Pros: a small form factor mobo from ASUS. It has everything you need. It has vga, dvi and hdmi output. It does nice job with dual screens. a great board for a budget build.

Cons: none

Pros: Fits. looks pretty.
Bought another one after in hopes I can beat the odds and get one that works

Cons: DOA obviously and the backplate requires some tooling to fit right. watch for metal fins trying to stick in your HDMI and USB3 sockets from the panel.

Other Thoughts: seems to have all the features needed and appears to have decent build quality. Possible that I am just unlucky but I have yet to see whether the DOA board took any of my other components with it to my ever growing box of dead parts.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Bradley,

I am sorry that your motherboard was DOA. How long have you had this board for and is it still within Newegg’s return policy? If so, you should return it and get a replacement. If you happen to be outside the return policy, contact me at cl-justin@asus.com and I will do my best to help you with your problem. For your reference, use this case number when replying to me N150638284

Regards,
Justin
ASUS Customer Loyalty.

Pros: Good little FM2 board.

Affordable

Good features for the price.

MUST UPDATE BIOS to work with 860k. (Separate CPU needed)

Cons: Must Update bios to work with 860k. Without a bios update the system won't POST. Luckily I keep a dual core a4-6300'around to test. After updating bios to newest version 860k and video card worked like a chArm. Without that backup CPU that could have been a mess. Since then system has been up for 2 weeks without issue, no BSOD , lock ups, or hang.

Since I only bought one board I have no way to know if I just got an old in stock one with old bios, or if others ship with newer bios.

Other Thoughts: It's a motherboard. It came undamaged, and in working order.

Upon first boot the system wouldn't POST w/ the 860k and Radeon 7870. After ensuring everything was properly seated and still not POSTING I took out the video card and cpu and swapped in an A4-6300 I keep around for trouble shooting. System posted booted no issue. I then updated the BIOS.......the one that shipped didn't support the 860k out of the box.

After updating the BIOS and swapping back the 860k and Radeon 7870 the system boot and POSTed without issue. If you don't have a spare CPU to do the swap and purchased the 860k you would be in deep trouble.

After 2 weeks this system is more then stable and no other issues were ever had. Board remained cool, under load.

Board also overclocked well. Got the 860k stable at 4.4 ghz 24/7 on Coolmaster 212 EVO.



To the reviewer who couldn't get his ram to run at 2400 MHz. The memory controller on the A4-6300 is capped at 1600 MHz. If you used a Higher A8/A10 your ram would run at rated speed. You can still overclocked the IGP and CPU cores on the A4-6300, but to get your ram to run at 2400 will not happen on that chip.

Pros: Works fine. BIOS was easy to update within built-in utility

Cons: Have not been able to get my RAM (G.Skill Trident X 2400MHz @ CAS 10) to run at rated speed or even close to it, just 1600MHz @ CAS 10. Will update review after I sort it out.

Other Thoughts: A6300
A58M-A/USB3
Trident X 2400 MHz CAS 10 2x4GB
550 Ti
Tt 700W
Mounted to the wall.

Pros: + Very low price is the major Pro of this board
+ Couple that with Asus' legendary build quality and attention to detail.
+ Full suite of Asus programs such as AISuite III and AICharger set this budget board above many others.
+ Excellent UEFI BIOS
+ USB 3.0
+ Adequate space between APU socket and RAM slots allowed me to use a Zalman CNPS7000V(AL) cooler [N82E16835118139].
*Low-profile RAM heatsinks required.

Cons: - SATA II ports only! You will not attain the full performance potential from any current generation SATA 3 (6GB/s) SSD with this motherboard. You will be limited to about 256 GB/s max.
- Lacks a USB 3.0 header on the motherboard
- Only has two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports on the I/O block. Just 4 total USB ports on the motherboard is woefully slim pickings in this day and age.
- Only one case fan header on the motherboard. At least 2 (one for intake fan and one for exhaust) would have been nice.
- Lacked a Q-connector contrary to what the specifications state.
- A 2-slot GPU covers up the PCIe X1 slot which leaves only the legacy PCI slot available for expansion. It would have been much better to reverse the position of those two slots. How often will someone need a PCI slot vs. a PCIe?

Other Thoughts: I purchased this board along with an A4-6300 APU as a combo deal to use in a budget system. The BIOS version as shipped was 0307. It was a very simple matter to update the BIOS to v1301. The 4GB kit of G.Skill Eco DDR3 1600 RAM [N82E16820231319] was automatically and correctly recognized.

I was surprised when the OCZ Arc 100 SSD [N82E16820228116] benchmarked out in the 250-ish GB/s range when it's capable of nearly double that.. That's when I realized the board doesn't support SATA 3. :( It's SATA ports are labeled SATA 3G that, while clear and accurate this labeling is somewhat confusing given that SATA 3 (6G) is the current standard. Obviously a budget user would not likely notice the performance difference between 3G and 6G. Just be aware of this limitation.

I re-purposed an old EVGA 8800 GTS graphics card for use in this system. It covers the PCIe X1 slot which necessitated replacing the PCIe WiFi card we already had with a PCI WiFi card. This effectively raised the price of the build $20 (Try and find a PCI WiFi card that has Win 8 drivers!). Had I paid closer attention I could have spent that $20 on a better board with SATA 3 support and better expansion slot layout.

All in all I'm happy with the build for use as a general purpose, light gaming rig on a low budget. Keep in mind where this board sits in the market (general use/budget computing), the SATA limitation, and the slot layout. You should be happy too.

Pros: Conducts electricity

Cons: Does not provide video output from the motherboard. HDMI and VGA output non-functional.

Other Thoughts: Should have trusted the other reviews. Purchased with a bundle.

Pros: None.

Cons: After everything is connected I tried to power up the computer but there is no signal coming out of the VGA port. I bought a separate graphic card, plugged it in and again tried to power up the computer and still nothing come out of the VGA port of this graphic card. Therefore my conclusion is that this board is defective.

Manufacturer Response:

Greetings TX Geek,

I am sorry to hear that you experienced issues with displaying video on your motherboard. Was the monitor you used tested working prior to also trying the graphics card? At your earliest convenience, please contact me through email, including your reference number within the subject line, and we can discuss this case further. In addition, please provide me with what troubleshooting steps you have tried, as well as the rest of the systems hardware configuration such as your CPU and including your motherboard's serial number. Thank you. Cs#N141272308

Regards,

Lou
ASUS Customer Loyalty
cc-lou@asus.com

Pros: Can't tell. DOA

Cons: DOA

Other Thoughts: Never had a DOA motherboard. Guess there is a first time for everything.