Board layout

Like other Socket A motherboards we've tested from ASUS, the A7A266 is a pretty large motherboard. At a size of 9.6"x12.0", the A7A266 matches the size of the A7M266 and A7V133.

Plenty of space for most heatsinks

While mounting the A7A266 to the system case may be a bit more of a hassle due to the board's size, the extra space comes in handy when installing components. Even though the board integrates DIMM sockets for both SDR and DDR memory types, the upper half of the motherboard is quite spacious. There's plenty of room for installing most heatsinks, although some of the larger Alpha units may be a bit too much for this board to handle. Unlike practically every other motherboard we've tested, there's plenty of space between the AGP slot and memory sockets - you won't have to install your memory before your AGP card. ASUS is the only motherboard manufacturer that consistently gets this spacing issue right.

Note the audio connectors to the left of AGP slot (the white one is more easily visible)

Our GeForce2 Ultra just fits (slightly bending the audio connector)

Unfortunately, the layout of the A7A266 isn't perfect. The greatest oversight we noticed was the location of the audio connector for the C-Media CMI8738 audio chip: it's directly to the left of the AGP slot. As a result, we were unable to fully seat some video cards in the AGP slot. 3dfx Voodoo boards fit just fine, as did most of the GeForce line of AGP cards, our GeForce2 Ultra boards required a bit of work. Unfortunately, our RADEON DDR board wouldn't fit at all. As you can see in the image below a screw on the video card is impeded by the audio connector:

But our RADEON DDR doesn't

Another layout issue we noticed is the location of the floppy connector - it's located across from the first PCI slot. A more ideal location would have been next to the IDE connectors, to the right of the DIMM sockets. Fortunately, this problem is alleviated by the size of the board; it should only affect those of you with large PCI cards. In comparison to the audio connector, this is a very minor problem that can be easily solved by choosing another location for larger PCI cards.

The ATX power connector is located to the right of the DIMM sockets, which is a good location. The A7A266 also implements three fan headers, one for the CPU fan, and two others on the upper and bottom halves of the motherboard for system case fans.