Board layout

Board layout

On the previous page we just mentioned the fan on the North Bridge of the KT133A chipset. While this is a great feature that should be standard equipment on all KT133A motherboards, the implementation is less than ideal. As you've probably noticed in the images on the preceding pages, the fan header on the bottom of the motherboard powers the fan. As a result, end users not only lose that fan header as an option to power additional cooling devices, but an ungainly power cable stretches from the North Bridge to the fan header. A better solution would be an integrated fan header for the North Bridge fan itself located on the upper portion of the motherboard.

Speaking of fan headers, only one is available on the upper portion of the motherboard - and it's used for the CPU fan. With the bottom fan header used for the North Bridge fan, the AZ11EA doesn't contain any free fan headers for additional cooling devices. This means end users will have to use the power supply as their power source for any additional case fans or card coolers.

Since the remainder of the AZ11EA layout remains unchanged from the original AZ11E, our comments from that review also apply here.

First, space around the CPU socket is pretty good; we were able to install our Taisol heatsinks with little problems, and our larger Athlon 1.4GHz-approved heatsink from Foxconn fit as well. Those of you with Thermaltake Super Orbs may run into problems with this board, some of the larger Alpha units may also be tricky to install.

Not a lot of space on the left side of the heatsink

Plenty of space on the right though

The location of the ATX power connector is below the CPU socket, to the left of the KT133A North Bridge. As a result, the power cable runs fairly close to the CPU cooler itself, impeding airflow. A better location would have been on the right edge of the motherboard adjacent to the DIMM sockets and IDE connectors.

Power cable interferes with airflow

Finally, the location of the clock multiplier and core voltage dipswitches is a bit hard to reach once the motherboard is housed inside the system case. In particular, the floppy cable can get in the way of the clock multiplier dipswitch, potentially making that procedure a trying time for anyone with larger fingers.

The dipswitches for adjusting CPU parameters