ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Very fast and stable operation.

Cons: It takes some work to get CD and/or DVD IDE drives to work using UDMA with the JMicron IDE Controller (this is the only PATA controller on the board).

Overall Review: The JMicron controller fix:

1) install JMicron by running the AsusSetup.exe (JMB363 dir of P5B CD)

2) right click My Computer and select Properties

3) in Systems Properties select Hardware tab, then click on Device Manager

4) in Device Manager expand SCSI and RAID controllers entry

5) right click on Jmicron controller entry and select Update Driver

6) in "Can Windows connect to Windows Update" select "Yes, this time only" and click Next

7) in "What would you want the wizard to do?" select "Install the software automatically" and click Next

8) the wizard lists all the Jmicron drivers and "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" driver, select the "Standard" driver for installation

9) When done, the system will be using standard PCI IDE controller where you can select DMA mode

10) with this I got my Sony 810A and NEC ND3550A DVD burners to operate using DMA mode

Pros: Lots of features, nice heatpipe cooling setup. Makes overclocking easy. Looks sharp. Pretty stand-by and power backlit LED setup on the board.

Cons: Many people are experiencing dead boards anywhere from 4 days to a couple of weeks after installation. Mine died about a week into use. I see more than normal "my board just died, CMOS reset not working, removed all components, still dead, HELP!" posts in Asus's message boards. Unless you really like this board, check out the non-deluxe version. I switched to it and have no complaints, so far.

The built-in SoundMAX sound is very lacking. Complaints abound about crackling sound quality -- made better by decreasing the WAV volume setting. Apparently the BASS/TREBLE settings were also removed a version or so ago to try and address the issue, but this significantly decreases quality and functionality even further. If you still want the board, consider adding on a better sound card. They're not that expensive, and you get better features, too.

Overall Review: Asus's utility installation program is pretty pathetic. Install drivers one by one, not using their automatic installation setting. Manual is good until you get to the BIOS settings part.