The components on the ASRock 939NF4G-SATA2 motherboard are laid out well, but because of its compact size it's necessary to remove the videocard first before memory can be installed. Keep that in mind during installation and it will save you a bit of time.

There isn't a whole lot of space between the passive aluminum heatsink on the Geforce 6100 chipset and the PCI Express x16 slot, so it is possible some larger third-party VGA cooling systems may not fit. The 30mm tall passive heatsink relies upon airflow from the adjacent CPU heatsink fan to maintain proper operating temperatures, and stays mildly warm even when the onboard graphics are used. While this next point probably won't be an issue for users likely to adopt the ASRock 939NF4G-SATA2, we should also mention that if watercooling solutions are installed it's advisable to add extra case fans or the chipset may overheat for lack of airflow.

The nVidia 410MCP is also passively cooled with a small orange heatsink which is short enough that it will not get in the way of the PCI expansion cards.

The onboard GeForce 6100 GPU will accommodate dual monitors if a stand alone graphics card is installed into the system, which is a great feature for business users who need the extra desktop screen space. The Geforce 6100 is best suited for 2D graphics (standard non-gaming computer work), so multi-screen gaming is going to be a very limiting affair..

Don't miss the expert tips further ahead in the review, but right now we're going to look at the Geforce 6100 architecture.