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This board is built exceptionally well. I have built well over 50 computers using ASUS boards alone, and I have to say - this board impresses me the most. Not strictly due to features, but in the quality of manufacturing. Everything is labeled nicely, making this a breeze for the amateur. This board is not flimsy, this board is very sturdy. No flex hardly at all. Very impressed.
Black PCB looks great with newer hardware.
CPU Level Up feature, is very nice. I'm used to fiddling with overclocking, and this gave me a 20% overclock in 3 keystrokes, 100% stable. (See specs below)
There are more features in this bios, than a NewEgg catalog. You can change everything. Load balancing, fine tuned voltage adjustment, everything.
AMD chipset. Comes with "X-fi", however that is only software-enabled. The card itself is SoundMAX. Better than Realtek in terms of Quality, no EMI, something Realtek chipsets are known for. (hearing hard drive seek, etc).
LOTS of fan connectors onboard.
Depending on how you use it, there can be cons to this. It's a con for me, but it may be perfect for somebody else.
RAID. There are only 5 SATA ports on this motherboard, and one eSATA port. SATA 1-4, can either be RAID, or normal. You can't set each port individually. Therefore, you can either have RAID array(s), or regular drives. No combination of both. You can, however, set up multiple RAID arrays. I am currently running 2xWD 640GB's in RAID 0. Leaves me 2 more ports for a RAID 1, or another RAID 0.
Keep this in mind if you plan on running RAID 0 for your installation array, and only want one storage drive - you can't, unless you RAID 1 and buy a second storage drive (great security).
SoundMAX audio is great, however it'd be nice to see an ASUS Xonar card bundled instead. I don't much care for X-Fi software with a 3rd party hardware chipset. ASUS could save money, and supply a better card with their top of the line AM3 motherboard.
A GTX275 graphics card sits directly over the southbridge heatsink, with about 1/4" of space in between. This could hinder cooling of the south bridge.
SATA ports are on the edge of the motherboard, and 90 degree SATA cables will be your best friend, but only for two ports. The other two, will require straight-cable connectors.
A dedicated RAID port-set would be a great addition, so RAID arrays would be separate from the 5 SATA ports you get.
It is a very stable board, and I will recommend it to all that wish to have an AM3 gaming rig. It's stable, sturdy, lots of bios options, great performance - and features a CMOS reset button on the I/O panel. Nice feature for overclockers!
It's a shame the AMD 790FX only supports 6 SATA channels. A dedicated RAID controller on board would give this mobo the edge over the competition.
My specs: AMD Phenom 955BE @ 3.8Ghz via CPU Level Up 8GB G.SKILL RipJaws (7-7-7-24 - black) @ DDR3-1600 EVGA GTX275 Antec CPX 850W PSU
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TOP CRITICAL REVIEW
Done with Asus
Looks nice
I flashed in BIOS 1602 (Using AMD 965BE), and it is STUCK at 800 MHZ...they wrote this BIOS for 6-core users, but dumped the rest of us "old" quad-core users out as trash. There is NOTHING I can do about it until somebody from ASUS gets a clue and posts a new BIOS. I have been waiting long enough. Also, none of the software that I download for the board works. no Turbo V, no AMD Overdrive, no AI Suite. This board just doesn't work like it should.
ASUS used to be a good name, but the quality is deteriorating along with the size of their company...they do not care about retaining customers or quality as much as getting that quick buck with the eye-candy. I want something that works...goodbye, Asus / hello MSI or Gigabyte!
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