Multimedia Computer: Part 2, The Motherboard, addendum

I did my writing last night at the end of a long day that ended a long week because my family had gone to the movies and I was too tired to go with them. Let me add a little to that post as I slept like the righteous dead last night and am in a high energy period now. Ten hours of sleep and a pot of coffee will do that. Imagine.

Last night I'd mentioned this motherboard having PCI Express slots for expansion and those opening more choices for expansion cards. Well, having slept, I wondered whether those would match up with the slots in the back of the case so as to be accessible. Having had a surprise with PCI cards being to wide for a small form factor case last time, this was a legitimate worry. The way to resolve this--it seemed to me--was to open the case, install the motherboard, and see how everything matched up.

Imagine my joy, nay, my glee, when I discovered that not only were all of the expansion card accessible from the back of the case, but there had been more care taken in the design of the case than I had ever imagined or dared hope.

The case had a removable tray that the motherboard sits in. Instead of having to enlist my tiny-fingered daughter (who had gone shopping with her mother, anyway) to help, I was able to just slide the tray out. This allows the tray to be installed  in a much less stressful manner.  It also gave me the opportunity to examine the motherboard with greater detail.  It has a lot of options.  While there are plenty of USB plugs, there are also old-fashioned plugs for keyboards and mice.  Indeed, there is an additional serial mouse connection. What's up with that?  And there is a parallel printer connector; I thought those were like the coelocanth.

Anyway, after that closer examination, I was able to install in with easy and just slide it back into the case.  Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.