The Basics (continued):

As we continue our tour of the ASUS P6X58D-E we find ourselves looking at the area including the CPU socket. Key features of this area include a blue heatsink on the Intel X58 chip that is connected by a heatpipe to one of two heatsinks cooling some of the voltage regulation chips. The board features "Stack Cool 3+" as part of the Xtreme Design philosophy mentioned earlier. Not only does this include the use of the heatsinks found in this area of the motherboard, but it also includes the optimization of the trace design and component layout.



Along the top edge of the board we see a 8-pin power connector, and to the left we see the top of the rear panel connections, which we will check out next.



The next two images take a look at the rear panel connections, and there is a rather impressive assortment of I/O to be found here. From left to right we have a pair of PS/2 ports for your keyboard and mouse, a small button you might not even notice which is for clearing the CMOS without opening your case, two NEC powered USB 3.0 ports set off from the others by the blue inserts, coaxial and optical S/PDIF audio out ports, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire (IEEE 1394a) port, two more USB 2.0 ports stacked under the 10/100/1000 LAN port, and the analog audio ports capable of providing up to 7.1 channel surround sound stereo.



And finally, we have a look at the backside of the motherboard. Nothing too exciting, but we do see the CPU socket is braced, and the cooling for the voltage regulation chips is extended to the backside.