Pros: READ THE OTHER THOUGHTS SECTION. Powered up fine, BIOS upgrade (via CD) was easy, but I had the CD ready at build. Most recent BIOS is barely a month old, which I consider evidence of good support. Haven't really done much with it yet; bought it to try to run BSD (at which I am very new), but wanted to mention a recent upgrade of the board. Will post another review when I have more of substance to write.

Cons: Not much of a con, but if you are planning to get this board, go the Intel site and get the docs and updates beforehand. The board comes packaged with a nice big foldout picture guide, as another review stated, and a very thoughtful set of stickers (including a large one of the board layout), but no manual as such (there is one at the Intel site). Documentation is not bad, but will not hold your hand. Beginners beware.

Overall Review: According to the Desktop Board Specification Update of July 2009 at the Intel site, as of rev. 506 the DQ45CB now supports 16Gb of onboard memory. I received rev. 507 in late August 2009, and the board packaging stated support for 16Gb. Haven't tried 16Gb, but 8Gb of Mushkin 991587 seems to be doing well. Also, the update states that memory voltage can now be set above 1.8v. I'm not sure how much above, and haven't tried it. I thought prospective buyers might like to know these things. :)

Pros: Solid RAM for the type it is, memtest86+ likes it. Crucial modules I've had before seems to be good.

Cons: Not fully compatible with older sticks of the same P/N. I bought this to upgrade an older box that already had a stick of Crucial CT6464Z0B in it, and bought this partly to maintain dual-channel memory mode. This new CT6464Z40B runs fine, but only in single-channel mode; it won't dual-channel with the older CT6464Z40B. Now, some of the other numbers on the old stick are different, but who knows what they mean? Not me. I guess I need to buy another stick of this CT6464Z40B and put the old stick of CT6464Z40B on [online auction site that must not be named] or something. Wish I'd known about that.

Overall Review: I'm sure this is somehow self-evident to the more alpha geeks among you, but I matched the (more complete) specs I had printed on the old stick to the (less-complete) spec listed on Newegg (less) and still no dual-channel. Thanks to Newegg for the incentive to increase my knowledge of RAM memory modules.

Pros: It works well with the Microsoft optical mouse that came bundled with the keyboard below.

Cons: Does not work with Microsoft model 600 keyboard, either through a Startech "Starview" KVM _or_ plugged into the normal keyboard port. Unfortunately, a keyboard adapter was what I needed. Fortunately, I had a PS/2 keyboard on hand.

Overall Review: Startech needs to change the color and the designation, I am thinking.