GIGABYTE GA-EP31-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P31 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: *see cons* Another gigabyte motherboard that came working as it should be. Overclocking is good and e-z. see cons***

Cons: I would rate this 3/5 stars except for it was my fault that i didnt notice this motherboard only takes 2 double sided ram sticks (most ram has chips on both sides of the stick), it has 4 slots but only more than 2 can be used if its all single sided ram. You will get BSOD's if you have ram inserted incorrectly and it will lead to damage.

Overall Review: see cons

Pros: nice features for price

Cons: my first 2 boards are DOA

Overall Review: hope I get a good one

Pros: Gigabyte made some good choices in trade offs to get the price down where it's in my budget. All the bios options can be a little overwhelming, but much better than my Dell e520 with no overclocking support. Works great with intel E7200 cpu. Booted up with E7200 cpu on F1 bios when F3 bios is listed as compatible. Good info to know so you don't need an older cpu to flash bios.

Cons: More a con of the stock cpu fan, the motherboard flexed quite a bit from the pressure from the E7200 stock fan / heatsink combo.

Overall Review: The memory options are confusing, single sided/double sided. Can you use 2gig modules if you only populate 2 memory slots?

Pros: Runs fine. Has many BIOS options and overclocking options. Decent budget board.

Cons: Oveclocking DOES NOT WORK. This seems to be a common problem with Gigabyte P31/P35 boards. Once CPU Host Control is enable, the system will either not POST or reset to default settings. No matter what I tried I could not get this board to overclock.

Overall Review: If this board is needed for a system where overclocking will not be used, it should work fine. If overclocking is needed, look elsewhere. You may get lucky and get a board that can overclock, but it is not worth the risk.

Pros: Great layout like the first board i bought

Cons: This board came to me DOA,will not power up at all

Pros: Second board arrived non DOA and I've very pleased with the results. For the money, it's a great motherboard.

Cons: Wife found out...see 'other thoughts'.

Overall Review: I purchased this to upgrade my wife's computer...without her approval. I used this board, with a E7200 Intel processor (2.53GHz) and a LIAN LI PC-A05B case, added 4 gig of memory and a GT 8600 card I had laying around...works great. important note...try not to spend $11,000 (not a typo) in one month on electronics like I did without mentioning any of it to your significant other....they tend not to like that...seriously, they don't...I now sleep in the family room with the dog and cats. :(

Pros: This budget board has *everything* going for it. Takes all the processors you can throw at it, easy to overclock them if you want to, great built in sound and gigbit NIC. This and a E7200 proc make a great combo for the money.

Cons: none whatsoever.

Overall Review: P31 Express chipset is very robust, just check on the reviews for that elsewhere. Just remember if you need firewire and / or raid, this board is not for you.

Pros: Perfect for someone who wants good performance but no frills or gaming gak

Cons: None