ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: I have never overclocked anything before. This motherboard automatically did the work for me. When I powered my build up the first time it automatically unlocked a core on my CPU and set automatic overclock settings for my CPU and RAM. Its been running smooth with no problems.

Cons: Only two memory slots on the board, which limits future upgrade potential.

Overall Review: paired with an AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor Model ADX435WFGIBOX

it runs as a quad core phenom II with no problems.

Pros: A decent board for the price. Unlocked my triple core 2.9 without me having to do much thinking. At my age, (60), alot of thinking is painful. The only problem that I had was giving the onboard video to much to eat. I gave it a full gig of system memory and it went wild, BSOD, etc. After I cut memory down to half a gig the video became as stable as an add on video card that breaks the bank cost wize. Not as good as the old Abit boards, but a good solid board for the money.

Cons: Not much in the way of cons. Hey, you get what you pay for. Newbies, read the manual front to back before you start plugging stuff in. Spare yourself the pain.

Overall Review: In 20 years of buying Asus boards, I have yet to have one go bad before it's time. I just retired an Asus board that I used for 6 years without any trouble.