ASUS Rampage IV Extreme/BATTLEFIELD 3 LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS

Pros: RC (Remote Control) Tweaker is awesome for OCing if you have a laptop. OCing is easy - until the VRM begins overheating (see cons). The ROG.asus forum is great support, use it instead of Asus support for your problems. 2x SLI gfx is done W/two slots between, leaving lots of airflow for your gfx cards, and long bridges are provided (Nvidia & AMD). Personally I love the ProbeIt connectors as I use a DMM to monitor Vcore. It has a wealth of diagnostic LEDs to help if you have trouble booting. Dual BIOS prevents bad flashes from ruining/delaying your day. Works as advertized right out of the box - but may OC better W/update (don't use the Windows utility, doesn't work). Can read USB (to update BIOS) without bootable formatting - just transfer the BIOS file to the USB key first. Supplied other backplate allows 1366 coolers mount.

Cons: No VRM (Voltage Regulator) temperature monitoring, and it limits your OC, downclocks your CPU automatically. My OC is quite limited due to this. I don't want to go to the trouble of a full-blown custom water cooling loop just to cool the VRM. Some ppl have trouble with certain memory on this board, but I suspect it was either settings or lack of aux mem power plug. I didn't after I used the "tight PSC profile" feature. This board is not for newbs. The Ai Suite II freezes during CPU stress test, not updating fan speed and temps (use other utils). "OC Key" is dissapointing, and requires a second USB keyboard to be useful. It also does not pass analog, nor dual-link DVI. Fortunatley the RC Tweaker makes up for it, and properly displays the fan speeds and temps (not concurrently though) during CPU stress test. eATX size requires a large case.

Overall Review: The SB fan is quiet, even on optional faster profile, I cannot hear it W/case open, and they say it doesn't hurt to turn it off even. Connect the extra aux power plugs. These 6-core CPUs put out a lot of heat, expect to go W/high-end cooling unless you go stock CPU speed, and then you still need a good CPU cooler W/that. This platform is a little harder to get memory to work properly, be sure to verify your mem W/Memtest86+ V4.2 before installing Windows. There is an issue W/certain SSDs in RAID on the SATA III ports, see the ROG forums. 8 4-pin PWM fan headers for better fan control means you may not need that separate fan controller you might be thinking about. The three "OPT" fans have less speed control. BF3 code comes on a 3x5" black card W/scratch-off; requires good Internet speed. Sleep works fine at my 4.6GHz 3930K OC, W/C7. I don't use the onboard sound, I use a high-end sound card, but I have not heard any complaints. You can use a mouse in the UEFI BIOS, but the keyboard is

Pros: Still love this MB

Cons: My last memory slot was flaky from day 1 and finally stopped working.

Overall Review: Stuff happens.