Nice board, no complaints so far.
This open-box item arrived in good condition and as described, seeming none the worse for its previous adventures. It has now been in daily service for two weeks and counting, and has given me no issues thus far.
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit, System Builder Edition, installed from DVD with only one minor issue. Windows setup could see my SSD, but wouldn't initially install the OS to it. I am sorry to say I don't remember the exact details, but a Google search for the message it gave me found the solution, which was easily implemented, and setup proceeded without further trouble.
The only PCI device I've installed is one video card, so I can't speak for the functionality of the other slots or the board's SLI or Crossfire performance. It seems to handle a GeForce GTX 960 just fine.
I was particularly happy to find an LGA 1150 board with all the legacy ports I wanted, including VGA, DVI and two PS/2 connectors. This leaves me with plenty of USB ports free for other peripherals, and options if something dies and I need to dig out an old reliable device as a temporary replacement.
The board is a bit on the narrow side. As a result, the video card, once installed, makes the side-facing SATA connectors difficult to access, and I wound up removing the 960 to plug the cables in. Annoying, but not excessively so. It might be a problem if you're constantly switching SATA cables around.
I've seen reviewers elsewhere comment that the board's width prevented it from aligning properly with the standoffs in their cases. I had to add an extra standoff in the middle for mine, but all the others that came pre-installed in my Antec 900 seemed to align correctly. There are however some extra holes for additional standoffs in the case, and it's true that the edge of the board doesn't seeem to be all that firmly supported, so perhaps most boards are designed for an extra set of standoffs. (This is the second PC I've assembled, and if I remember correctly the first one also had a rather narrow motherboard, so I may not be the best judge.) This didn't seem to cause any real problems; it just meant that I had to take some extra care to support the board and limit how much force I used when plugging cables in near the edge.
Although the board technically only has connectors for three case fans, I was able to use the extra connector provided for the CPU cooler to power the 200mm fan at the top of the case. Obviously this wouldn't be an option if you need both those connectors for a heavy-duty CPU cooling solution. My case has five fans total, so I had to use a molex adapter for the fifth, but this wasn't too great a hassle; one came with a fan I had purchased.
Aesthetics: The red LED audio track lighting was a surprise and clashed with my blue case lights, but it was easy enough to disable in BIOS once I found the correct setting under peripherals, and this doesn't seem to have affected the sound quality (please note however that I am not an audiophile. YMMV.) The other red components are either hidden under the video card, not visible at my normal viewing angle, or appear black under the blue lights, so they're not a problem. I'm sure this would be a great-looking board for a rig with a red color scheme. The shape of the heat sinks is a bit cheesy, but this is not really noticeable through the side panel window when the card is installed.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
