ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: OK--- I am an old guy (62) who puts together computers for myself and family. Up until now I have used Gigabyte boards and have never really had a problem but the board on my computer was dying (3 memory slots dead, gasping for breath on the 4th) and I decided to try a different company. This board has a couple of little things that really make things easier. It has 9 screw holes, and they all line up to the holes in my Cooler Master case! It's a little thing, but something that Gigabyte hadn't yet mastered on my last build, or previous builds. I always hated putting in the front panel connections. This board has something called a Q connector. It is fantastic...just plug the tiny little wires into the Q (which you can do right in front of you) and it's easy to then plug the Q into the board. That feature alone would make me buy ASUS.

Cons: I hate it when people put in a con for a feature that should have been obvious before they bought the product, but it sort of happened to me on this one. I didn't realize it had no place for a floppy, but then the more I thought about it, I hadn't used a floppy in over 2 years, so why do I need it? The only real con I have is that I was hoping the internal graphics would cross fire with my ATI graphic card. I tried looking it up to see if it was compatible and gave up in frustration, so I just bought it and hoped for the best. It turns out it isn't one of the compatible cards.

Overall Review: The overclocking on this board is so much easier than a Giga board that it is unbelievable. The only difficulty is that there are so many ways to overclock it is difficult to choose one. I opted for what I think is the easiest, and it couldn't be any easier. ANYBODY who can use the arrow keys in the bios could do it. I have a Phenom IIX4 945 3.0 ghz. I could choose to up it to the level of several other models. I decided not to be too greedy and picked 3.4ghz instead of the highest choice (3.6) So far it is running at 3.4 without any problems. Yes, I am an old guy, but I like to play games, so the extra speed is nice.

Pros: Supports USB3, SATA3, has external SATA3 connection, and truly useful on-board video. Manual is clear and helpful.

Cons: Two consecutive boards were faulty - first would not post at all, second had three bad memory slots out of four.

Email tech support is unhelpful and phone-in tech support will be you waiting on hold for a while, on your own dime (no 800 number for MB tech support).

Overall Review: I have used many ASUS motherboards with never a problem. I am concerned that ASUS has abandoned their old quality standards in favor of cheap prices.