Layout
Let's start with the atx header. The atx header is located in the areas between the northbridge and the audio port. It is situated so close to the agp port that once the power cable is attached, there will be no room to move in that area. Also with the power connected, the cables will be hanging over the CPU heatsink and will somehow restrict the airflow going to the cpu area. Location of this atx header is definitely not the best.
Its got 3 DIMM slots that could support up to a maximum of 3 GB DDR memory. Distance from the cpu socket shows that an allowance for big heatsinks was thought of in advance.
There are 5 PCI slots, an AGP slot, a Communication and Networking Riser (CNR) slot for additional system flexibility and an Advanced Communications Riser (ACR) slot. Here you can see that by the addition of the ACR slot (the blue colored slot between the pci and the agp slot), Chaintech is still geared at the OEM market somehow as the ACR provides support for low cost modem, DSL, LAN, Audio and USB add-on cards. Same goes with the CNR, it is only useful for OEM business. This slots should have been easily replaced by an additional pci slot instead.
Clearance between the agp card and the dimm locks is a problem here. Looking closely at the pic below will show you that once you have decided to install another memory module or decide to uninstall it, you need to take the agp card off to access the dimm slot safely. It is worth noting though that their agp slot comes with an agp lock to prevent accidental slip offs. This is a good security for those LAN goers who frequently travels with their rigs from one location to the other.
The socket has got those 4 holes around it indicative of Chaintech's anticipation of newer and bigger heatsinks for use with very hot AMD chips. Located in the center of the socket is the thermistor that monitors the cpu core temp underneith the die.
It also has an Optional USB adapter for additional USB ports. A useful feaure for those whose got heaps of USB devices. Its Embedded USB Controller could support up to a maximum of 6 USB ports. Out of the box though there is only 2 USB ports as there is no external usb port supplied.
Sadly, we can clearly see that the 7VJDA only incorporates a 2-phase power solution. With present and future high speed Athlons, this board should have the potential to support more than 46A of current by opting for a 3-phase power solution. But because it doesn't have that, the risk of having board instability might surface.
Dip Switch and Jumpers are present in this mainboard. It is not totally jumperless. The main function of the dip switch is for multiplier adjustments or overclocking. You can set it to auto for cpu auto detection or you can manually choose the multiplier for those who have unlocked processors. Multiplier can be set from 5x to 12.5x thru this switch. I know enthusiasts have been spoiled by the jumperless technology, but since they are not the target market of this board, that technology is not present here. The only jumper that would somehow concern us is the CPU bus speed jumper. You choose either 100 or 133mhz fsb depending on the type of bus speed your cpu supports. Even though you'll be fiddling with just 1 or two jumpers, Chaintech has made life easy for you somehow by putting tall, easy to remove jumpers.
