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08-11-07
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: No BIOS issues, rear CMOS switch which makes clearing the CMOS much easier. There tons and tons of overclocking options provided by the Uguru software and this board does not run hot as a result of the passive heating. It's nice to have 3 PCI slots because motherboard math requires the subtraction of 1 PCI slot automatically due to large video cards that always block 1 PCI slot. Plenty of RAID options for those of you who use it - though I personally think RAID is vastly overrated for desktop users.
Weaknesses:The SATA ports are mounted parallel which I find incredibly annoying because they're a pain to connect in an already cramped case. If you've got a case with a removable motherboard tray it will make things easier; though I really can't see the advantage to having SATA ports mounted this way. I'm at a loss to understand what abit was thinking when they engineered this design. However, it's a minor gripe overall and it's subjective. No legacy ports. I'm convinced abit would sell as many boards as ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI if they'd simply put a legacy port or two on some of their boards. Maybe I'm too old school, but I still think a lot of people still use devices that necessitate legacy ports, but considering abit boards are completely devoid of them, a lot of people who could otherwise be good abit customers are forced to bypass them for the competition.
Overall Evaluation: This motherboard is excellent and it overclocks extrememly well!!! I have an E6850 processor that's running @ 3.5ghz with absolutely no voltage changes with the stock heatsink fan. I could easily go higher, but I won't until I get an aftermarket cpu fan. DDR2 voltage is widely adjustable -1.8v-3.0v. This is important if you've got good quality DDR2 800 RAM that you want to overclock because it's going to need lots of voltage. This board IS crossfire ready, despite the fact that it's not listed as being so.
02-07-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Comes with almost everything on board. Extremely versatile
Weaknesses:* Direction of SATA connectors may be difficult to use* Single IDE connector could be issue for older components
Overall Evaluation: This is the best motherboard I have ever used. The array of features is stunning. It does far more than I need. All I needed to add was a video card (8800GT). I am using it with a quad core processor and its running great. I have not overclocked it, but I hear that is a breeze as well. Everything is well laid out and installation was simple.
01-30-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: easy install, good overclocking, easy to reset board, fault code led indicator on board
Weaknesses:a bit pricey, sata connectors are very hard to access in my case, only one ide connector
Overall Evaluation: this is a nice upgrade from an ip35-e that i had previously been using. it has firewire support built in so no need to use up a pci slot for that. it was a quick setup to build with no real problems encountered. however, the sata connectors lie directly behind my hard drives making it impossible to access without removing the drives. overall a good board with a small design layout problem.
01-29-08
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: Supports FBS1333, solid state caps, FireWire on board, eSATA ports
Weaknesses:Location of SATA connectors, only 1 IDE port
Overall Evaluation: I was looking for a future-proof MB. After reading the extraordinary reviews that this board got from users and experts, I decided to go ahead and get it. I'm glad I did. This has been the most stable board I have ever owned, considering I have had problems with my Pentium D 945 on my previous MB. I have to say though that the location of the 6 SATA ports makes it a little hard to plug/unplug stuff. The Intel RAID feature works seamlessly. I have two RAID 1 arrays (total of 4 HDs) that I transferred from my previous intel MB and didn't have to do anything for them to start working immediately on this MB. Also, I have two DVD-RW units attached to the only IDE port and they work fine (appareently, the JMicron controller that this board uses for IDE and eSATA is not well regarded, but like I said, no problems here.) I wish there was an extra IDE port available for my PATA HD but oh well. Fortunately, I haven't had a need for the diagnostics code display feature but it is reassuring to have it available should problems arise. Vista x86 installed most drivers out of the box, except for the audio drivers. I did download the most recent drivers anyway. All in all, an excellent motherboard. Highly recommended.
12-11-07
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: Stable, lots of OC features, supports a bunch of SATA drives.
Weaknesses:Only 1 IDE connector. Forward facing SATA connectors may be difficult to use in many cases.
Overall Evaluation: My install mistake: Don't forget to pop the tabs off the chrome backplate first! (like I did). I've built a few PCs and don't pay as much attention during assembly as I used to. So, I popped the chrome backplate into the case (the piece that fits around the usb ports, nic ports, kb connector, etc). I installed the mobo, cpu, cooler, screwed everything into place, plugged in keyboard, powered up & tested. All was well. It was when I went to plug the network cable in that I realized that the cutouts in the chrome backplate were still attached for the nic, spdif, etc. They also were cut to detach inward, so there was no way to slip in a screw driver and pry them off without risking damaging the board or connectors. So I had to unscrew the mobo, move it a couple of inches, pry the tabs off, and screw it back in. Not a big deal, but an oversight that cost me 15 minutes because I had already neatly tucked all of my cables away. If you have legacy drives the single IDE connector will be an issue. If you build in a small/medium case the horizontal (forward facing) SATA connectors will be difficult to work with. If you have a very large case, they will make your cables sit flatter for better air flow. Lots of features, especially for OC - better than my last ASUS board. Lately I haven't been happy with the ASUS boards - I find the voltage tends to be a little less stable and the boards don't last if you OC a lot. We'll see if this one fries in 6 months.
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