Pros: Ultra fast bus speeds, DDR3 ram, the layout works fine for me. I studied the board hard before I got it to make sure it would work for my application, as an amatuer gamer. I think this board is pretty much maxed out for the Intel Core 2 platform. I'm running an E8400 with 4gb of OCZ Reaper 1800mhz DDR3 and an XFX 9800 GT for video, and in GTA 4 I benchmarked 38 fps, 10 higher than with my last mobo with an E7200, the same graphics and 4gb ddr2 800mhz ram. I hope to get another gfx card to try out the SLI someday... Oh, yeah, so I read the instruction manual, did what they said, took my time plugging everything in, routing the wires and zip-tying everything, got a bad*ss Arctic Cool CPU fan, and posted fine, loaded Vista Ultimate with no problem... figured out the RAM timing and now it's all good. I've been running it everyday for two weeks, no issues.

Cons: People always complain about the right angled SATA plugs. They were kind of an issue in my Ultra X-Blaster case, right up next to the sideways mounted hard drive cage. I PROBABLY could just go buy right angled SATA cables, but I just used the other 4 SATA plugs on the board for my dual DVD burners and 2 Hitachi 500 gb hard drives. I don't blame EVGA though, I'm the one who picked the Ultra case. It's got the clear side panel so I can watch my CPU fan spin. It makes my computer look kind of like an aquarium.

Overall Review: With this board and my setup, Doom 2 looks UNBELIEVEABLE.