GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 AM3+ AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: * Rock-solid stability after years of use
* SATA 6Gb/s
* USB 3.0
* Good audio for an on-board solution
* Gigabit NIC
* Inexpensive
* Gigabyte brand, known for quality
* Runs Windows Server 2008 including RAID with no problems.

Cons: * Product discontinued.
* Limited RAM slots.
* RAM slots too close to CPU socket, causing taller RAM to interfere with aftermarket heatsinks.

Other Thoughts: After testing a couple of these boards, I ended up building a dozen systems using this. Most were business workstations, but 1 was for a Windows Server 2008 file server (they're on a very tight budget.) Using mostly Corsair 430W power supplies and Corsair DDR2-1600 RAM, every one of these systems has been running for one or more years without any issues at all.

I also have some set up with SSD drives and they hit 550MB/s read & write times, so the on-board SATA controller works quite well.

If you're looking for a well-rounded, rock-solid, inexpensive board, this is it.

Pros: Solid, stable.

Cons: Only one PS/2 socket. No Firewire socket. These cheapskate shortcomings cost me money and headaches. Could also have used a few more USB ports, but that's different; the number is adequate for most purposes.

Pros: Good only by the specifications. Might be OK with non-Linux operating systems.

Cons: There's something very wrong with these boards and Linux. I bought two of them, along with FX-6100 processors. For some reason, the board will lock hard after bootup unless ACPI is disabled (removing all power saving functions) and the APIC controller is disabled (limiting the CPU to a single core). In this state, the boards will run, but this is a serious problem and the boards are very crippled. I spent the last month trying to get them to work correctly. I tried different everything (CPU, Memory, PSU), numerous distros (Fedora, SuSE, etc. old and new versions), latest BIOS update, even emailed Gigabyte tech support (they have nothing to suggest). Finally bought a different brand board "M5A88-M" (same chipset, almost identical features) and it works perfectly.

Other Thoughts: Very disappointed. I've had good luck with Gigabyte boards in the past, but there's something seriously amiss with these. Searching the 'net finds other people reporting the same problem. If you're stuck with one of these, you can get it to run in cripple-mode if you boot with "acpi=off nolapic" added to kernel parameters.

Pros: Great customer prompt customer service

Cons: It has been one thing after another.

Pros: The company responded quickly.

Cons: Nothing but one problem after another, even though the company replaced the product, still one problem after another.

Pros: Has all the options that you would want on a high end board

Cons: I bought the board for a home dvr build. After reading of other saying they had problem running a FX cpu out of the box I also ordered a cheap sempron cpu to do the install and update the bios to F3. After the update I switched cpu's to the FX-4100. When using this processor with my Ceton 4 tuner I was getting a very pixeled picture. after ruling out a lot of stuff and wasted time I put the sempron processor back in and the problem was gone. At this time I figured I had a junk FX cpu so I but a 960T on sale. After the 960T was installed i got the same pixeled output which lead to more trouble shooting. After going into the BIOS I disabled all the cores except the default one and the problem was fixed. Once again I installed the FX-4100 cpu and disabled all the cores and the problem was solved. I am came to the conclusion that this board for whatever reason isnt handling multi-core cpu's properly. Looks like it may be time to try Intel for a change.

Pros: Very fast. I used memory #N82E16820231427 GSkill 4GB kit. Processor used was a AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition Deneb 3.5GHz Socket AM3 125W. I used a SSD Hard drive and a WD harddrive with this MOBO. This thing is fast. Everything works as it is supposed to. USB connections are nice and I do like the ability to charge things without the computer haveing to be on. HDMI, DVI, and VGA outs are very nice to have and the onboard graphics card works very well. Mine came with the F3 BIOS installed so no update needed there. Even the USB 2.0 is faster than other new computers at transfering data. I don't know how but the speeds I get with my external drive are much faster on these USB 2.0 connections than with my other computers. I do not have any USB 3.0 devices yet. I would build this computer again. Love the SATA 3.0 with a SSD Boot drive! Full boot up of Windows 7 in 13 seconds after post!

Cons: If I bring up anything it would be the heat sink for the mobo chip set. It is not anchored very well. Do not try to move the MOBO with it. If you do not have good air flow over it, it will get very hot quick. I wish they would have just put a fan or somthing on it. As long as I keep my case closed the heat sink stays cool.
Just something to be aware of not worth knocking off an egg.

Other Thoughts: Very good performance. Problem free build. Easy to setup and use.

Pros: sata 6/g
HD 4250
USB 3.0
easy bios
can use FX CPU

Cons: none so far

Other Thoughts: remember to get an 8 pin EPS PSU

Pros: SUPPORTS FX CPUS with the F3 Bios! I bought a FX-6100 AM3+ for this build and it worked right out of the box! I paired it with 16GB of ram and a SSD. In Windows 7 it scores mid 7's graphic's is a low of 6.7. I really like that the USB's stay on after it goes to sleep.

Cons: Only has 1 pci 2.0 x16

Other Thoughts: FX-6100
16GB Corsair Vengence
60GB OCZ SSD SataIII
8800 GTS 640mb (its old)

Pros: None.

Cons: Dual bios is pretty much useless since the motherboard keeps reverting from F3 Bios to F2 Bios. And from F2 Bios to F2 Bios every couple of days or so.

Other Thoughts: Best regards, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 support on this motherboard sucks also. What Gigabyte fails to mention is that the USB ports are very unstable. Every other time I plug in or pull out a cord from the USB port the whole system crashes.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your Gigabyte product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 78977 in the subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.

Gigabyte VIP Support Team