ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Decent board, OC's well enough, easy core unlocking (now)

Cons: I had problems with my initial ASUS board within the first few weeks and ending up going with this as it's replacement as it appeared to be higher quality. As far as stability goes it has been more or less OK, getting my 1600 RAM to run at 1600 and not 1333 was a huge pain. Recently I gave my case a thorough cleaning and when attempting to unseat the RAM modules from their slots the upper latches which hold them in place snapped off when I tried to release them. The RAM is clearly not seated properly now as I'm getting random crashing and bsod's which were never present before this. To top it off, I went to move the RAM to the other two open slots, and both of those latches snapped off when I went pressed them to disengage the latching.

If you have ever had to deal with ASUS support you know where this is going... Their once above average support has turned to utter trash. It took them over a week to get me a small update on an **ADVANCE** RMA, and any attempt to retrieve information returned a different response from every single rep I talked to, and I went though no less than seven of them. After the initial ASUS board, a Nexus 7 tablet which had screen defects after less than a month, and now the problems I'm encountering with this board and ASUS support it's pretty much solidified that I will never again purchase an ASUS product.

Pros: It started out great. It ran great for about a year.

Cons: I began getting random "New CPU Installed" errors upon every boot and it would randomly crash and freeze across multiple operating systems. The instruction manual is also horrible and the customer support is bad.

Other Thoughts: I'm going to buy a different brand next time.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about your experience with the motherboard.

The "New CPU Installed" message is normal in a new installation. However, if it appears after every boot even after entering BIOS, and saving BIOS setting. It could be that either the Clear CMOS jumper is not in positions 1 and 2 (please check) or that the CMOS battery has failed (the system clock may also reset). If it's the latter, a replacement battery should be installed, which should solve the issue. Regarding the freezing, since it occurs not just on one OS, try to load BIOS defaults. Otherwise, the BIOS chip may be corrupted. We suggest RMA the motherboard so that our technicians can verify the integrity of the BIOS chip and the issue with the boot message. To RMA the motherboard, please use the RMA submittal form at: http://vip.asus.com/eservice/usa_rmaserv.aspx or call us at 1-812-282-2787.Thank you.

For support information, please visit http://support.asus.com. For service, visit http://service.asus.com. For motherboard warranty, visit http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!Motherboard%20Warranty/c1c20; Refurbished products/accessories: http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!refurbished-warranty/c16us. For RMA status, visit: http://am.eservice.asus.com/rmaweb/search/rmCustomerQueryAction.do?.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty
cl-benson@asus.com

Pros: This has been a great board and ASUS is a great product

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I will always buy ASUS boards

Pros: lots of features

Cons: has been unstable from the very start. seems to be very buggy, flashed bios as updates have been available.
onboard video loses audio through HDMI off and on tried diff video drivers and audio drivers

Other Thoughts: Always Had good luck with Asus till now, have been playing with memory Kingston Hyper X Genis 16 megs
Basically have detuned system to try to get stability, slowed things down. ran memory that's rated for 1600 to 1333 to 1067mhz. seems to be best have AMD black CPU turned off all O/C tweaks corsair liquid cpu cooler. Thermaltake MK1 case ,,fans out the wazoo, system set up for speed have to keep it way down just to keep it going.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the issues you had with the motherboard. Regarding your system being unstable, does it freeze/BSOD/reboot? For HDMI audio, please make sure that the HDMI audio output in Control Panel > Sound > Playback is set to default, or try another HDMI cable. To continue support, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-8000 in the subject line). Thank you.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Purchased this for the specs. So the pro's would be that. It's done everything without a hitch since purchase.

Cons: See Other Thoughts

Other Thoughts: I just wished there were more SATA slots. I'm using all built in slots and both the PCI slots so I can hook up more drives.

Pros: decent powered onboard vid card, easy updates for bios a simple reboot takes care of it. sound is very good.

Cons: none

Pros: Great motherboard. Most people who review do so because they had some sort of problem. Thought I would do one where I did not. Had this board going over a year with no problems. Works great.

Cons: Finicky with memory. See the review by Technocrat. Many problems are caused by not using right memory.

Other Thoughts: No issues. Rock solid.

Pros: It had good reviews/specs........

Cons: it was doa. unfortunately for me it was my first build and i had NOOO idea what was going on and lost out on a replacement. I did, however, get it tested by a friend and it was missing the bios. Not sure if I could have caused this but i did have to buy a new/cheaper mobo to replace it and i am now suffering from inferior quality as im typing this :P

Other Thoughts: Im sure this would be a good mobo if it worked.......

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issue you had with the motherboard. Please try the following:

Make sure to check the power connections, specifically the 24-pin and 8-pin/4-pin. Do you see standby LED? Do the CPU or Chassis fans spin at power on? If not, try using another power supply.

Check that the Clear_CMOS jumper is inserted in positions 1 and 2. If the jumper is missing or in another position, the motherboard may not power on.

Check if your CPU is supported with the BIOS version the motherboard was shipped with. The BIOS version is located on a long bar code sticker on the side of the motherboard. The last four digits of that code is the BIOS version. A list of CPU's supported by BIOS version is located here: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A89GTD_PROUSB3/#CPUS

Some memory kits are not compatible with the motherboard. To ensure that memory will work with the motherboard, please try to obtain memory from our Qualified Vendors List (QVL). Also, try pressing the MemOK! button immediately after you power on the system to load the default fail-safe settings of the memory. Your system may cycle several times during this process.

If using discrete graphics, does the video card fan spin at power on? If not, reseat the card or try another card if possible. Are the necessary auxiliary power plugged in to the card?

Clear CMOS. Turn off the computer. Turn the switch on the back of the power supply to OFF, or unplug from the outlet. Wait about 10 seconds until the standby LED goes out. Switch the CMOs jumper then back. Power on the computer.

Try to plugging a system speaker and monitor if any beeps that occur when you turn on the computer.

1 long beep and 2 short beeps = memory
1 long beep and 3 short beeps = VGA

If you still having trouble getting the motherboard to POST, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com. Reference #C1037-5341 in the subject line and include your system setup.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: BIOS is easy to use. all the features are nice. i put a 6 core 1055T in it.

Cons: the pci-e x16 slot is at the bottom. dont know why they thought that was a good idea but my huge radeon 5870 is competing for air intake with my PSU fan sitting at the bottom of my antec 900 case.

Other Thoughts: i gave it 5 stars instead of 4 because if i didnt want the vid card on the bottom slot then i would have bought another mobo. still though it works well. no defects with mine

Pros: Large well made board
Sata3x6
IDE
front panel HD audio, 7.1
CPU level up

Cons: stock drivers had LAN issues, LAN connection kept dropping had to switch to wi-fi
works fine with updated drivers
only 4 x USB connectors

Other Thoughts: AMD Phenom II X4 955
started out w/ G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1333 for stability and becuase it had pretty blue heat spreaders that match the board and lights in my case
Swapped for G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
next to try Corsair Memory DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
see if we can squeez some extra speed out