GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: This is all you need in an X58 motherboard as long as you don't want to do SLI. No frills, no nonsense, and all the functionality you could want. Didn't have any problems with compatibility or functionality with this motherboard. Started right up the first time. No bugs, which is more than I can say for some of these other more expensive X58 motherboards that are currently available. Gigabyte seems to have the X58 well figured out. Seems to be really stable. Everything benchmarks with expected results. Very detailed and plentiful overclocking options. Enough slots for future expansion. Plenty of ports. Good online support. No fan on the northbridge. Being able to use my old Audigy 2 sound card saved me some money. It has 2 BIOS' which is great for ensuring the board's longevity.

Cons: The main cons and the reasons this is so inexpensive is because it only has 4 RAM slots and it only supports ATI Crossfire, no Nvidia SLI. Since I have an ATI video card I don't see this as a problem and hopefully I'll be able to upgrade before 6GB of RAM becomes insufficient. Also, no eSATA. I see this type of connection becoming very popular in the future so it would be nice if this motherboard had one or two. I guess I can always get an eSATA bracket. One last thing: it didn't detect my RAM's settings correctly; I had to set them manually.

Overall Review: I don't know if this problem was caused by the motherboard or what, but at first there was this quiet but high pitched whine coming intermittently from the computer. It would only happen when I went from idle to working, like opening a web page for example. I thought it might have something to do with my power supply, but regardless of that I decided to upgrade the BIOS on this board to the F3 version and the whine stopped. Take that as you will.

Things in my computer:
1. Intel i7 920 @ 2.66Ghz
2. This motherboard
3. 6GB (3x2GB) G.Skill model #F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ
4. WD Velociraptor 300GB
5. SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 (1GB of RAM)
6. Antec NeoPower 650 Watt PSU

Bottom line: If you're only going to be using one video card or if you prefer ATI and you don't mind the fewer RAM slots, this motherboard is a perfect choice for a X58 platform. Huge value in this board when others of similar quality cost a lot more money.

Pros: Looks nice, solid construction.

Cons: I ended up getting 2 of these, both ended up doing the same thing: power would stay on for 2-3 seconds and then it would turn off, and then turn back on for another 2-3 seconds, rinse & repeat. No BIOS, no beeps. Pretty much burned a month of downtime with the replacement and eventual return of the replacement and turned all my new components into expensive paperweights. I now have an ASRock X58 Extreme and have no issues with the board.

Overall Review: It seems really strange that 2 boards would have the exact same issue out of the box. I considered that the other components I bought could be the cause, however they we're all compatible components (I even called Gigabyte and confirmed this), and they are all working right now on my ASRock board.