As you could see in Figure 1, this motherboard uses a passive heatsink solution, which is particularly indicated to users that are annoyed with the amount of noise produced by a typical PC (since this motherboard doesn’t have a fan on top of the chipset heatsink, less noise is produced by the PC).

But what is unique about this board is that it comes with a passive heatsink solution for up two memory modules, allowing you to connect this module to the passive cooling solution already present on the motherboard. According to ASUS this solution lowers the memory temperature in 10º C. This feature is also present on M3A32-MVP DeLuxe/WiFi-AP, which is another high-end socket AM2+ motherboard from ASUS but based on AMD 790FX chipset.

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Figure 4: Passive heatsinks for the memory modules.

This solution is more indicated to memory modules that don’t have heatsinks attached, even though you can install modules with attached heatsinks without any problem.

In Figure 5, you can see where the heatsink fits on the motherboard. After installing it on the memory modules you need to screw its body to the motherboard passive cooling solution.

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Figure 5: Aspect of the memory heatsink on the motherboard.

This motherboard uses only solid aluminum capacitors, which is great in order to prevent the infamous capacitor leakage problem. This motherboard uses ferrite coils on the voltage regulator circuit, which is also great, since they provide a lower power loss.

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Figure 6: Passive heatsink, solid aluminum capacitors and ferrite coils.

This motherboard also implements features available on all current high-end motherboards from ASUS, in particular Express Gate, which is a Linux version with Internet browser and Skype embedded on the motherboard ROM memory allowing you to access the Internet without loading the operating system and even without a hard disk drive installed.

In Figure 7, you can see all accessories that come with this motherboard. As you can see, it comes with a fan to be installed on the motherboard passive heatsink if you think that it is generating too much heat. Another interesting small feature is that the I/O panel finishing doesn’t have any cutting edges, so you probably won’t cut yourself while installing it. This motherboard also comes with Q-Connectors, a solution created by ASUS that facilitates the installation of the wires coming from the case frontal panel, SLI bridges for both 2- and 3-way modes and an HDMI-to-DVI adapter.

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Figure 7: Motherboard accessories.