Pros: I picked this board over Asus A8N32-SLI because of the onboard sound, extra 1394 port, slim IDE cables, board layout, and price. And I am very glad it fits my need so well. Installation and configuring the BIOS is pretty straightforward. Windows XP booted up either crashed or got blue screen. I reinstalled the OS and solved the problem. I have the onboard sound disabled and Windows reported an unknown PCI modem found. This has been discussed in MSI forum. Not a big deal for me. Just disabled the PCI modem in Device Manager so it will never pop up again. If you have the onboard sound enabled, then you won't see this problem. Driver CD is flaky, some options in the list would disappear after I installed them. So I just download the latest driver from NVidia site and it works just fine. These little problems may vary from person to person, but they can be resolved easily as long as the board is running solid afterward, which is all I care.

Cons: As others pointed out in their posts, this board has a 8-pin connector for CPU power. Many power supplies (including the newer ones) have a 4-pin connector instead, and it will fit the half of the 8-pin socket on the motherboard. I don't have any problem leaving the other half open. According to MSI technician, leaving the other 4 pins open is fine. This is not documented anywhere in the manual or on MSI web site.

Overall Review: I am running the board very stable with AMD 64X2 3800+ overclocked to [email protected], G*Skill PC4000 1GBX2, EVGA GeForce 7900 GT overclocked from 500/1500 to 525/1700 (not SLI yet), Antec TruePower II 550W Power, and Zalman 9500 Cooling fan.

Pros: OC'ed it to 570/882 stable with stock cooling. Temp 45'C idel 55'C loaded. Someone complained about the fan noise. To me it is very quite. 60+ FPS @ 1920x1200 in BF2 with highest settings. 30+ FPS in COD2. Other games I am playing are IL2, Pacific Fighter, FS2002, Rome, and Silent Hunter III. I don't have the immediate need to go SLI yet. But when the time comes, I won't hesitate to get another one. This is the most overclockable video card I have ever owned!

Cons: None

Overall Review: Athlen 64 X2 3800+ oc'ed to [email protected], MSI Diamond Plus MB, G*Skill 1GBx2 PC4000@540Mhz, Seasonic PS 600W, Zalman 9500 Cooling.