ASUS F2A85-M/CSM FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: First time building my own PC. Went ASUS because everyone I talked to said they were the best, chose this board for the 4 RAM slot, planing to order 2 more in a bit. Everything worked the first time right out of the box, easy to use bios and manual, I am currently overclocking the A6 5400K. The system says it's running at 4.3Ghz, but I think it just defaults that as the max for the A10. Either way, its all running great.

Cons: On board audio was horrible, I never tried to fix the issue because I had a better headset now that is USB only.

Other Thoughts: If you're not worried about the audio, this is a good budget board if you still want quality. Lots of room for expantion, i'm tempted to try a crossfire setup on this board next. Who knows.

Pros: Lovely UEFI bios. Automatic overclocking actually works very well, brought my 5800k up to 4.3ghz rock solid stable. I don't care to bother going any higher with manual clocking. With the bios it came with I had no problems using all 4 cores of the 5800k... I think the previous reviewer might have been confused.
The mobo is very sturdy, quality capacitors and VRM system. All voltages are accurate and stable, temperature sensors are also accurate.

Cons: I can see how the SATA ports could be problematic in a tiny tiny case, but they aren't for me.

Other Thoughts: This is my first ASUS board, so far I love the build quality, the UEFI bios, and the great ASUSTek support.

Pros: Nice Bios and update features.

Cons: Problem with playing movie through the web (netflix), from external USB drive (interconnect 2.0 and 3.0), and internal harddrive Sandisk SSD. After about an hour the system lock up and I have to reboot the computer. My system is A8-5600K, 8GB Patriot Memory, 120G SATAIII SanDisk HD, external Seagate 3TB USB 3.0.
What I have tried :
MEMTest memory (no problem with memory)
Replace memory with GSkill
Updated to the latest bios 5202 and Catalyst driver
Chip temperature immediately after reboot 31C and mb 34C
Reinstalled OS
Reset CMOS

Problem still occurs. Computer behaves normally as long as it it not video playing.

Other Thoughts: I see there are other with the same problem.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are having issue with your motherboard freezing.

Here is a link below where you can try to update the VGA to see if that resolves your issue.
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=1&s=43&m=F2A85-M&os=&hashedid=a49qS6VMZlEwzxe8

Also can you try running prime95 and to record the temp levels at idle and at load. You can use CPUid to monitor the temperatures. Please provide the temps for the CPU, GPU, and PSU.

Did you try going into safe mode and see if the motherboard freezing occurs?

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
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Nice features, good manual, easy to work with in general.

Cons: Right angle SATA cables.

On board regulation for the processor seems to be marginal for 2 of the 3 boards I own when used with the AMD A10-5800K (with NO overclocking and all voltage settings at the factory default of auto).

As long as the processor doesn't have all 4 cores active (I installed an AMD A10-5800K in all 3 boards), it works. If all 4 cores are active with a compute intensive load, 2 of the 3 boards will lock up in that condition. Of the 3 boards, 2 are running Win 7 Home Edition Premium and 1 is now running OpenSuse 12.2. Of the 2 Win 7 systems, 1 has given no problems (but it is only used for web browsing, email and document editing) and 1 is used as an HTPC with problems whenever recording more than 2 channels at the same time as playing back a recording. The HTPC used to have a 3 yr old, way less powerful MB that had no problems recording 4 channels at the same time as it was playing back a recording. 1 of the boards was so bad I couldn't do an installation of OpenSuse 12.2, so I first changed supplies from a 430 W to a 520 W Antec High Current Gamer, which helped a little, but not enough. A replacement board of the exact same make & model from a local store allowed me to do the OpenSuse install, but that replacement still has problems when doing heavy compute load. I use all 3 of these boards with NO video cards plugged in and 2 Crucial BLT8G3D1608ET3LX0 DDR3 DIMMs I also got from NewEgg. According to the ASUS power supply calculator web page I have supplies that are at least 80W larger than needed. When the OpenSuse system locks up under heavy load it gives a message upon restart that a surge occurred. This is with a 3 year old Antec Basiq 430W supply that has functioned perfectly for 3 yrs now. Just to be sure, I tried a 520 W Antec High Current Gamer supply and had the same problem, only a little less often.

