Pros: ASUS stuff is almost universally well built and will run reliably for a looong time. They are consistent enough that I just assume the hardware side is up to snuff, and have very rarely been let down. So far this board seems no different. The reliability and longevity are worth the 5 stars. Which is good because its all downhill once you get past the hardware.

Cons: This BIOS (which is essentially unchanged since the 3rd gen Core series at least) is without question the WORST, most unintuitive, insanity-inducing mess of overlapping options, descriptions that only serve to confuse, and back-asswards procedures for the most mundane settings changes I have ever had the dismay of using. There is one where the BIOS tries to "auto-OC" for you, which predictably results in tears and a BIOS reset more often than not, and to turn this off, to make it stop AUTOmatically screwing itself up, you set the option to "AUTO". Seriously. And then it still happens because you havent found the 18 other places buried 15 levels deep in menus that are re-enabling it.

Overall Review: I still love ASUS for their reliability and longevity, the hardware is top notch. The BIOS is a painful fight every time you have to change anything, but its worth it to win the fight and then hopefully not touch it for years.

Pros: Easy to work with once you stop trying to treat it like Arctic Silver 5. Excellent thermal performance, as good or better than old school ceramique IF you actually let it cure and go through the hot/cold cycle a few times. Even if you dont, it works better than shin etsu or the horrible pad things. HUGE tube. I thought the 25g in the part # was 2.5 grams, its actually 25 grams. I bought 2. I will never need thermal interface mats again, likely my kids wont either. Not conductive or capacitive. Probably dries out eventually, but after almost 20 years using it, with several applications going 5+ years between refresh, it has never actually dried out.

Cons: If you try to use some old school advice and spread it, it will end in tears. This stuff does NOT like to be messed with, just put a decent squirt in the middle of the heat spreader and attach the heat sink or water block, let the clamping pressure spread the TIM.

Overall Review: Been using Arctic Silver TIMs forever, got into Ceramique way back when it was new, have never used anything but Ceramique or Ceramique 2 since, and it consistently outperforms and outlasts any other TIM for everything from low powered passive sinks to high end water blocks.

Pros: Dual cores run fast enough to do everyday tasks without bogging down. Video decoding is very good. Stock cooler runs quiet enough for a basic desktop. The Radeon is good enough to run older games at high settings, and newer games at low settings. This is the first APU I have used, and the experience has been very good.

Cons: none

Pros: This PSU feels a bit more solid than I expected. I have used some seriously cheap PSUs that felt much more likely to break. This one is light, and the case isnt going to withstand any real stress, but it doesnt wobble in your hands or bend around in wierd ways when mounted like some I have seen. It is shiny gloss black, which is cool. Running a low end CPU and MOBO (A4-5300 and Biostar A55MD2) it shows plenty of power on the rails, fan runs quiet enough, everything is stable. 36 hours of benchmark spam and no issues, very little heat.

Cons: - none so far

Overall Review: not for gaming or other high end use, but great for low power/low budget builds.

Pros: - nice BIOS - black PCB - very small board! - stable and reliable

Cons: - no PCI-E x1 - limited to older tech - USB 2, SATA 3/Gb

Overall Review: Biostar makes very good boards. I have been using them since the M7VKB for the slot Athlon 13 years ago, and rarely gotten a bad one. This one has worked very well, went together with an A4-5300, 4GB G. Skill DDR3-1333, an older Seagate HDD, and a random Lite-On DVD burner, and been running benchmarks for the last 36 hours with no trouble. My experience with Biostar is such that I believe this board will continue to run flawlessly for years to come. They are like the Toyota of the mobo world.

Pros: G. Skill. I've been using their RAM for many years, and never had a bad experience. I have gotten bad sticks, and had them replaced quickly with no trouble. I have gotten untested kits and found them to be incompatible, and had them quickly and easily replaced with compatible RAM with no trouble. I feel 99% confident that any G. Skill kit of the right specs will work with pretty much any board of matching specs, and 100% confident that if it doesn't, they will get you a kit that does. Great company.

Cons: - none

Overall Review: This kit isn't tested with the board I put it in, and it works fine. The board is a Biostar A55MD2, running an A4-5300. The rig ran a bunch of benchmarks at the same time on Win 7-64 for the last 36 hours with no issues.