Intel BOXDP45SG LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Modern configuration, supporting newest Intel processors and DDR3 RAM with P45 chipset. Plenty of SATA and USB. Legacy-free (no floppy, IDE, PS/2, serial, parallel). Easily overclockable. Stable.

Cons: Legacy-free could also be a con depending on your setup but it wasn't a problem for me. The RAM I originally bought (OCZ Platinum) would not POST in this board, but the Corsair XMS3 that I got to replace it works very well.

Overall Review: My system is this board with a Q9550 (at 3.2GHz), 4GB of Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333, two WD VelociRaptors in RAID 0 on a HighPoint 2300 card, an eVGA 8800GT, an OCZ 700W PSU, and an NEC Optiarc SATA DVD-RW.

Pros: No legacy connectors. Very little fluff. Good, basic, non-overclocker's board.

Cons: - Under Vista Ultimate (x64), drives connected to the eSATA port on the back do not get recognized as external or removable after the machine has entered and exited sleep mode. Without having slept, there's no problem. I confirmed this with 3 separate drives in 2 external enclosures.
- The Dolby Control Center software doesn't exist in a 64-bit version. I searched Intel's site and the web in general and found nothing. Intel doesn't even know when there will be a 64-bit version.
- The Intel Desktop Control Center software isn't available for the current BIOS. According to the web site: "The current BIOS release for Intel Desktop Board DP45SG does not support the Intel Desktop Control Center. A new version of the Intel Desktop Control Center will be posted here when a compatible BIOS becomes available."
- The Intel Integrator Assistant software isn't available for 64-bit versions of either Vista or XP.

Overall Review: If you want to avoid problems, USE ONLY 1.5 VOLT DDR3. If you use anything that's rated above 1.5 volts, you'll just end up with trouble (the manual specifically says 1.5 volt, but the list of tested memory from the board's web site does have a few models that are rated higher). I used a 2GB kit of plain old ordinary Kingston 1066 memory (KVR1066D3N7K2/2G) and have had no problems (except as noted above). Since I don't overclock or do anything fancy, this board is exactly what I need. If Intel fixes the eSATA problem, gets us a Desktop Control Center, and produces a 64-bit Dolby Control Center (why would Intel not do all software development on 64-bit systems?), I'd be overjoyed with the board.