ASUS K8U-X 754 ULi M1689 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Easy to work with, great with the Sempron processors... I definitly give this a 6/5 stars ,and newegg

Cons: n/a...

Pros: Nice small budget, but quality motherboard that is a synch setting up, and rewards you with a very fast and responsive feeling system... VERY impressed with this MoBo.

Cons: Memory issue discussed below. Expected to have problems with SATA after reading these reviews but I had no issues what-so-ever in using Raptor drives.

Overall Review: I have now built two systems around this motherboard, and both builds couldn't have been any easier to work with. Though here is the one important issue that people need to understand. VERY IMPORTANT: Memory slots - when you install the memory, you MUST push hard to snap them in thoroughly. It is very deceiving because the memory 'clips' snap down to the proper positions to seemingly secure the memory, but it is a trick because you MUST PUSH FURTHER or they will not truly be installed and then your system won't boot and you will RMA the motherboard and post a negative review about it. Seriously, I'll bet most of the bad reviews are because of this, but it is not the users fault, it is Asus's. Components: WD Raptor SATA; 1 GB (2 stix) kingston value ram; Sempron 2800+; Sapphire Radeon 9600 256MB video.

Pros: Good board for price. Great if you want to keep the same system and not look forward so much to upgrading in the future. Nice and slim.

Cons: Terrible SOUND! Upon install, the windows start up sound was cracking and cutting out. Noticed that the inconsistencies in sound had nothing to do with processor, and everything to do with the bad sound drivers and onboard sound.

Overall Review: I installed my own sound card to take care of the sound problem. I record music so sound is definitely a necessity on any system. I gave it a 3 stars to offset the five stars others are giving this board. Otherwise, all other components are working GREAT!

Pros: Price, easy to put together

Cons: Watch out for SATA drives. Before installing, download disk drivers from ASUS.com. A FLOPPY DRIVE is required to install.

Overall Review: Not a bad board. So far it is running well and, other than the SATA issue, was easy to install

Pros: Works great. Just have to copy the SATA drivers to a floppy and load during Xp install. Got a bit confused cause the drivers on the included disk are labled RAID array drivers but they're what you need to get the board to recognize the SATA drive even if there's just one. It's a great deal when combined with one of the great deals on socket 754 Chips.

Cons: None so far.

Pros: Narrow form factor. Easy setup. Name brand equipment. Stable running.

Cons: Very limited overclocking capabilities in bios.

Overall Review: This board is very compact, but everything is accesable. Does not have many jumpers, or options. Bios makes nearly all the settings for you, so it is easy to set up. But that means there are not very many things you can set manually if you want to change something.

Pros: Good quality, cheap board.

Cons: SATA drivers have to be loaded from a floppy during windows install.

Overall Review: If you buy this mobo, make sure you have an internal floppy drive around for the installation if your using a sata hard drive for this. you have to make a diskette by booting from the mobo cd and then use that floppy to install windows xp. A bit annoying if you didn't build the computer with a floppy drive, but otherwise a good harddrive.

Pros: Good mobo for cheap. No problems. Flashed it just to do it, which was very easy to do.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: If you're building a budget PC, this board works. ASUS is one of my favorites.