Asus P5LD2-VM Motherboard Review :: Layout

As mentioned before, because of the size of the motherboard, the positioning of the video card can block the memory from being removed or added. Otherwise the layout of the P5DL2-VM is what you would expect from a mini-ATX form factor motherboard. The positioning of the 24-pin ATX power connector is below the floppy connector, which works, but above the connector might make more sense, putting the IDE and floppy drive connectors together. The 4-pin power connector is on the upper portion of the board, making for easy routing of the cable from the power supply.

South Bridge Heatsink

Fanless Northbridge

Several motherboard manufacturers build their boards with fanless cooling systems. ABIT pioneered this with their Silent OTES system. ASUS decided to go a similar route with cooling the South Bridge chip. ASUS uses a heatpipe to draw the hot air away from the chipset blowing out the rear of the board near the CPU cooler. In operation, the chipset heatsink didn't get hot, but the heatsink where the air came out was very warm.

USB Header

ASUS put two USB headers on the board, bringing the maximum available on the board to 8 with brackets. No Firewire headers are present, but this isn't being marketed as a digital entertainment platform anyway. There are three fan headers for the CPUFan and System fans. Other connectors on the board include a CD-In, a S/PDIF connector, the Chassis intruder alarm connector, and the HDA connector for the front panel.

Front panel connectors are all labeled, so you won't have any issues connecting the HDD LED, the Power Switch, the Speakers, or the Reset button. The positioning might be a little tight to the IDE connector, but once its set up should present no problems. ASUS decided to passively cool the North and South Bridges with a heatsink. I had no problems with stability on the board.

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