Page 7 - Photo's #3

Each mainboard is controlled by a chipset, in this case the nVIDIA nFORCE2 Ultra SPP chipset. On the mainboard we have two chips that control everything I/O related. We call them the North- and Southbridge. The Northbridge is what you see cooled here, it's responsible for the processor, AGP8x, memory and thus very primary funtions.  The Northbridge is coolled by this huge yet silent copper('ish) cooling solution. The cooling offers some nice extra flexibility for overclockers.

NVIDIA's nForce2 MCP-T Southbridge

On your right, three connectors for your analog sound. Of course you can use the optical SPDIF also (through a bracket) . Next to the sound connectors the luxurious 1 Gigabit/sec LAN, below it 2x USB 2.0 and then Parallel, Serial, Connectors. Then to your left you'll see the 100 Mbit/sec LAN connection with below it another 2 USB ports. All the way to your left Mouse and keyboard connectivity. You see, we have nothing to complain here. I would have liked to see firewire in here though.