Gigabyte 7VAXP (KT400): Breathing Some Life Back into KT400

Board Layout

Gigabyte did a terrific job with the 7VAXP motherboard layout.

As we always like to mention, the placement of the ATX (20-pin) connector is an important layout feature. Gigabyte positions the ATX connector towards the top of the motherboard above the DIMM slots this time. Gigabyte fulfills this promise for the most part by placing the ATX connector towards the top of the motherboard, just to the right of the DIMM slots. For the size and shape of the motherboard, this is about where the ATX connector should be placed, as it'll give the user a lot more room to maneuver inside the case mitigating the hassle with having to deal with all the ATX lines.

Yet another good layout decision on Gigabyte's part is the amount of space left between the DIMM connectors and the AGP slot. There's ample room between the two so that you don't have to uninstall your video card to uninstall memory. We've always preached this as an important aspect of a motherboard's layout, and this motherboard is no exception.

Click to Enlarge

The CPU lever was fairly easy to unlatch with this board (unlike the Soyo KT400 Ultra). There were no capacitors or fan headers impeding the unlatching of the lever or installation of the CPU. Unfortunately, Swifttech and Alpha users will be turned off by the fact that Gigabyte yet again decides to skip the inclusion of four mounting holes for cooling. We wonder why Gigabyte continues to "forget" this feature, as good cooling is important for Athlon users, especially tweakers and overclockers.