ASUS P5QL-EM LGA 775 Intel G43 HDMI Intel Motherboard - Retail

Not a good Asus board

Reviewed By: Frederick on 6/21/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: 1. Small with 4 RAM slots (well, read the cons)
2. Got onboard HDMI output (which I didn't use)

Cons: 1. Awkard SATA port position which makes installing in small cases hard (usually the board edge touches some sort of obstacle in such small cases, and the ports just can't be used because they opened sideway)

2. Get locks up / reboot when stayed on for a couple of minutes. I don't know whether it's the issue of the CPU I'm using or the display card. Upgraded BIOS but still there always and render this unusable.

3. PLEASE note this in the specification, or somwhere noticable - the 4 slots are only usable if you stick SINGLE-SIDED DDR2-RAM in all 4 slots. If you wanna use double-sided RAM (which is the MAJORITY), think twice before buying a set of 4 x 2GB RAM. (Ya, I wasted 2 x 2GB of high speed overclock-able RAM!!)

Other Thoughts: One of the worst board I've ever worked on.

Given that I have been assembling PCs since the day of 486 DX2-66, I've touched numerous boards. I loved ASUS in the old day (when they were still making VIA chipset for Pentium III systems), and my second motherboard happened to be an Asus (a 486 board, when the L2 cache were SRAM on the motherboard.)

But somehow I can feel that the QC wasn't as good as the day when they were just making motherboard. I got fried Asus display card from a friend, 2 motherboards that need to be returned and came across this one now.

I guess my next purchace will not be Asus anymore... better find Gigabyte. I have my own PCs assembled using them since they introduce All Solid-Cap (a P35, 2 965Ps). They might not be the best overclock board (well, my P35C-DS3R was a pretty great one) but provide much more consistent QC and quality cross different segment (even G31 boards are pretty solid). Even Foxconn, Magic-Pro, Intel and MSI won't disappoint me...

Manufacturer Response:Dear Valued Customer,

We are sorry for this inconvenience. Please contact our Technical Support Department at http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx and reference case number "NE399325" so that we may get more details about your system configuration and assist you in resolving these issues you are experiencing.

Best Regards,

ASUS Support Team

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Reviewed By: on 6/9/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: I like it. Easy to install, all parts included. Fast shipping. Whatelse can you ask for?

Cons: None whatsoever.

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JUNK

Reviewed By: black42799 on 6/3/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: ASUS MADE IT

Cons: ASUS did not think this one through at all. The whole MEMORY thing really UPSETS me ( I use this word so I don't get censored by Newegg ) the placements of the sata ports is ridiculous, and so on and so on ,etc etc. Bad one for Asus.
HOWEVER !!! I still think they are the BEST in the industry when it comes to motherboards, this one is junk in MY opinion . Even the best can have a bad day.

Other Thoughts: none, enough said.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Valued Customer,

We would like to know more about your issues and assist you in resolving them. Please contact our Technical Support Department at http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx and reference case number "NE382742" so that we may get more details about your system configuration and assist you in resolving these issues you are experiencing.

Best Regards,

ASUS Support Team

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