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

Pros: Feature rich, even for a smaller size board. It's really not lacking anything I'll miss. The new BIOS is very attractive and super easy to use. I also like ASUS software utilities for Windows. Very very easy to setup. No compatibility issues whatsoever. Installed with 8GB GSKILL 1333 RAM and an AMD A10-5600K. Result: Simple build for a smoking fast computer.

Cons: Not one.

Other Thoughts: I have enjoyed and recommended ASUS for years and with this latest install have many more reasons to continue doing so.

Pros: Easy to install in case, UEFI

Cons: No audio on the HDMI, not sure how to fix that...

Pros: Worked fine since I wanted nothing fancy.

Cons: Maybe the fancy mobo would have lasted me longer than 7 months.

Other Thoughts: Take your chances at your own risk.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Cusotmer,

Sorry to hear that your MB died after 7 months. Looks like you will have to send the mother board in for service for us to repair it for you. Just go to service.asus.com

What is the problem that you are facing?

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: Board POSTed fine. BIOS were easy to setup for a RAID 1. I was able to see all drives in the BIOS.

Cons: It seems the SATA controller was defective on this board. Windows 7 could not negotiate the SATA drivers. I got the DVD/CD drivers not recognized. New drivers did not work. Tried several suggested strategies from the net. ASUS was very good and after 3 tries they recommended a return.

Other Thoughts: I did some research and thought this board would be fine for me. I am not a gamer but I appreciate good, efficient processing.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear about your experience with the motherboard. Were the DVD/CD drives connected to SATA ports 5, 6, or 7? These ports need to be changed to IDE in UEFI to allow disc drives to be recognized during OS installation. Default setting is AHCI. When they are set to AHCI, drives connected to these ports will appear in OS after driver install. As an alterntaive, please try plugging all drives in ports 1 to 4, set Onchip SATA Type to RAID, install SATA driver in OS environment, then plug disc drive back to ports 5, 6, or 7. f you have an questions or need additional support, please feel free to contact me below. 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 motherboard is so nicely engineered! It's elegant, well laid out, Ultra tough, adheres to certain Military specs, Fast in every way assuming you mate the right components with it, such as 16GB DDR3 2000+, A10 APU, and super fast SSD. Windows 8 (g a w d help it) is nearly instantaneously fast, booting every application in a blink and the OS so fast... The graphical Bios interface makes system optimization so easy and, well, fun to do. Wonderfully future proof, with DDR3 2133 possible bus, CrossFire, two PCI-e slots, ability to use PCI-e SSD, USB3...

Cons: Not really a con but USB 3 performance could be a little better, updated drivers may be all that is needed... There are a few things in the Bios that need more explanation...

Other Thoughts: For those looking for real computing value WITHOUT almost any compromise! Best used with A10-5800K, with a minimum 4 pipe, heatpipe cooler, minimum 8GB DDR3 1600 or higher (16GB recommended for Win8-65 Pro), BEST used with a 500MBps SSD for SATA6 (for OS & apps)...

Pros: Good value, solid performance.

Cons: On board video not the best.

Other Thoughts: Purchase this board as a upgrade for my HTPC. The performance, and usability of the board is really good. The layout of I/O was a bit challenging. More specifically the SATA connectors. I have an ANTEC Fusion and I had to get creative in order to connect the hard drives. I initially thought that I would be fine with the onboard video especially having an HDMI output. However, when I got the machine up and running, I could not get the video resolution to cover my entire 60 inch display. It was like the maximum I could get out of it left the TV in standard definition, even after installing the latest driver. I ended up plugging my old Nvidia card back in and the proper resolution was set immediately.

Pros: This thing was easy to install, looks cool, and works perfect. Tons of features I don't understand, but when I wanted to know something it was easy to look up in the manual.

Cons: None

Pros: Fits in a nice small case. HDMI and USB3. Built it for my father-in-law and he loves it.

Very user friendly UFEI bios.

Cons: Board we received will only use 4GB. All diagnostics and information show 2 x 4 GB of RAM. UFEI Bios shows 4 GB. Go into UFEI bios and detailed information and shows 2 4 GB sticks. Updated to latest bios and did not fix. Also windows Shows 8 GB installed but only 4 useable on windows 7 64 bit.

Other Thoughts: Good budget build board. Still confused why it would show 8GB of detailed ram but only 4 GB of useable.

Pros: Full featured board in a Micro ATX form factor. This is the perfect HTPC board. The A10 Trinity processors memory controller handles memory speeds up to 1866 Mhz without overclocking and with a simple BIOS adjustment my G Skill memory runs at it's rated speed.
I love the UEFI bios and I have my reset switch on my case plugged in to the direct bios plug so I have direct acces to bios. This is a feature I found more useful than I thought I would. I love it.

Cons: none but it seems that every time I buy a MB for someone else's build a PC speaker is included but once again I build a machine for myself and no PC speaker came with this board. No beep with the button...

Other Thoughts: I have this installed in a Silverstone Gandia HTPC case with an AMD A10 5700 Trinity 65 watt quad core processor. 2 X 4 GB of G Skill 1866 Mhz memory, an Ocz Vertex 4 128 GB SSD and a Seasonic 80 Plus Gold 360 watt PSU. It is a great build that runs cool and quiet. The only alteration I made was that I replaced the stock HSF with a stock 100 watt HSF from another A10 I had extra. My HTPC case leaves little room for an aftermarket cooler but the larger 100 watt HSF does a great job. I stay in the mid 30's C.
For now I am using just the SSD but I have a spare WD Cavier Black I will add it for storage if it becomes necessary. With Win 8 installed and the most common programs I still have plenty of room left over for now.

Pros: mATX,A85X Hudson D4 chipset,lots of features and tweaking available in the UEFI bios,plenty of SATA ports,4 total fan connectors (including CPU). BIOS lets you use mouse & keyboard. It also boots very fast. Virtu MVP graphics switching to save energy.

Cons: None!

Other Thoughts: The Asus UEFI interface may be a bit tricky to navigate if you are used to a conventional BIOS,so be sure to read the included instruction book,it was very helpful for me. My Gskill 1866Mhz ram was detected as 1600Mhz,All I had to do was enable D.O.C.P and select the 1866Mhz profile. The Asus Q-Fan is excellent while using the silent profile,and AI Tweaker lets you customize nearly everything. Updating the UEFI firmware was easy.

The included free "Medal of Honor:Limited Edition" game i received was damaged and completely broken in shipping. I really would have loved to try the game on my new 5800K but oh well,it isn't Newegg's fault and it was free anyways so not enough to dock an egg.