Board Layout

The layout of the AU11 Chameleon is fairly simple, although there are some areas that we have gripes with.

First and foremost is the location of the 20-pin ATX power connector. On the AU11 Chameleon, the power connector is located just below the 3-Phase power circuitry, between the nForce2 –128 SPP Northbridge and the back plane of the motherboard. This is not an ideal location for the power connector, as the power cord must run across the CPU interface, dangerously close to the CPU fan and constricting airflow on the upper half of the motherboard. Fortunately, mounting holes for more extreme cooling units are present (although they don’t appear to be grounded), and there is plenty of room near the Socket A interface for the largest of heatsinks. This is one aspect of the AU11 Chameleon that power users will enjoy.

ATX power connector is in a bad spot

Lots of room near the CPU socket

Another quirk with the AU11 Chameleon is the location of the IDE/floppy connectors. Unfortunately, FIC/Epox have decided to place the floppy connector on the very bottom of the motherboard, so those of you with full tower cases will have to stretch your floppy cable all the way to the bottom of the motherboard to set it up. In some cases, you may have to relocate your floppy drive entirely to get it hooked up! Secondly, the IDE connectors are oriented below the AGP slot. Like the floppy connector, this could lead to all kinds of installation headaches, especially if you have a long video card such as the GeForce4 Ti 4400/Ti 4600.

For powering CPU and case fans, three fan headers are present on the board -- two near the Socket interface, just above the DIMM sockets, while the third is located on the bottom of the motherboard. While we like the three fan headers, FIC should have placed the second fan header near the AGP slot, or at least to the left of the CPU interface. Many cases ship with one, or even two fans in the back of the case, one to suck the hot air out of the case and a second fan to blow cool air in, across the upper half of the motherboard. With the AU11 Chameleon, the fan header may be too far from this fan to be used. Of course, this variable will vary from case to case, we think this won’t be an issue in most system cases but there will always be those that don’t work. This is why many motherboard manufacturers have chosen to place their fan headers just above the AGP slot.

Our final complaint is the location of the DIMM sockets. As with far too many motherboards we’ve seen, they’re located too close to the AGP slot (which has a handy retention mechanism). As a result, you’ll need to install your system memory before installing the graphics card, and if you do decide to add more memory at a later date to DIMM sockets two or three, you’ll have to remove your graphics card first. This is an inconvenience that we’d like to see more motherboard manufacturers address.

IDE connectors are low on the board, the floppy is even lower

PCI slots pictured as well as the AGP slot

No active cooling on the North Bridge

We know all of these issues may be minor to many of you, but we’ve seen all of them addressed in the ASUS A7N8X. While its dimensions are very similar to the AU11 Chameleon, it doesn’t have any of these issues and the board itself is packed with more features. Clearly its board layout is the benchmark for space efficiency.