With so many items crammed onboard the ATX
motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP has virtually no room to spare on the
PCB. In general, the layout of the 8KNXP is very good, considering just
how little open space remains.
For example, we can install and remove system
memory without having to first remove the videocard. Also, the IDE/floppy and
main ATX power connector are in the ideal location adjacent to the DIMM
slots.
We're happy to see the Serial ATA ports all packed
nicely together and we amazed to see Gigabyte include five Serial ATA cables! Too
bad they only included one Serial ATA power adapter though. To make
things easier for the end user, there are two manuals on
RAID, one for the Silicon Image Sil3112ACT144 Serial ATA RAID controller and one for the GigaRAID
IT8212F Ultra/133 IDE RAID controller.
If you cannot figure out how to setup RAID after reading
the two manuals, then RAID is just not for you. If you don't feel like setting
up a RAID array, you can use the controllers for standalone HDD's.
On that
note it seems like many manufactures are starting to include regular Ultra/133
IDE controllers on their boards again as well. I think this is a great move
considering just how many people are still sticking with their trusted IDE HDD's.
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