Pros: It looks good, sensible layout, relatively simple bios layout

Cons: All of the rubbish Asus bundle with this board and there other boards - Namely AI Suite 3 and forcing you to use their UI's even though the dam chips are for instance Realtek

Overall Review: I used to own a Maximus V Extreme-Z I have recently build a new rig around the Maximus VII Hero. The z68 board i had before used Realtek audio and used the Realtek audio interface within windows. This z97 board though uses SupremeFX which i believe is still a realtek chip but it uses the SupremeFX interface within windows which is where my problem is I used to have a problem where my microphone from my Asus Vulcan headset sounded awful on skype and in game with my friends and they could always hear all of my game sounds back through the microphone I had resolved this on the realtek interface with a particular configuration Now i have upgraded and this board uses SupremeFX, i have exactly the same problem again and i can't figure out the SupremeFX interface to fix the issue. The settings don't save sometimes, my mic sounds awful and my friend can hear all of my game sounds once again Also the volume is no where near as loud as it used to it with SupremeFX. I would LOVE to just go back to the realtek interface but it seems even if install the latest realtek driver from realtek, i am still forced to use the SupremeFX interface I contacted asus support over this and they just fobbed me off, they didn't have a clue how to resolve the problem nor seemed interested in even attempting. Asus Support is TERRIBLE.