Got it earlier this week and have had it up and running for a couple of days now. Switched from an MSI Neo2 Platinum which gave me zero problems, I was a little leary of changing boards, but it was time for pcie. Am I glad I did! This board so far has proved to be even better. Voltages are ROCK stable on this thing, whereas on the MSI all rails would fluctuate. This board slightly overvolts (set 1.4 vcore and I get 1.42), the MSI would undervolt, by quite a bit. Overclocking has been a breeze, I'm right back to 280HTT with no problems and my memory (Patriot 3200+ XBL) is stable at higher clocks with tighter timings. Lots of ram tweaking options in BIOS too as well as HT and chipset voltage adjustments. Add a passively cooled chipset and SLI for around $110 and this board gets even sweeter.
The bad.... well anyone that has looked into this board is aware of the strange layout with the FDD and pcie power molex sitting right under the bottom pci slot. If you use a floppy drive like me, it is a PITA no doubt about it. You'll need a long cable and it ruins an otherwise clean wiring job...
Another oversight is the right side bottom mounting hole. It's blocked by the IDE header! You cannot install a screw there, period. I guess you could use a plastic standoff, but I just left it empty. Speaking of the IDE headers they can be a curse or a blessing. They're turned 90 degrees and face the front of the case wich definitely makes it harder to install/remove cables, however if you're like me and like a neat wiring job they make that task easier. I just wish they were located higher up the side of the board, I had to ditch my short round cable going to my DVD drive and go with the long flat one provided... I guess it just depends on your case layout if they'll be a problem or not. If you have a case that the board must be installed upside down, forget this board. The heatpipe cooler on the chipset will not work inverted and you'll likely fry it.
Overall I'm very pleased with it, the pluses far outweigh negatives as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to see how high this thing will overclock but from what I've seen in a few other forums, you can get 320+ HTT with the 14 BIOS.
The bad.... well anyone that has looked into this board is aware of the strange layout with the FDD and pcie power molex sitting right under the bottom pci slot. If you use a floppy drive like me, it is a PITA no doubt about it. You'll need a long cable and it ruins an otherwise clean wiring job...
Another oversight is the right side bottom mounting hole. It's blocked by the IDE header! You cannot install a screw there, period. I guess you could use a plastic standoff, but I just left it empty. Speaking of the IDE headers they can be a curse or a blessing. They're turned 90 degrees and face the front of the case wich definitely makes it harder to install/remove cables, however if you're like me and like a neat wiring job they make that task easier. I just wish they were located higher up the side of the board, I had to ditch my short round cable going to my DVD drive and go with the long flat one provided... I guess it just depends on your case layout if they'll be a problem or not. If you have a case that the board must be installed upside down, forget this board. The heatpipe cooler on the chipset will not work inverted and you'll likely fry it.Overall I'm very pleased with it, the pluses far outweigh negatives as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to see how high this thing will overclock but from what I've seen in a few other forums, you can get 320+ HTT with the 14 BIOS.
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