Joined on 11/20/08
Great board for Core i5 overclocking
Pros: * Excellent value for the features and the quality. * Excellent documentation. * Large number of positive reviews of this mobo on-line. * Lots of material written on how to overclock this board. * Runs my Core i5 750 overclocked at 3.2 GHz with no problems. Very stable. * Q-Design mobo features made connections easy for my large hands and fingers. * ASUS Crystal Sound is excellent. Works with Win7, iTunes, Call of Duty 4 with no issues and sounds great! * Fit into my Antec Sonata Elite ATX case with no issues. * More SATA and USB connections then I ever envision using.
Cons: * Different BIOS version drastically alter BIOS menus, so documentation isn't always useful. * Heat sink over the Intel P55 chip (with ASUS logo on it) has a thin plastic protective coating that you need to remove. Manual doesn't state this anywhere. * Its a relatively small and compact mobo, so everything is a tight fit. Many CPU coolers block one of the DIMM slots, so keep that in mind if you want more than 2 DIMMs. * If you don't manually specify the DRAM voltage in the BIOS, the auto-tuning will exceed the recommended limit of 1.65V. Be careful. * Turbo-V overclocking software (in Windows) doesn't seem to be aware of overclocking settings in BIOS. They keep resetting each others values. Use one or the other, but not both. I used Turbo-V to experiment and learn, then I strictly used BIOS for overclock settings.
Overall Review: * I wasn't a complete noob, but relatively inexperienced at system building and overclocking. I was surprised how quickly I got my Core i5 overclocked with this mobo and how its tools and features made it easy for me. * ASUS Crystal Sound is excellent. I was expecting to need a sound card, but Win7, iTunes and COD4 sound is outstanding with no errors. Modern Warfare 2 is giving me some popping sounds which I haven't troubleshooted yet, but I'm certain I'll figure it out.
No updates in ages, poor multi-device support
Pros: Nice management and feature set
Cons: Weak 802.11n signal. Flaky. constantly stops working requiring a DHCP release/renew or reboot to get working again. Doesn't seem to support multiple wireless devices well No firmware updates in ages.
Overall Review: I've had this wireless router for well over a year. I purchased it to support the growing number of wireless devices in my household. Many of which are Apple products which my older wireless router wouldn't support. Initially, it worked well and I liked the management features of the router. The 802.11n feature was extremely disappointing as 15 feet away the signal was very, very weak, so we continued to use 802.11g. However, over the past few months, it has become highly un-reliable. It constantly stops all wireless traffic and I'm forced to release/renew the DHCP lease or reboot the router to get it working again. The "attached devices" feature has stopped working entirely. Either the number of devices accessing it has grown to be too many (~15) or something else is failing. To make matters worse, NetGear hasn't released a firmware update in ages, so its not likely to ever be fixed. I wouldn't recommend this router. Look at newer routers designed to support large number of simultaneous devices and better traffic management. Also, determine if they're known for releasing constant bug fixes and updates.
Works great in my Dell XPS L702X (2-SODIMMs)
Pros: Very high capacity per 204-pin SODIMM. Allows my 2-SODIMM slot laptop to run with 16 GB of RAM! Affordable price and Very fast. Scores 7.6 on my Windows Experience Index.
Cons: NewEgg is focing me to list a con, but in reality I don't see any cons. The price was very reasonable given how much high-performance RAM you're getting in such a small form factor.
Overall Review: I was upset when I realized my Dell XPS L702x only had 2-SODIMM slots. At the time, 2 x 4 GB sticks were all I could afford so I was limited to 8 GB of RAM. Thanks to the price coming down considerably, I can now run with 16 GB of RAM! This is important as I run multiple VMs simultaneously along with Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and other applications. The additional RAM will allow me to run more VMs at once.
Great price for high quality
Pros: Great price. Easy installation. Compatible with my ThinkPad T400. Excellent performance and reliability so far.
Cons: None so far.
Works great with Win7
Pros: Great price. Very fast and easy installation. Works with Windows 7 64-bit. External attena helps to get best signal possible. Management software appears to be very robust and provides a lot of detail.
Cons: None so far.
Overall Review: I followed the advice of others and just downloaded the latest driver from the web site. I did not use the included CD-ROM. Everything went great.
Good video card for the money
Pros: Attractive price for the performance. Excellent quality. Large, but not massive size PCIe card. Variable speed fan is very quiet when not playing games. Runs Modern Warfare 1 & 2 at reasonably good resolutions with all effects cranked-up. Comes with a very good overclocking utility.
Cons: Will be quickly outdated and ready for an upgrade by the time you read this review. Only supports DirectX 10.
Overall Review: Purchased this card for a budget gaming rig I designed this Chirstmas. After reading reviews on Tom's Hardware, realized that it was a good value based on its price/performance. Easily fits in my Antec Sonata Elite mid-tower case, so I wouldn't be overly concerned about it not fitting in most quality cases. Runs great with Modern Warfare 1 & 2.