Layout
We're not fans of the Sturgeon's layout for a few good reasons. Firstly, the 8-pin SSI power connector is placed in the area usually reserved for ports exiting via the ATX I/O shield. With many good chassis putting a 120mm exhaust fan right on top of that I/O area, the 8-pin SSI cable can not only be hard to route there, round the CPU area, but can quite easily foul on an exhaust fan.
ATI keeps a one-slot gap between dual-slot graphics boards installed in CrossFire mode, for airflow reasons, which we respect. But we'd appreciate a second PCIc (PCI conventional) slot either in that gap, or under the single one that's provided, just in case. While many of you don't even use any PCI cards, which is great, many of you do and for good reason. Making at least one available with two dual-slot graphics installed has to be the goal for all enthusiast-class boards, surely?
It's not all bad, though, with the main 24-pin ATX power connector placed on the far board edge and the memory slots well clear of both the CPU area and the top graphics card slot.
The board carries a number of fan headers like that seen in the picture above, but curiously none near the ATX I/O backplane.
The CPU area is pleasingly clear on all sides, allowing fitment of oversized coolers should you choose to do so. You can clearly see 8-pin SSI at its odd site, again.
The shot above shows six of the eight SATA2 ports (4 from the SB600, 2 from one of the Sil3132s), with the other two (Sil3132-based) in the area underneath the PCIc slot just out of picture. The southbridge is passively cooled and while the 'sink gets hot when the silicon underneath is worked hard; any well-ventilated PC chassis will be enough to keep it cool. The sole IDE port and empty second BIOS slot rounds off the interesting items on that part of the board.
Realtek ALC880, Marvell 88E8052 and VIA VT6306 sit on the board edge, behind the expansion slots the board provides. You can see the POST code display, Molex power assist for the bottom PEG16X slots and the pin headers for extra I/O.