BIOSTAR TA880GU3+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: SATA3, HDMI work

Cons: Windows 7 does not wake up from sleep when USB 3.0 ASMedia XHCI Controller driver is enabled. This problem happens even after downloaded and installed the latest USB 3.0 driver and BIOS from BIOSTAR. Too bad that I have sent out the UPC barcode for rebate.

Pros: Unlocking worked right off of the bat. Plenty of OC options.

Cons: This board brought me a lot of grief. First, the rebate didn't arrive in their time frame. I had to contact them to get them to send out the rebate. When I received the rebate, I saw that it had been ready for over a month. I guess they only send it out when you contact them and request it.

The board quit working after 4 months. I could get it to power on, but it would not post. To make a long story short, I sent it in to Biostar for RMA service twice, and each time they returned it saying it was working fine. I had tested it with another CPU and power supply, so I was pretty confident it was the mobo. The board did work after letting it warm up for half an hour, but not when booting cold. I sent it in a third time, with explicit instructions to replace the board. They did, and the new one worked. But I was out a system for 2.5 months while dealing with them, and paid over a third of the board's cost in shipping.

Other Thoughts: Be aware if your case has USB3 on the front, that there are no USB3 headers on this board, and only the one PCI-E slot (so you can't even put in a USB3 card). I wasn't aware USB3 headers aren't compatible with USB2 headers, and so am stuck with useless front USB slots. This isn't the board's fault, it's mine (most of these lower end boards don't have USB3 headers).

The board works fine when it is running, but after spending months without my system for a problem that was clearly on their end, I won't be buying Biostar again any time soon.

Pros: Great bang for the buck when I bought it. Every component I've connected has worked on the first try. It was easy to install, and the onboard video worked well for HD movie files and some *extremely* light gaming until I upgraded.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: Sata 6 - great SSD boot time with windows 7
USB 3
Micro Atx for small cases
One video card slot - only dweebs need more than that
59$ with the 10$ rebate - no other mobo sat 6/usb3 mobo that cheap

Cons: Only thing so far is the bios fan speed control needs some trial and error to get settings right to get fan to auto ramp up to max when cpu approaches 50, but did get there. Also in order to get 1600 ddr3 ram speed need to manually set DRAM timings and change the NBFID to 2400 Mhz under cpu tuning. I have read this is an amd mobo issue in general, not a biostar issue. No biggy if u willing to tweak a couple settings. My pc did not run stable at 1600 speed till I set the 2400mhz. Now is stable with prime 95 for 4 hours at 50 degree cpu temp. Been gaming for days now , no hangs or lockups.

Other Thoughts: Heres how to role a budget gamer. Decide you don't want a big case and get a micro atx case with good airflow. Decide you wont ever need to do crossfire and one video card will do, so get a micro atx mobo. Get a good cpu fan like zalman 9500. Top off with a nice price ZOSMA black edition cpu (i set the corefid multipler to 16 to get mild overclock of 3.2ghz). Be so proud of your cheapness you splurge on a nice 60gb sata III ssd for your OS drive and some 1600 ddr3 memory. Get a really good video card with your cpu/mobo savings. I did not get a new vc yet and am using an old GTS 250. Star Wars The Old Republic frame rate of 90 fps. Just fine for the money. Newegg needs to stock more cards like this for budget game rig people like me and any other folks tired of too big desktop cases. VERY happy so far with this board. Oh yeah, tried the bios unlocker feature core leveling under cpu tuning and was able to get one more core to unlock for 5 total. Number 6 didn't work. Good deal.

Pros: Overclocking
USB 3.0
HDMI* (with big caveat)

Cons: Audio is only capable of 2 channel (stereo) over an HDMI cable. So if you want surround sound, you're looking at the analog jacks. So the benefit of the built in graphics and surround audio was totally negated for my HTPC build; had to buy a new graphics card.

Other Thoughts: I can't find any documentation warning of what I consider to be a severe limitation on the audio. I was trying to make a nice budget HTPC with a large degree of scalability; had I known this, more likely than not I would have gone with a different configuration.

