This is a VIA socket 462 (socket A) platform, one of my many obsolete motherboards. I usually upgrade my desktop computer every 9 months. I can not even count how many motherboards I have ever used since I built my first 80386 system some 10 years ago. My latest toy is Asus's P4PE (i845 chipset), I bought it because it supports my P4's hyper-threading and 533 FSB features that are crucial to a mpeg4 and overclocking fanatic like me. Please ignore the "special effect", you can never bend a 5-layer motherboard like this. It is not my intention here to explain how computer works, but I will take this motherboard as an example to show how we can get the "most" out of the machine we are using everyday, most important of all, those skills are FREE! If you are lucky enough, getting a 10% to 30% of system performance increase without paying a penny is not impossible. Finetuning your system is fun and practical, but harnessing the buggy Windows systems is never an easy job. I read an email joke long time ago, let me share with you.

"3 specialists in different fields drive somewhere for a conference, they all sit in a small lemon car. Who is a driver is not important. On their way to the destination, the car pulls over and can not start again. A mechanical engineer suggests they should check the engine; an electrical engineer suggests the electricity circuit might be the problem; finally, the computer scientist suggests they should "close" the "windows" and start again!" :-)