OTES
OTES is an Abit specific feature for cooling capacitors and such on their P4 boards (see
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/...es=1&model=130 for the product info/spec). It stands for
outside thermal exhaust system and in short it just means that instead of "normally" just having a fan blow down on a heatsink and getting the heat off the heatsink by moving it to the case, it immediately ejects the heat from the case. If you look at the below picture you'll see a funky fan contraption right above/left-of the PS2 connectors.
That fan (attemtps to) remove the heat generated in the capactitors and coils and such so that the mobo has a clean supply of power etc. Why isnt this found on other boards? Probably because it's more of a novelty feature -- if it was absolutely critical or yielded undeniable massive performance/reliability issues than it would have been implemented on a lot more mobos.
Now the downside is that (in most cases), if you look at the back of your case, you'll realize the OTES system will actually vent heat out... directly into the backplate of the case (i dont have concrete evidence of this but i'll get to that in a sec). The reason I say this is because, comparing it to "standard" mobos, the PS2 connectors shown there are fairly normal meaning that the PS2 connectors are not "shifted to allow for room"; if someone knows better I'd like some confirmation/correction on that. The second reason I say that is because if I recall correctly, some cases are "OTES-qualified" whereas some other arent so that would suggest that some cases have "non-standard" backplates to accomodate the exhaust system (of course you can always cut the case a bit)
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Guys basically here I am looking to build a decent computer for every day "stuff" no gaming or that stuff. But don't want a cookie cutter compaq POS I dont want to spend a ton either.
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Ok in that case I'd say that the IC7 Max3, although a superb board, might be a bit of overkill for you. A mobo based on the I865 (or variants) chipset would be a better choice performance/price-wise. Two such boards are the
Abit AI7 and the
ASUS P4P800 boards both of which are based on the i865PE chipset which for all intents and purposes is absolutely identical to the i875 used on the IC7/P4C800 flagship boards. Now if you arent gonna be OCing or doing hardcore gaming you might consider not getting the IC7Max3 and rid yourself of the potential hassle of figuring out about the case
