ASUS Maximus V Gene LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Japanese 10K Black Metallic capacitors. Remember the era of busted caps? I do and never forgot. Support companies who put quality electronic material on their boards.

Isolated audio location on the PCB along with a carefully selected 1500uF capacitor.

Intel Gigabit Nic

Thick and sturdy PCB

All fan controls are 4pin PWM that are backwards compatible with three pin fans

mPCIe Combo if you're into that sort of thing. I have not tried it, don't need it.

Cons: Often advertised as a "Gamer" board. This is not a "gamer" board ... it is a "fantastic" board for anyone who values stability and quality construction.

Other Thoughts: This board is the basis for a 10 year system. I may not personally use it that long for my desktop but you have to consider that because of its size (small) it will find its way to my 2U Linux server or HTPC someday. I love boards that have LED debug lights. This one even has hard drive activity lights right on the mainboard itself.

Pros: Easy board to install and overclock. Lots of eye candy. BIOS upgrades are easy to install. Audio quality is super!! Stable after 1 year.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This is really a great board. This was the first computer I assembled in over 10 years. No jumpers for voltage, bus or clock multipliers to mess with and the manual was excellent. Labels on the board were great too so I tell where to plug everything in.

Pros: Looks like a great board and can't wait to take advantage of cool features once rma finalizes.

Cons: First of all, I can't count how many rma's I've had to do when purchasing from newegg... I must have some terrible luck... But back on topic, I received the board put the pieces together and the board wouldn't boot. The mb was giving me error 55 and the dram led was lit. I performed all of the steps to troubleshoot and attempt to resolve the issue. After checking every ram slot I discovered the problem was the first two ram slot, A1 and A2. The mb and parts would boot if the ram was inserted in the last two slots but not the first two. This effectively shut down any chance to duel channel. After calling ASUS I opted for the advance RMA but it's been over 48 hours and I have not received any news. I'm really hoping that I will not experience a similar RMA experience as another reviewer.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you have been waiting for more that 48 hours to get your board xship to you. Usually during the weekends we are off so it starts from the first work day. The 48 hours doesn't start until the xship department has received your forms and they have confirmed that all forms are filled out properly. The 48 hours starts as soon as your card is verified.

If you believe they are taking longer than usual, I will be glad to check the status for you.

Please provide me the serial number and RMA number.

You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty USA

Pros: This was my first solo build:
MVG MB
3770k cpu
16GB GSkill RAM
500R corsair case
750 HT corsair PSU
256 Samsung 840 Pro SSD
1 TB Seagate HDD
Phanteks Cooler
Everything went together smoothly, and the documentation was superb!

Cons: No cons.

Pros: 4 DIMM slots, SLI, robust components, UEFI BIOS, decent overclocking, fast POST when tweaked

Cons: None so far!

Other Thoughts: This board is as capable as its larger full ATX brothers. I'm running a GTX 690, 16 GB RAM, i7 3770k, all OC'd. POSTs very fast.

Pros: Has all the bells and whistles you expect from an expensive motherboard.

Cons: Failed to boot and Asus customer service was not helpful.

Other Thoughts: First and last time trying Asus because now I am stuck with a very expensive paper weight.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you received a unit that didn't work right out of the box.

If it failed to boot, did you see and Q-LED lights indicating the hardware that is causing your board from booting. Have you tried updating the bios. Here is a link below where you can update the bios without even having the board to post.

http://event.asus.com/2012/mb/usb_bios_flashback_guide/

Please make sure you clear CMOS as well. If you are still under the return policy with Newegg, I suggest you return the unit for an exchange or refund.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Compact Powerhouse
Simply overclocking, fancy BIOS, very sexy looking.

Cons: Many of the *Auto* functions did not come through. My GTX 670 only showed up as a PCIe v.1.0. I had to manually set it to 3.0

Other Thoughts: I had the Rampage II Extreme for over 5 years, I knew I was going to buy this and I am not disappointed.

Pros: Great little board, overclocks like a champ, no hiccups on new build.

Only concern was when I plugged a mouse into the ROG connect USB port and thought it was defective, quickly found my mistake.

Cons: Have built five units so far with Asus boards and I have never had an issue, though I figure that would probably be the case with any brand as I have a feeling most 1 star reviews are from people with limited experience.

Pros: -Smaller size
-Kicks off less heat/stays cooler easier
-Excellent on-board features

Cons: -Incredibly awful customer service; so bad that it warrants a two egg deduction from an otherwise 5 egg product.

Other Thoughts: I bought this board for a custom build after I hadn't had a top-line rig for a few years on the advice of some friends that build PCs professionally. I was so excited - I had it professionally installed and it worked great. About 40 days in, it died. No rhyme or reason - just dead.

"No problem," I thought, "These things happen." I immediately contacted ASUS for an advanced RMA. That was in early March, and as of today (14 April 2013) I STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN A NEW BOARD. ASUS customer service has been terrible; they've sent me the wrong forms several different times since the first call and never bothered to tell me they never actually had a board to send me. It's been almost a month and a half, and when I thought I finally sorted it out last week (after paying $30 USD for Overnight shipping), they STILL didn't send me one. I called and sure enough, yet another fumble: the rep said "we filed a stock check request on March 8th and nobody told you we didn't have one." Keep in mind that when you file an RMA with ASUS, they send you a remanufactured board. That's right, you can potentially go through two months of grief after a month of great performance only to get a USED board. ASUS hasn't even offered to do anything for me as a customer - no brand new board, no comp'ed charges, nothing. This has been hands-down the worst buyer experience I've ever had with any company, tech or otherwise. I know if I delivered this kind of service at my company, I'd be fired immediately and the business would lose a good deal of money.

In closing, I'm getting increasingly unsure that I'll ever get a replacement board. ASUS has been my go-to company for quite a long time for most things tech related - I've even recommended them to friends and coworkers, but I can't keep waiting. If I don't get a new board soon, I'll have to continue on to another company who has the ability to replace faulty merchandise within a reasonable timeframe in the event somebody buys a lemon (like any other decent business). Lastly, I can no longer recommend ASUS products to friends and coworkers in good conscience if this is the kind of service they can expect when their purchased product(s) fails.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that there is a lack of communication on our end. Can you please provide me with your RMA number and serial number so I can look into your case for you to get this resolved.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Great features, great stability, excellent overall quality, mATX form factor is a huge win imo.

Cons: Overclocking has one flaw, the bios tends to get tempermental saving the cpu multiplier. Sometimes it does and sometimes it just gets stuck on a value and nothing fixes it, short of a cmos reset (easy, 1 button). -1 egg for that bug.