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Asus P8H67-M EVO
by williams91
The Asus P8H67-M EVO motherboard, this was sent to me a few weeks ago for testing and Asus really packaged this one well it was snug in the box surrounded by an anti-static bag. Taking the board out of the bag and placing it onto my desk I had to take note of how small it looked just 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches, not very big at all but ... screwing it into my case was straight forward and plugging in each component was easy enough thus completing the installation of the motherboard itself.
This contains an Intel 1155 socket which can hold 2nd generation i7, i5 and i3 processors, this really sets you up for some great processor speed as some of the best CPU's are currently i7's. When I placed the CPU into the motherboard it fit in there quite nicely and pulling down the lever really felt like it was securing the component in place.
This has 4 memory slots which hold either DDR3 1333 or 1066, the max amount of memory you can place onto this board is 32GB. You needn't worry about the max at the moment because anything above 8GB is really unnecessary unless you find yourself hard-core gaming or multitasking to the extreme. For your internal memory the motherboard has 2 SATA 6Gb/s and 4 SATA 3Gb/s, trust me when I say this is all you will need I would keep the faster ports for hard drives though as this will help to increase transmission speed.
As with most motherboards this has integrated graphics so is great for anyone that is looking for a fast computer that they don't want to game with, this will remove the need to purchase a graphics card separate. But for the gamers out there don't worry because there are 2 PCIe 2.0 slots on there and the board supports CrossfireX, this simply means that you will be able to put two graphics cards in the computer and have them running simultaneously. If you are going to use the integrated graphics you will find there are DVI, VGA and HDMI ports located on there so your pretty much set up to use almost any monitor or TV on the market.
Now it just wouldn't be a product of ASUS if it didn't come jam packed with a load of extra features would it? Well this component is no different so prepare for a long list.
ASUS TurboV EVO:
- Auto Tuning
- TurboV
- GPU Boost with switch
ASUS EPU:
- EPU
- EPU switch
ASUS Power Design:
- 8 +2 Phase Power Design
ASUS Exclusive Features:
- MemOK!
- AI Suite II
- Ai Charger+
- Anti-Surge
- ASUS UEFI BIOS EZ Mode featuring friendly graphics user interface
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution :
- Stylish Fanless Design Heat-sink solution
- ASUS Fan Xpert
ASUS EZ DIY :
- ASUS Crash Free BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS Q-Design :
- ASUS Q-Slot
- ASUS Q-DIMM
- ASUS Q-Connector
Well Asus have really outdone themselves here fine tuning this motherboard to give out some extreme performance. In my opinion this has been a great motherboard to use and test, it has something for everyone. With the possibility of holding a serious processor and up to 32GB of RAM I really doubt that you will be upgrading this motherboard anytime soon.
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Asus F1A55-V
by williams91
The Asus F1A55-V is an ATX standard motherboard which will fit into most computer cases, to start with the motherboard itself isn't the best looking of components but seeing as you shut this in a case that doesn't particularly matter.
Well let's take a look at some of the technical specifications of the motherboard.
* ... AMD FM1 Socket.
* Supports up 64GB DDR 3 RAM.
* Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6000.
* Supports dual graphics cards using AMD crossfireX technology.
* 6 SATA ports.
* 2 USB 3.0, 4 USB 2.0 and HDMI socket.
This list could go on but I wanted to generalise, first of all this is one fantastic piece of equipment and something I am personally considering for my own home build. This has an FM1 socket which does provide many high end AMD processors. The board can support up to 64GB of RAM through 4 times 16GB sticks which aren't currently on the market but ASUS assure customers that they will upgrade their QVL when 16GB sticks come available.
What does impress me is the integrated Radeon HD 6000 graphics chipset, this will allow you to play some games at a good pace maybe not top end games but still this is pretty impressive for integrated. The board does have 2 PCI-E ports for graphics card upgrades; this will also allow you to use CrossfireX to use dual graphics cards boosting the power.
USB 3.0 ports located in the back of the motherboard, this can apparently transmit data up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 so definitely worth it there. You still have your standard USB 2.0 so needn't worry about that, as for display ports you have a HDMI port and a DV-I port which are both becoming the standard for computer displays so no surprise there.
Asus like to install their motherboards with extra features which boost performance, this motherboard is no different it comes with ASUS TurboV which allows you to overclock your computer without rebooting which is a nice feature. Another tool here is MemOK! This apparently works to help your system boot successfully and much faster than it normally would. A failsafe on this board is the anti-surge protection that is installed on it; let's hope you never have to use that though eh.
Overall this is a really nice component to add to your computer, and you can pick this up for £60 which makes it a nice bargain and a great choice for a budget build.
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Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2 (rev. 1.3)
by Seven17
@ About, set up @
This motherboard is the fastest and most reliable motherboard i have ever had. A few things you should note based on my findings: i am using it with Windows 7, i use it every day for at least 3 hours, and i am the sort of person that hordes desktop junk. I have had it for over three months now and so far so ... good - nothing to report.
Setting up was a little hard but you do get a lot of assistance from the manual which is written entirely in english and is about 20 pages long, most of which are large clear diagrams which will help greatly with set up. The bios was the biggest faff with this thing because when i set the bios up, this thing immediately freaked out on first safe mode run and displayed the advanced bios controls on a bright blue screen with horrible Times New Roman font in about 60pt. Once i had got passed the bios controls it settled down and started working normally. Further set up on the desk top and running through the commands was easy and simple.
@ Speed, Using the motherboard @
8GB is enough to blast through six programs in a row and still never crash. I opened up iTunes followed by youtube and several other programs and it had to think about iTunes for a second and then got to work. I have the PC usage counter on my desktop and usage very rarely gets above 25% when downloading from iTunes, and mostly stays between 1% and 10%. speed continues to out stand me during start up because from loading screen to desktop with no password and just one account, its less than thirty seconds. You don't need to worry about the three black screens it displays because these disappear very quickly.
Every day usage is no problem and so far it has not worn out, or crashed horribly on my system. Occasionally it will freeze windows media player when you run too many things at once but it quickly resolves this problem and gets back to work. The physical build quality of the motherboard is yet another plus for Gigabyte - all components are stuck down perfectly, nothing feels wobbly or of poor build quality and the components were not damaged upon arrival. This thing can take a beating and still survive.
@ Overall @
This motherboard is fast, reliable, and durable when it comes to regular use, and where hoarding junk is concerned, it performs well. No matter what you do on the desktop it wont break down or crash. Sometimes it has a think and it has to spend some time loading massive programs but thats it, the rest of the time this is a motherboard that will outperform any other motherboard within this price range.
Highly recommended!
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