic class board, Asus has removed the additional disk controller, usually from Silicon Image, for additional PATA and SATA ports and RAID capabilities. Not to be disheartened though, NVIDIA’s 250 chipset already supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD for all your computing needs. The layout on this side of the board is standard.

Right next to the AGP and PCI slots, you will find quite a few integrated options missing as well. Additionally, there is more than adequate amount of space between the AGP connector and the DIMM slots.

Moving along, the K8N features one parallel port, one serial port, two PS/2 ports, one eight channel audio I/O, one RJ45 plug for Gigabit LAN, one optical and coaxial SPDIF ports, and four USB 2.0 ports. The eight channel audio codec is supported via Realtek’s ALC850 controller while the onboard Gigabit LAN is native to NVIDIA 250 chipsets.

Generally speaking, the board layout and features are commendable. We would’ve considered the board layout to be next to perfect, in our opinion, if the SATA connectors were at a better location.