ASRock ALiveNF7G-HDReady

Board Layout:

The ASRock ALiveNF7G-HDready is another micro ATX motherboard but contains a fair amount of features for its small footprint. Starting in the upper right hand corner of the motherboard are four DDR2 memory slots. Supported by these slots are up to 8GB of DDR-800/667/533 memory. Meanwhile, running parallel with the memory slots is the single IDE ATA-133 port.

Lower on the motherboard are four Serial ATA 2.0 ports, one 3-pin chassis fan slot, four USB 2.0 headers, and the NVIDIA nForce 630a Southbridge. The GeForce 7050 PV and nForce 630a are capable of supporting up to 12 USB 2.0 ports as well as NVIDIA MediaShield technology, HD audio, Gigabit ethernet, and RAID in 0, 1, 0+1, and 5 configurations. Covering the nForce 630a is a passive aluminum heatsink that is secured by pushpins in two corners.

Moving towards the expansion slot area is one PCI Express x16, two PCI, and one PCI Express x1 interfaces. In addition, taking up PCB space in the expansion area is the FDD connector, IEEE-1394 Firewire header, and a variety of ASICs. Among the ASICs are a Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A IEEE-1394a controller, Realtek RTL8211B GbE, and Realtek ALC888.

Next to the CPU socket is the 20-pin and 4-pin power connectors, Winbond W83627EHG I/O ASIC, and a variety of other circuitry. The area around the CPU is relatively clear of any obstructions that may cause problems for large after-market CPU coolers, but in most cases you should be fine. The Socket AM2 supports AMD Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron processors. At the rear of the motherboard are two PS/2 ports, one DVI, one VGA D-Sub, one printer, one Firewire, one Gigabit ethernet, four USB 2.0, and six audio ports. It's very gratifying seeing two integrated video outputs on this budget ASRock motherboard.