ASUS P5KC LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Nice features and flexibility. There's no question that (per spec) this board gives you a lot of options into the future for expansion.

Cons: May the almighty have mercy upon your immortal soul if you pick this board up now. I have been a strong ASUS supporter for years, but this board is NOT ready for prime time. I've been banging my head against my desk trying to get RAM to work reliably in this thing, and have got it down to the point now where I can at least get it to boot about 50% of the time. Once booted, it's a rock, but normally it won't even make it into POST. I have to believe that ASUS will continue to release BIOS updates to address these problems, but I strongly recommend purchasing another board.

Pros: Can support all the newest hardware. Very fast bus speed. Easy to upgrade the bios via flash card. Lots of good built in features in the bios, especially if you like overclocking. Can save multiple bios profiles on the board. Keeps things cool via its cooling technology. You system will run like a champ with this board, mine does!

Cons: IDE connector is too far on the end of the board. I have a full sized case, with an IDE DVD burner near the top and the provided IDE cable could not reach both it and the board jack for a connection. If not for an old longer IDE cable I already had I'd be in bad shape. And although that cable fits, it's not a pretty fit. This board DOES NOT YET run DDR2 1066 RAM at the full 1066, just 800MHz. They say a the next bios update will support DDR2 at 1066MHz, per Asus tech support.

Overall Review: It's a good board, but has some quirks and annoyances. Be sure to plug in both required power connections from your power supply to the board. Or the green power light will come on, but you won't get video when you try to boot up and it really won't boot but appear to be on. Page 2-38 of the manual. You must connect both the ATX12V and EATXPWR connections from your power supply.

Pros: Good price nice DDR2/DDR3 support, Set up was easy fast. Came with all I need, very nice guide. The whole thing was easy and I am a first time builder. It is very stable worked first time I put it all together.

Cons: It was 144 when I bought it but hey that is technology prices flux every day it seems. Would have liked a little more detail in the book but hey helps if you look around to see if you are getting the best bargain.

Overall Review: Not sure why people can't find ram, I used some crucail Blistex ram and it works fine. RAID doesn't concern me I mean 3-4 seconds longer wait is fine for me. People say overclocking isn't the best for this mobo but running DDR2 1066Mhz doesn't need OCing. Even though the book says certain ram to use but I used the 2.2V and found some that working in about 15 minutes.

Pros: Everything that has been and continuous to be advertised about this specific Asus M0B0 is a Pro. I am 100% satisfied with this M0B0, and have no regrets buying it. I would buy another Asus product again. DDR3 for RAM upgrade and speed. Will grab this in the future. A flawless custom build with this M0B0. POST immediately after I hit the power on button for the first time. No Issues, No Hang-ups!

Cons: I cannot think of one as every specific component that I hand selected fits perfectly. A dream come true for builders right of the bat. If you research, research, research before you start buying individual parts you will be good to go the first time around.

Overall Review: This is my new build specs: This M0B0, Q6600, Artic Freezer 7 Pro Heatsink/Fan, Seagate Barricuda 7200.11 500GB, nVidia 9800 GTX Black Edition, HEC Zephyr 750W Double Rail Dual Fan, Raidmax Aztec Mid-size case, 2 GiGs Ballistix Crucial RAM @ PC2-5300 667Mhz. I bought this M0B0 on 04-01-08, and did not power on until 08-11-08. I had and still have confidence in Asus, and Newegg. All components on this M0B0 hit it off the first time they met, and play so nice with each other.

Pros: I had zero problems installing the board in my case. Everything in the description was as stated.

Cons: As others have mentioned, the IDE port is positioned at the far end of the board (the only reason I have 4 eggs). It's tough fitting 2 IDE devices, however if only using one, you should be ok. I also had an issue with audio, but it appears to be a Microsoft issue, as stated below.

Overall Review: If you’re installing XP 32 Bit (or possibly 64bit), you may run into an error trying to install the Realtek HD audio driver. I had the driver slipstreamed in an XPsp3 install, which did not install the driver correctly. I then tried to manually install the driver from Asus' site, but the install ended in a failure message. Solution: Right click my computer, properties, hardware, device hardware, System devices. Look for Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio. Right click on it and choose disable. Then right click on it again and choose uninstall. It should now be gone. Next install the Realtek driver package and you should be ok.

Pros: This board is great. Supports both DDR2 and DDR3, SLI, and 1333 FSB. If you are looking for a board that you wont have to replace when you are looking to upgrade this is the one. I'm not sure why it is getting bad reviews, I haven't seen a single problem with it.

Cons: It's not as colorful as gigabyte boards?

Overall Review: Buy one.

Pros: Works well, no significant problems installing any hardware. Recognized all the RAM, fit all my components, overclocks nicely. After overcoming the HD Audio driver issue mentioned below, the drivers and all my apps worked great.

Cons: Biggest issue was the HD audio install. After booting up, ONLY INSTALL THE HD AUDIO DRIVERS, THEN REBOOT BEFORE YOU INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE. I learned this lesson on this motherboard the hard way, and the ASUS forums pointed me in the right direction. I wiped the hard drive and performed another complete re-install of XP and all my programs, which was a complete pain. After that, everything went fine with the software installs. Other cons: No internal RAID, External SATA port is hidden under the video card, and I could not fine a solution to utilize this feature, with Video card installed in the PCI-e 16X slot, you need a right angle connector. I have the front E-SATA port built into my case, and haven't found an adapter to convert my straight connector to a 90 degree one. Don't bother updating to the BIOS 1001, it trashes the Motherboard approximately 50% of the time for users. There is a newer one than 1001 available now, probably for the Penryn processors, check their forums.

Overall Review: Box is pretty high speed looking. Plenty of wires and connectors. Pay attention to the Notes provided by ASUS if you plan to update the BIOS. You can't always use the EZFlash tool with this motherboard. 0903 works well.

Pros: My first build, so I don't really have anything to compare with, but install went well. I wanted to wait a month just to see if anything popped up, and nothing so far.

Cons: It was a little unstable until I updated the BIOS, but since then it has been great.

Overall Review: Intel Q6600, Zalman 9700, Corsair 520X, Crucial Ballistix PC6400.