Pros: Onboard Video includes VGA, DVI, & HDMI. RAID 0,1,5,10,JBOD. 4 DDR3 Slots RAID 10 was fairly simple to set up. Automatic and Manual Overclocking settings in the BIOS.

Cons: This is not necessarily a con, but could cause a bit of head ache if it's overlooked. The initial BIOS settings has the "BIOS Unlocking" feature Enabled which allows two additional cores on some AMD quad core processors to be unlocked; however, this can cause system instability with certain processors. The AMD Phenom II X4 960T processor that I am running disagreed with this setting, and I received frequent blue screens from Windows 7 Pro x64. I would recommend clearing the CMOS right out of the box.

Other Thoughts: I am using this board for a file server for a small 12 person company. Windows 7 Pro x64 is loaded onto a 250GB, 7200rpm Seagate drive and four 1TB 7200rpm Seagate drives are in a RAID 10 Configuration. If anyone is setting up a RAID config and experience that some of the drive are not showing up in the RAID Setup screen, try disabling the SATA IDE Combo Mode in the SB Configuration.

Specs: 550w Antec PSU, AMD Phenom II X4 960T, 2x4GB G.Skill DDR3 1333, OS drive - 250GB, 7200rpm Seagate, Storage drive - four 1TB, 7200rpm Seagate, COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel Case, LG 12x BlueRay RE Burner

Pros: On paper the capabilities of the board are good

Cons: DoA, which by the reviews seems a little more common than most.

Other Thoughts: RMA'd to new egg, was going to get a replacement but they were out of stock so I got a different board instead.

Pros: It came in a pretty box. I'm sure the features would be great if the board worked.

Cons: After a very careful installation I powered the system on to start the installation and was met with a blank stare from my display. Switched to DVI, still nothing. Heard fans spinning, looked inside case, CPU fan was NOT spinning. Checked LED diagnostic indicators, showed "abnormal: CPU or Chipset. Placed different test CPU in. nothing. also spent time troubleshooting RAM and reseated everything... Reset CMOS jumper. nothing. Board is dead and now I have a disappointed/upset customer. Thanks for screwing with my credibility, BIOSTAR.

Pros: Easy setup. Recognized all my hardware properly and was up and running in no time. 4 Dimms, had all the features I needed. Decent overclocking features. Win 7 installed and was quickly.

Cons: Onboard video is bare minimum. Difficult BIOS to navigate to figure out how to disable onboard video and enable pci-express video. It's there, just takes some exploring. Should have someone with English as their first language write the BIOS and the manual, although they can add some amusement to your life.

Other Thoughts: After I installed my 9800Gt (old cardI had laying around) video score went from 4.6 to 7.0 in win 7. Quick delivery from Newegg. My hardware:
AMD 960T, G Skill 2X4 g 1333, Liteon dvd, Samsung 1TB

Pros: Supports six core processor, USB 3.0, and six SATA ports

Cons: First one came broken, wouldn't show hard drive in BIOS with any SATA ports, cables power, etc. It did show the CD drive though, in case anyone else runs into this problem. Tech support was a joke. I got the same guy twice calling in and he was pathetic. I ended up getting it RMAd through Biostar which offers a (three year?) long warranty (I didn't have box to return to Newegg).

On a completely different note, it has no mouse port, in case anyone cares. I don't because I use a USB keyboard.

Other Thoughts: Rig:
Case: Raidmax Smilodon ATX-612WB with extra fan
Power Supply: Rosewill BRONZE Series 1000W
Motherboard: BIOSTAR TA880GU3+
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
Hard Drives: Seagate Barracuda 1TB and Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
Graphics Card: HIS IceQ X Turbo Radeon HD 6790
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 (PC3 12800) (4x4GB)
DVD/CD Drive: LITE-ON DVD/CD Burner

Ended up getting a new one and it's a good solid board. If it weren't for the DOA and terrible service, I would give it a 5*.