Page 2: Layout
<b>Layout</b>:
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/boxes.jpg">
Nice boxes, though doesn't tell you what's inside</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/openboxes.jpg">
Just the basics, the L4S5MG is on the left</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/parts.jpg">
Parts laid out, he L4S5MG is on the left</center>
As you can see, the boxes are non-descriptive so be sure to inspect the one your buying. On the insides of the boxes you can see the IDE and floppy cables and the manuals and the install CDs. ECS doesn't give you any extras, but that is what keeps the cost down. The manual itself is easy to follow and gives you what you need to install the board. It isn't brain surgery though (Hey, I installed it).
The software CD contains the drivers and some other programs. Some are the usual things like PC-cillin, but there is also PCDJ (http://www.pcdj.com). It also includes CD ghost, which is a CDrom DVDrom virtual thingy. Hard to explain, but it allows the reading of 23 virtual drives at the same time.
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/l4top.jpg">
Here we have the top view of the board. Small little thing isn't it?</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/l4s5mgmemsocket.jpg">
2 Dimms, The power is near the cpu socket as is the floppy.</center>
Here we see the Dimm sockets, there are only two. I only use one 256MB stick so that won't phase me much but for some users, this may be a big consideration when they need the memory space. The SiS 650 chipset supports DDR Ram.
The area around the CPU, well, I don't think it matters much really as the P4 cpu heatsink mechanism makes sure that a heatsink will fit, and tight. I like the Pentium 4 heatsink retention mechanism, much better than the AMD socket counterpart.
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/sidel4s5mg.jpg">
Different layout of I/O</center>
I like this board. Since the board has a different I/O placement than normal ATX boards, ECS included a faceplate. You lose a COMM port, but gain a video port. The integrated video is okay for 2D, but not for 3D.
The AGP covers one of the memory sockets, so be sure to insert it before the graphics card. The 2 IDE channels are right near the memory, but the power (ATX and 12v) and floppy connectors are in the center of the board, I don't like that. IT clutters the area around the CPU socket and inhibits air flow. The board also includes 1 AGP slot, 3 PCI slots and 1 AMR slot (useless).
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/boxes.jpg">
Nice boxes, though doesn't tell you what's inside</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/openboxes.jpg">
Just the basics, the L4S5MG is on the left</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/parts.jpg">
Parts laid out, he L4S5MG is on the left</center>
As you can see, the boxes are non-descriptive so be sure to inspect the one your buying. On the insides of the boxes you can see the IDE and floppy cables and the manuals and the install CDs. ECS doesn't give you any extras, but that is what keeps the cost down. The manual itself is easy to follow and gives you what you need to install the board. It isn't brain surgery though (Hey, I installed it).
The software CD contains the drivers and some other programs. Some are the usual things like PC-cillin, but there is also PCDJ (http://www.pcdj.com). It also includes CD ghost, which is a CDrom DVDrom virtual thingy. Hard to explain, but it allows the reading of 23 virtual drives at the same time.
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/l4top.jpg">
Here we have the top view of the board. Small little thing isn't it?</center>
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/l4s5mgmemsocket.jpg">
2 Dimms, The power is near the cpu socket as is the floppy.</center>
Here we see the Dimm sockets, there are only two. I only use one 256MB stick so that won't phase me much but for some users, this may be a big consideration when they need the memory space. The SiS 650 chipset supports DDR Ram.
The area around the CPU, well, I don't think it matters much really as the P4 cpu heatsink mechanism makes sure that a heatsink will fit, and tight. I like the Pentium 4 heatsink retention mechanism, much better than the AMD socket counterpart.
<center><img src="http://www.aselabs.com/images/articles/march02/l4s5mg/sidel4s5mg.jpg">
Different layout of I/O</center>
I like this board. Since the board has a different I/O placement than normal ATX boards, ECS included a faceplate. You lose a COMM port, but gain a video port. The integrated video is okay for 2D, but not for 3D.
The AGP covers one of the memory sockets, so be sure to insert it before the graphics card. The 2 IDE channels are right near the memory, but the power (ATX and 12v) and floppy connectors are in the center of the board, I don't like that. IT clutters the area around the CPU socket and inhibits air flow. The board also includes 1 AGP slot, 3 PCI slots and 1 AMR slot (useless).