ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP <GREEN> LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Read other reviews about features. Lots of good overclocking options. Asus' customer service is excellent.

Cons: Not compatible with Core 2 Duo x6800 Extreme edition out of the box. Newegg shipped me a board with bios version 0502 which is not compatible with the x6800. Can't use EZ bios flasher feature because computer cannot post. If using this processor, you will not be able to update the bios unless you have another 775 socket CPU that you can put in the board first. You have to put in another 775 processor, update the bios, and then swap out CPUs to use your x6800.

This isn't much of a problem though because Asus will ship you a new bios chip for free. Just call them up when you order this board and request bios version 0902 if using the x6800 CPU.

Overall Review: Called up Asus to complain and they immediately fixed my problem by sending me a new bios chip free of charge (no shipping charge either!). All you have to do is pop it out and put the new bios chip in and you can use an x6800 CPU. If you order this motherboard, call up Asus and request the chip. I was shocked by how helpful they were, but maybe I am just jaded after having to deal with Dell's customer service and their XPS 700 vaporware.

Pros: High-performance board with lots of features. It supports DDR2-800 (even though the chipset does not); mine ran fine, though I had to manually set the speed. There are far more SATA ports than I will ever need. Onboard sound is decent, and the jack sensing/retasking is a great idea. Dual onboard NICs saved me from buying them separately. Remote is a nice touch (albeit fairly simplistic). The board also has a full set of expansion slots and lots of USB ports. The Q-connector for the front panel connections should be a feature on all motherboards.

Cons: I had to debug a myraid of crashes when I first built my system. Some crashes were from the CPU (Core 2 Duo E6600) overheating; I fixed those by turning off the Q-fan features. (I'm still puzzled by that problem; shouldn't the board's thermal management be smarter?) Some crashes I suspect were due to the Intel RAID drivers, which I simply uninstalled. Even more crashes correspond with CD/DVD drive activity, particularly during spin-up; I'm still trying to figure out why. I RMA'd my first board because the crashes were so frequent, and now I'm not sure if doing that helped anything . . . Other issues: Wifi in access point mode is not as configurable as many standalone units. The JMicron connector is inconveniently at the very bottom of the board.

Overall Review: I could almost write a novel about this board, for all of the good and bad things about it . . . Common complaints debunked: BIOS will not take as long to boot if you reduce the IDE detection time from the default 30 seconds (at least that was my experience). The random power-ons are not random; some of the USB ports turn on the system when they sense activity. Motherboard runs hot only because the onboard temperature sensor is actually somewhere significant; my system remains stable in spite of high readings from the onboard sensor. The JMicron PATA connector does not support ATAPI, which is why CD/DVD drives will not work on it (use the Intel connector instead for them).