If you’re the type of person who likes to keep their eye on things in your PC, especially in regards to how hot things are getting, ASUS is on your side. Included are three extra temperature probes that plug into the motherboard below the expansion slots. These are user locatable so you can attach them to anything you desire. You could put one on the HDD, one on the northbridge heatsink and one on the graphics heatsink; or if you’re going to run Crossfire you can have one on each card and one on something else of your choice.
The LCD poster panel is a new little device that ASUS has come out with. This plugs into a port on the motherboard which you then route the cable through a slot in the rear I/O shield on the back. This can then sit on your desk or at the top of the case. It reports the post codes of the board and lets you know just what’s happening with your system; a very novel approach.
The Fusion block on the northbridge is designed for users with water cooling systems. Rather than making you go out and buy extra connectors, ASUS gives you reducers and clamps so all you need to do is connect this baby into your existing water cooling system and you’re off.
If you’re going the water cooling route, chances are unless you’re using the Gigabyte 3D Galaxy II, you won’t have any fans to keep the Mosfet heatpipe cool. In this event a special blower fan is included which you place on top to run cool air over the Mosfets; a very interesting design.
Lastly on the lengthy list of inclusions is the SupremeFX II audio module. While it may sound flash, the audio module is simply a daughter board with the HD audio codec on it. It’s the same onboard audio that all Intel ICH9R boards are equipped with, just on a separate card. This is supposed to result in less noise on the audio channel, but I consider it more of a convenience as you don’t have to plug the card in if you are using a separate audio card like an Audigy or X-Fi.
Phew, I think I managed to get it all in there. Now let’s move onto the board itself.
