Closer look at the HA08 Combo L
It is nice to see a motherboard with integrated video to come in a standard size and not just mATX. Many of us like our options wide open and this is one of the best ways to do it. We have the option to go from on-board chipsets to full on Crossfire with just the implementation of a card or two. This is obvious by looking at the dual x16 PCIe slots (x8 when running dual graphic cards). Besides these two slots the HA08 Combo offers two standard PCI and two x1 PCIe slots.
If you are not able to use all your hard earned money on dual graphic cards then you can enhance the performance of the on-board display by integrating a low-end GPU like a 4350 to the system. Aided by this you will have hybrid Cross firing for more gaming support. But if you can content with the on-board graphics you will be happy to know it has 128MB of DDR2 memory. If you access this then the system will pull for your add-in memory whatever it needs up to 512MB.
To support your video means the board offers VGA, DVI and HDMI. All we can say is we may have the ultimate media center motherboard. As you can't go wrong with the board to take care of all your high-def needs. The Combo L offers several USB ports and even an eSATA for all your storage needs.
The HA08 Combo comes built with six SATA ports which will support raids in the configuration of 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD functions. In order to satisfy the individuals that don’t plan on ditching their older PATA devices a single IDE connection is provided.
Being a higher end motherboard the HA08 Combo benefits from having six DIMM slots and not just two as well see with lower cost motherboards. Granted all these slots cannot be used at the same time as four of them at meant for DDR3 and the leftover ones are designated for DD2. We are glad to see Jetway provide four slots to the newer memory type as this is the way the world is going. If you want to retain some DDR2 from an older build then you have two slots to use them in. The DDR3 slots are rated up to 1333MHz and the DDR2 ones up to 1066. I'm sure with a little overclocking we can exceed both of these limits. All slots support dual mode configurations.
Jetway decided to keep things quiet with this board and when passive with the cooling system. The heat sinks that are used to cool the phase mosfets and the North Bridge are joined by a single aluminum heat pipe, and a cool looking spiral heat sink is covering the SB750.
Besides the obvious there are a few things that make the HA08 Combo stand out from the rest of the motherboards out there. One of the first things that caught my eye was the debug monitor sitting between the two sets of SATA plugs. This is a feature that is becoming more popular and even more needed especially with dealing with damaged components and overclocking. It lessens the time spent on finding the problem and more time with fixing the problem. For benching purposes there is a power and reset button on the motherboard.
Another feature is the high-end capacitors and mosfets. The HA08 is made of OC-CON high polymer aluminum capacitors that are rated from 55 degrees Centigrade below zero to 125 degrees Centigrade.
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