GIGABYTE GA-EP45C-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: The board itself lives up to the name- it is certainly durable. The copper design makes the board itself run amazingly cool, and placement of the onboard items makes setting it up easy (if you attempt to purchase the brick sized Nvidia cards 8800GTS or up, you'll understand what I mean). The board comes with 6 regular SETA connectors + 2 GSATA connectors. The GSATAs are designed to allow onboard RAID 0 setup, which I can tell you is an absolute dream. Two 500Gig 7200RPM HDDs raided together is as good and cheaper than a 10,000 RPM HDD, and you get MUCH more space. The BIOS is very intuitive and easy to use, even allowing USB legacy devices to be run without any problem (for Pre-OS setups and things like that). LOTS of USB connectors as well... lots of every kind of connector, to be honest! All together a great board!

Cons: My only complaint that I've had with it so far is that it has a difficult time reading USB keyboards. If you are using a USB keyboard and attempting to mess with the BIOS, be prepared for the possibility that your keyboard may not work with it. Just grab a USB-PS2 converter and you'll be fine.

Overall Review: If you want to use the onboard RAID with Windows XP, be sure to get a floppy drive. You MUST load the onboard GSATA RAID drivers during installation of XP. You can't load it later. And XP install will not read flash drives or HDDs. Just floppies. I am assuming that (theoretically) that you can turn on USB detection for Legacy drives in the BIOS and this will allow you to use a USB floppy, but just in case it may be worth your while to get an internal floppy. Otherwise, if you don't think you can get your hands on one but do have a CD burner, I suggest looking up how to "slipstream" the drivers into the Windows XP install disk. If you are using Vista, this won't be an issue, as it can read Flash Drives. Note- There are 2 kinds of RAID this offers. Read the manual carefully. One of the RAIDs is a software RAID that works using the 6 yellow SATA plugs. Trust me- it is more trouble than it is worth, especially if you have a SATA CD-ROM drive. The other SATA is in the 2 purple connec

Pros: Great overall Motherboard. I would go with Gigabyte again. Although I have only had it for about a week I find that stability is great, has bunch of features and slots on the motherboard. Plenty of overclocking tools which is great for those who like to overclock (mine is kept at stock speed). I like how it keeps the older IDE and floppy ports on the MB so you have the option to use older drives. I'm running a Lightscribe DVD burner from one of the other older computers that runs off IDE, so that is defiantly a great addon to this board. You also have plenty of SATA ports, etc, etc. Tons of USB on the back, 8 if I recall. AWESOME. Nice and affordable, give it a shot.

Cons: None at the moment.

Overall Review: Antec 300, Antec NeoPower 650, WD Velociraptor (150gb), WD GP (1TB), Intel Q6600, OCZ 1066 (8gb), evga 9800gtx, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, Gigabyte EP45C-UD3R, Windows Vista Home Premium

Pros: An extremely well-designed MB, altho other variations of the ultra-durable line may be more appropiate. I'd recommend potential buyers review the specs on the Gigabyte website, as these are somewhat misleading. For example, the PCI-E slot conforms to the 2.0 standard, and it has HD audio for both front/rear. Ample usb/sata connectors

Cons: Not a con, but this mobo obviously isn't designed for legacy hardware. Three PCI slots, one IDE connector for HDD.

Overall Review: Highly recommended

Pros: Gigabytes new Ultra Durable 3 series of mainboards is quite impressive. 8 SATA ports, motherboard connectors positioned in logical places and no clearance issues when using an nVidia 260 series video card. F2 BIOS was installed out of the box, so no issues with 2.0V memory.

Cons: Whether overclocked or not, NB chipset runs HOT, even with the heatpipe system.

Overall Review: I modified the NB/MOSFET heatsinks to remove the pretty blue "GIGABYTE" plates covering the heatsink fins, and replaced the stock gummy thermal interface material pads with Arctic Silver. Cooler Master Centurion 590 CPU (E8400) runs cool and quiet Arctic Cooling 7 CPU cooler 8GB DDR2-1066 (2.0V) EVGA GeForce 260 "Maxcore" 700W OCZ Modular PSU WD Black SATA 320GB - 2.5" in ICYDOCK 3.5" removable tray Pioneer SATA DVD/CD Burner

Pros: * Construction and quality of MB appears outstanding - solid feel and rugged. * Easy install - one can use the fairly clear instructions, but its mostly an intuitive easy task. * Excellent board layout - would be an easy project on physical setup for a new DIYer.

Cons: * Wished I'd read the forums before ordering since to use this MB for anything but vanilla out of the box use requires significant advanced knowledge of overclocking and voltage tweaking - especially concerning using dual channel memory. Gigabyte seems to be into a lot of BIOS tweaks and releases to fix issues with their software. * Choosing processor and memory (especially the manufacturer, specific model no's, and timing specs) should be thoroughly researched BEFORE buying.

Overall Review: I was up and running very smoothly in a very short time and very satisfied until I realized I was only getting the benefit of single channel memory speed. This MB is designed for speed and all the tech write-ups say that, especially in the marketing materials. Without my making any changes to the BIOS - ie; no overclocking/adjustments whatever. However, when I installed G.Skill 2x2GB PC8500 memory kit in dual channel configuration, the system goes into a never ending loop of WinXP Pro SP3 system start-up, ~30 sec running, then electrical halt, and immediate reboot. The sequence continues, and continues. So far no resolution from the forums or Gigabyte. Lots of forum discussion on which memory manufacturer, processor, etc. should be used/works. So far it still leaves me in a single channel memory configuration. I'm not sure how to fix or if I bought the wrong MB or the wrong memory, etc. So make sure you know how you will use this MB and that you research your components well.

Pros: Overclocking is s breeze with this board. Bios version f2 very stable. Running my Q6600 @3.6ghz. Running OCZ P1600EB4GK @ 1600MHZ.

Cons: NO CONS

Overall Review: Cpu volt 1.4 MCH volt 1.28 Memory volt1.9 400 FSB X 9 load calibration enabled Memory performce set to standard

Pros: * Overclocks great with cheap DDR2800, ready for the fastest DDR3 (when it comes down more in price) * Future proof with PCIE2.0 and 775 CPU slot (Quad Core) * EIGHT USB Slots * Hi-Def S/PDIF Audio * Gigabyte Quality (the EP45-series are the result of years of product improvement by Gigabyte) * Runs XP like greased lighting using the Intel ICH10R in NATIVE MODE (with SLIPSTREAMED ICH10R drivers or using "F6" during install) * RUNS VERY COOL * WOLFDALE E7200 2.53 EASILY OVERCLOCKED TO 3.1 USING EASYTUNE 6 WITH GSKILL DDR2800 (TEMPS: CORE 1/2 90F)

Cons: No SLI or CROSSFIRE (But you don't need it if you go with ANY ATI 48xx-series video adapter.) I run FALLOUT 3 with FULL HIGH DETAIL and it doesn't skip a beat.

Overall Review: Get it. Disregard negative on this board. I bought THREE of these and have two running in other states on other computers and all three are FLAWLESS.

Pros: Able to push FSB to 1800 Mhz (1.4v), E6600 to 3.6 GHz (1.5v), and DDR3 10666 (1.76v) everything very cool and stable.

Cons: Tough to get started, kept getting low power error, until I realized not compatible with OCZ DDR2 8500 memory I already had on hand. Went with some DDR3 memory to get maximum overclock...

Overall Review: Don't forget Ctrl-F1 to get into Advanced mode to turn off some of the protection features otherwise it will drive you nuts trying to figure out why CPU multiplier keeps getting reduced.