BIOSTAR T5 XE LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: On board diagnostic lights, Price, Plenty of extra features through software, Free Shipping. Velcro cable strap.

Cons: It seems small and cramped to me. my heatsink/fan is almost touching my ram and the fan on my video card is almost touching the p55. When I say almost I mean I couldn't stick a flat head screwdriver between them. My power cable to the processor is stretched to the max.. The PCI express locking tabs are cheap,soft plastic and one snapped upon me moving it ever so slightly. So it looses an egg, but I'd buy another one.

Overall Review: Someone else said this board is picky about memory placement, but I was still left scratching my head for a few minutes. It wouldn't boot up the first time with 2 sticks of ram, no matter what configuration I used. Finally I was able to get it to boot with one stick. Then I added the second stick and it worked fine. USE THE ORANGE SLOTS FIRST. The onboard diagnostic lights were helpful. I don't overclock but there are plenty of features to do so. I sent biostar an email with a question and they responded within 12 hours, Kudos to them.

core i7-860 2.8
this board
Patriot G Series ‘Sector 5’ 8GB DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
HD 4670 Radeon-Saphire
Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W

Pros: feature rich. sli+cfx ready. can potentially handle 16gb of RAM. customer support was good/efficient; RMA was rather fast, but didn't include all of the minor accessories. came with a rebate and a free printer.

Cons: original product was defective. the power port wasn't making contact with the 24 pin from the psu. had to rma to the manufacturer because the rebate was sent in. rebate cash pretty much covered the RMA shipping. the 4pin cpu power connector can be in a better location on the board. my 4pin power cord can reach, but i don't like how it makes contact with my VGA in my antec 900.

Overall Review: not happy with my overall working/defective product ratio from newegg.