All in all, just about the worst type of thing to go wrong - something that will run for a week solid (without being exercised) and then lock up as soon as the processor cores are asked to work hard. Did I just get incredibly unlucky, or do these boards have power regulation problems I couldn't find with a web search?

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the experience with the motherboard. Does the system lock up when running other load intensive applications besides audio recording? We suggest prime95 (available for both Windows and Linux) to simulate a load test. What are the CPU temperatures when idle and when under load? Have you tried updating to the latest BIOS version 5202 (released 2/1/2013) or tested the memory for errors using memtest? Please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-8722 in the subject line) at your earliest convenience to continue support. 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

Pros: Very easy to install and set up. Most people have been complaining about the sata port, I personally love them for the wire management in my case. The sata cable has 2 ends on it, so put the 90* end on the HDD and the straight end on the MB.

Cons: The built in sound isn't very good. I am using the same mic I used with my Asus AM3 MB with built in sound, And it barely even picks up any sound. I am also having a problem with the system locking up while watching Netflix or Youtube in full screen, it seems to be a driver/ software problem since those are the only two I have found to cause the system to lock up, and those two are the only ones that show a problem in the event viewer.

Other Thoughts: A10-5800k Trinity
Asus F2A85-M/CSM
XFX HD6670 2GB
G.Skill Sniper 2 x 4GB DDR3 1866

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for sharing your experience with the motherboard. We're sorry for hear about the issue with onboard sound. There may be a MIC boot option with the Realtek audio device that can increase microphone volume. Regarding freeze while watching Netflix, please try updating to the latest version of Flash and video drivers from http://support.asus.com or http://support.amd.com. If you like to continue support or have other questions or concerns, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-8435 in the subject line). Thank you.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Color Scheme, Works, A85X, 7 SATA ports, PCI Slot, 4 RAM slots.

Cons: Not much. Dont like the 90 degree cables it comes with.

Other Thoughts: Build Specs are:
HP 7060N Case
This
A10-5800K
Corsair 2x4gb 1866mhz RAM
500gb, 250gb, 80gb HDD
PCI Tuner
Windows 8 w/ MC x64

Pros: Works perfectly. It's kinda nice to be able to use your mouse to set up BIOS options.

Cons: Had to call ASUS to find out how to enter the raid setup part of bios. I believe you have to hit ctrl+f during startup. Owners manual does not have this information.

Pros: It boots. everything works for the most part

Cons: I am unsure if it is a bad chip or board but my wei scores are below 6 which is much lower than my llano chip was getting.

Pros: It worked right out of the box. Lots of features.

Cons: Interference noise on the analog stereo out put. It seems tied to the HDD activity? I'm going to try updating the driver.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the audio interference issue on this motherboard. Please try to make sure that cables to the hard drive(s) are routed away from the audio I/O in the rear and reposition the drive(s) furthest away as possible. If there is still interference after trying new drivers, please contact us at 1-812-282-2787 or me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-7331) for continued support.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: - Great price.
- Overclocks an A10-5800K just fine.
- Very useful to have 2 x PCIe x16 (physical) slots - the second is only x4 electrical.
- Also like the 7 SATA ports, 1 eSATA, I'll probably use them all.
- Fast bootup.
- Bios chip is a DIP socket: easy to remove. (Eh? Yes, I'll be pulling it and making a backup copy, just in case a bios update fails.)

Cons: - SATA ports 1 through 6 are mounted in a 3x2 array facing sideways. If you have a 90-degree angle cable, it will attach POINTING DOWN, blocks the second port. If your case has room, use cables without the 90-degree angle.

- The Asus website for the "/CSM" model is usa.asus.com, and on that website, this board and the F2A55-M/CSM have nothing: no manuals, no compatibility lists, nothing. Look carefully at the photos here and you will notice the "/CSM" model is just Asus' way of guaranteeing this board will be available for a while for IT shops to buy replacement parts. The board is marked "F2A85-M" (no CSM) and you can get all the downloads on their international site, www.asus.com.

- When overclocking, the southbridge gets above 38C (the blue heatsink covered with an Asus logo). After mounting a fan on the case pointing directly at it, it's now 27C and the extra airflow will help the PCI cards.