The board layout is excellent and is near perfect. I have two small issues with the layout and only two. The first is that the PCI-Express x1 slot at the top of the expansion slot area is blocked by the chipset cooling hardware. This means that all but the shortest of cards will not fit in that slot. Now for many people, the on-board audio card will be utilized in this slot, so it should be no issue, but if you plan on using it for something else, make sure you card is no longer than 3.25”. The second issue involves the PCI-Express x16 slot that is located farthest away from the X58 chipset. Its' location is potentially a problem as the use of the floppy controller, IEEE1394 header, or the fan header will prevent you from using the third slot for a video card. That's just fairly poor planning on ASUS' part. ASUS designed with SLI and 3-way SLI in mind, yet the actual use of that could be problematic for some users. When you install “2-way” SLI in the two X16 slots closest to the chipset, the board will give you a message telling you that the SLI card is in the wrong slot. Also cases that have the power supply on the bottom of the case or leave very little room at the bottom of the motherboard tray may create issues with the use of three video cards on this board. So all the issues I have are with the expansion slots.
The board also features eight fan headers located fairly evenly across the entire motherboard. This is a most welcome sight for me as I'd prefer to connect most of my fans to the board and control them via BIOS or even via software in Windows as I've never been a fan of the “bay bus” control solutions which add clutter to the front of my case in the form of knobs and buttons. Other headers have good placement as well. They are on the bottom edge of the board and don't extend too far back so attaching front panel cables should be easy, but don’t plan on getting at those with a 4870 or GTX 200 series video card installed.
ASUS did screw up in regard to one header and that's the IEEE1394 header they always stick at the very bottom corner of the board. This is great if you use the included I/O bracket that comes with the board but for those of you who use up most if not all of your expansion slots this sucks as most cases don't have long enough front panel connectors to reach the header at the back of the board like this. Most ASUS boards seem to all have the IEEE1394 port in the same location so I suspect that's just an “ASUS thing.” Certainly not a deal breaker though.
