The AN8 32X is manufactured on an orange PCB. The interface connections are layed out so as to make them easily accessible and the colour coding helps in identifying them.

The AN8 32X is a 939 socket based motherboard.

The board adopts a silent cooling system, called SILENT OTES, using three independent heatsinks, with those on the Southbridge and Northbridge being connected through a pipeline.

The AN8 32X has four 184-pin DIMM sockets and supports Dual channel DDR 400 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered memory with a maximum memory capacity up to 8GB. Each channel is a different color. So if you want to install two modules in Dual Channel, you'll have to install both in either the blue or the purple sockets.

The board also has two IDE connections located on the edge of the board and with the pins parallel to the board, something common amongst motherboards nowadays.

The AN8 32X provides six SATA connections :

There are also additional USB and Firewire connections on the motherboard:

The 24pin power connector:

For supplying the fans with power, ABIT equipped the AN8 32X with five power connectors:

The entire series of chipsets on the motherboard:

The AN8 32X, as with many of the latest ABIT motherboards, has a Power On Self Test (POST) Code Display. The computer will execute a POST whenever you power on the computer. The POST process is controlled by the BIOS. It is used to detect the status of the computer's main components and peripherals. Each test in the POST process corresponds to a different checkpoint that is also defined by the BIOS in advance.

The connections provided on the AN8 32X are :

• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
• 1 x PS/2 Mouse
• 4 x USB ports
• 1 x RJ-45 LAN port
• 1 x IEEE 1394
• 1 x S/P DIF In
• 1 x S/P DIF Out