MSI K9VGM-V AM2 VIA K8M890 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Great performance, MSI brand, cables included.

Cons: The deduction of one egg was only due to MSI's failure to include 3 plastic motherboard "feet" for a board that does not match the generic screw patterns found in 99% of all cases these days. This leaves the IDE and power cables unsupported from underneath, so be careful not to crack/break motherboard with pressure when connecting IDE, power, and LED cables. When I find some extra "feet", I'm disassembling my tower and installing them.
No onboard front firewire support.

Overall Review: Why can't motherboard manufacturers include a matching aluminum face-plate (back panel) for the board purchased?
Additionally, whoever theorized "one face-plate (back panel) to rule them all" should be held accoutable for all wounds caused during installation or removal of additional port covers.

Pros: It's inexpensive. It works once you figure out what to turn off in the BIOS.

Cons: The BIOS is amazingly short of features. Why did they omit the ability to turn the sound card on/off? That's EXTREMELY annoying.

As with every other motherboard I've ever bought, the BIOS features are severely under documented. I couldn't get the system to boot until I started turning stuff on/off (and I forgot what I actually did to get it to work).

Overall Review: I got this to build a system for my sister(she's in New Mexico, I'm in Texas). I saw that someone else said that to enable the sound, you have to jumper some pins on the board.

I now have to find out which pins to jumper to get the sound to work, and then try to guide my non-technically-minded sister in how to find the pins to see if they're already jumpered. Not only that, but I have to send her a jumper via snail mail because MSI didn't provide the required jumper.

If it turns out that the motherboards sound stuff is broken, it will be less hassle just to buy a sound card instead of getting a replacement motherboard. I am pretty sure I can talk my sister through installing a sound card, but installing a motherboard is WAY over her head, and I'm not inclined to have here ship the system back to me so I can do it.

I certainly wouldn't buy one of these for myself.