ASUS P5E3 PREMIUM/WIFI-AP @n LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Many features for the enthusiast with lots of OC options. Booted up 1st time. Energy saving features. Passive massive heatsink coolers. Currently top of the line chipset (X48). Two SATA controller chips with multiple RAID options. Board is very well laid out,quality metal caps,clean design. Audio sound great from HD onboard solution. Adds to a successful mobo line that's tried and tested (P5E3 family). Stable and easily Oc'd later to 3.2GHz CPU (from 2.66 stock) and 1600 MHz DDR3 speed. May well go higher but not needed at this time. My 9800 GTX works great. If you want to tease more speed and brag,the feature set with this board will do it for you - but be prepared for a trial of whats-up-nows?...

Cons: ASUS is a bit slow to do BIOS updates. Makes SURE your memory and CPU are on the official support list on the ASUS site. Mine work but aren't officially supported. EZ Flash BIOS Utility has caused a lot of headaches. Express Gate feature ditto,often disabled to make sure all else functions. Some 45nm CPUs not yet supported (Q9450,Q9300 not on the list of qualified CPUs ... yet.)Make sure your CPU Cooler will fit onto the board as the copper heatpipes may interfere with bigger aftermarket coolers.I highly recommend the Artic Freezer 7 Pro if your case will fit its height. Pricey mobo and must use expensive DDR3...go elsewhere if you need to save $. Some users are having graphics board hassles as not all seem to work properly with Crossfire or a single NVidia GX2 card -(obviously only ATI boards can use Crossfire ie 2 boards in SLI).I went with a single NVidia eVGA 9800GTX for the benefit of best game support and drivers.

Overall Review: My Build:
OS: Vista Ultimate x64 SP1
Mobo: P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP@n Intel X48(vers. C0 I believe)
BIOS: 0151 (did not try to flash as it is working OK so far)
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9450 (boxed; pack date said 4/15/08 on box) Rev./Stepping 17/7/0 (per SiSandraXI) Box Info:S-Spec SLAWR;Version#:E34934-001 1.25V max.PCG-05A
Print On CPU: SLAWR MALAY L812A635 2.66GHZ/12M/1333/05A
CPU Cooler: Artic Freezer 7 Pro w/4pin 92mm fan (fits great,very quiet,super price w/6yr warranty!))
Memory: OCZ3P16004GK 4gb kit (2x2gb) PC12800 Platinum Edition rated for 1600mhz 7-7-7-24 240pin DDR3 dimm in sockets A2 -B2 (NOT Enhanced Bandwidth Tested "EB" version in part # ) running at 1.9V set manually in the Bios (Guaranteed to 1.95V by OCZ without voiding the lifetime warranty - a great feature)
PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Ed.)
Boot HD: WD1500ADFD Raptor 10000RPM 150GB SATA 1.5GB/sec -SATA Port 1
2nd HD:Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/sec (remove t

Pros: Lots of extras, dual RAID, support for overclocking (which I don't do though) very fast. Support for the fastest memory available, DDR3. Support for crossfire with 2 * PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (which I do use).

Cons: Very bad compatibility with OCZ memory. Tried 2 sets of
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Model OCZ3P13334GK first and had daily, sometimes hourly crashes. Spent 2 weeks trying to troubleshoot with no luck. Finally had to buy 2 sets of Corsair TW3X4G1600C9DHX which work great! ASUS support is the absolute worst I've ever encountered. After posting problems on their Forum I tried their "online support form" which is a JOKE. It won't even let you fill out the form, there are drop down boxes to select your Model/blah blah that DO NOT work.

Overall Review: This will be my last ASUS motherboard. I've been building systems for over 19 years and I would say without a doubt most of the problems I've had has been with ASUS. There are too many other GOOD manufacturers out there to put up with this type of product.

Current config: Asus P5E3 Premium, Intel Q9550, 8GB Corsair TW3X4G1600C9DHX, 2 - Diamond HD 4870 512MB in crossfire, Pioneer 20X SATA DVR, 2 - WD Sata II VelociRaptors 150GB in RAID0 (Boot), 2 Sata II 500GB Barracudas in RAID0 (Data), Thermaltake Toughpower 1200 watt PSU, Antec P182 Case, Dell 2407 Flat Panel, Logitech G15 keyboard, Logitech G7 mouse running MS Vista 64bit SP1.