Setting up a new motherboard is second nature to me by now. AMD provided a 5200+ CPU for testing purposes so I attached the AVC heatsink we use for CPU installation, installed a single stick of DDR2 memory and attached the monitor cable to the D-Sub connection, as the DVI connection is DVI-D only, so the DVI-I to D-Sub adapter will not work on this motherboard.
I proceeded to what is called first boot. In this case, with the CPU already installed by AMD and the other components moved from my last motherboard review I had no expectation that the motherboard would have any problems with installation and I was correct. The memory slots have plenty of clearance from the CPU cooling area, allowing easy removal and insertion of memory in all the sticks unless the video card blocks it.
After installing Windows XP on the motherboard, I ran the standard tests with the benchmarks that we use for the AMD Athlon platform and the stability tests as well. We haven't moved to Vista for testing purposes as of yet, as the drivers for certain components aren't up to par and no applications are Vista only at this time. Once we move to Vista it will be a massive undertaking as both motherboard platforms will have to be retested and the video cards platform as well. After testing with XP and stability testing, I proceeded to install Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. AMD provided Vista drivers and no problems during usage occurred under Vista. The Aero GUI was fully visible under Vista, meaning that the primary new feature of the OS for the end-user is fully supported as the integrated graphics support Pixel Shader 2.0b.
