The BX133-RAID also includes a full complement of three on-board fan headers. These headers are arranged quite nicely with two being right at the top of the board, and the other situated near the bottom. This allows users the freedom of perhaps using two fan headers for their CPU cooler, or just one for the standard CPU fan, along with attaching back and front-mounted case fans. The only possible issue is with the close proximity of the two headers at the top. This may cause some to use the wrong header for their CPU fan, and result in difficulty locating the proper fan speed from hardware diagnostic programs. Since this is a BX motherboard, you will not find any fancy options such as on-board sound or modem capabilities, and there are few amenities other than what has been outlined above.

Although the BX133-RAID gets top marks for board layout, it is by no means perfect. The ATX LED connectors are placed directly in line with the ISA slot, almost guaranteeing installation difficulty with all but the smallest ISA cards. There are also a few internal connectors, such as SB-Link, Wake on Ring and Wake on LAN, that are situated just a bit too close to the AGP and PCI slots. With a fully equipped system, these may be difficult to reach. The absence of a sixth PCI slot will also be troublesome for some. Overall though, if you are not going to be using either the ISA slot or various business-related connectors, then the BX133-RAID comes very close to being a perfectly designed performance board.

Inside the ABIT BX133-RAID retail box, we found the motherboard itself, one FDD cable, one ATA-66 EIDE cable, one ATA-33 EIDE cable and an external thermal cable. As for software and documentation, ABIT has included a standard driver CD, a 121-page user manual, and a 3.5” floppy containing the HPT370 ATA-100 drivers. The driver CD has a soft copy of the user manual, motherboard drivers, the HighPoint XStore Pro performance drivers, and a few utilities such as Hardware Doctor. Overall, it is an average collection of programs but certainly not with the same variety as those from AOpen or Micro Star. The content in the user manual is uniformly excellent and it has a wealth of useful information concerning the BX133-RIAD's capabilities and features. The format and organization of the manual do leave a bit to be desired and it can be difficult to find exactly the piece of information you are seeking.