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Asus's Republic Of Gamers (ROG) series motherboards have an unparalleled reputation within the overclocking community and their Rampage II Extreme motherboard is the next step. The Asus Rampage II Extreme is set up as an overclocker’s dream based on Intel's X58 Express and ICH10R chipsets. Featuring a Magenta-ish and white theme, there's an extremely remote chance that you're going to miss this on a retailer's shelf. Opening the outer box reveals two inner boxes; one houses the Asus Rampage II Extreme motherboard itself, while the other contains the accessories. The accessories here are very extensive, including a healthy supply of tidbits that will make your build easier (the Q-connectors and Q-shield are nice treats), 3-way SLI bridge and CrossfireX connector, the LED poster, optional heatsink fan, a rear-lit I/O panel and SupremeFX audio card. Of course there is also a full complement of cables and connectors to round out the package. The Asus Rampage II Extreme comes in an EATX format. The massive black south bridge heat sink dominates everything else and the colour scheme is very sharp looking; the PCB is entirely black, with various components highlighted in red, white, and blue. The overall design of the Asus Rampage II Extreme is excellent and there aren’t any issues noted in previous generation boards such as PCIe cards being shoved up against DIMM slots, capacitors that make access difficult with aftermarket components or SATA ports being rendered unusable by long graphics cards. The Asus Rampage II Extreme features 16-phase power management, more than enough for even the most diehard overclockers, and cooled by attractively coloured heatsinks. At the back of the motherboard there is a PCB heatspreader for the CPU socket area. In the lower left-hand corner of the motherboard, we can see the black PCIe 1x slot for the SupremeFX daughter-board, and below that, three PCIe 16x slots for multiple graphics card setups. According to Asus documentation, when running two graphics cards (blue slots) they will both provide x16 bandwidth, but when running Tri-SLI or three cards in CrossfireX mode the top slot provides 16x bandwidth and the remaining two provide 8x. Additionally, there is one remaining PCIe 1x and PCI slot, but if running a multiple GPU setup these will be lost. Six DDR3 DIMM slots are available which can be populated with 4GB DIMM's for a total of 24GB. We can confirm that the board is capable of running 12GB at 1333MHz with 7-7-7-20-1t timings without a single problem. Getting speeds up to 1600MHz on 12GB is going to depend largely on just how good a particular CPU's memory controller is. The ICH10R Southbridge chip that used in this Intel motherboard supports six SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports. The blue ports are rotated perpendicular to the face of the board in order to aid in better cable management practices and support RAID 0/1/5/10 configurations. There are also two interesting chips here, labeled “iROG”, and these controls the dual BIOSes and the switch-on-the-fly settings. In the backpanel, this Intel mainboard has a single PS/2 port, six USB ports, two Gigabit LAN ports, Firewire and eSATA. There are a small gray button with the reset arrow between the PS/2 and Gigabit LAN port. Pressing this button will reset the CMOS, that this is extremely handy when you are chasing high memory/QPI clocks. Notice that there are no audio ports here as the board includes SupremeFX audio card.

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The Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2H in a Socket 775 Micro ATX Motherboard based on the Intel G41 chipset supports the Intel 45nm CPUs. This board promises to pack a ton of features into the small 9.6"x9.6" dimensions that make up the micro ATX standard, while G41 platform offers a nice stable offering for nearly any Intel CPU. This Intel motherboard offers up to 8 GB of Dual Channel DDR2 1066(OC)/800/667 MHz memory modules, onboard video using Intel GMA X4500, 7.1 audio with Realtek ALC888B codec, Realtek 8110SC chip for gigabit ethernet, up to 8 USB ports and HDMI port. The Gigabyte GA-G41M-ES2H motherboard comes in a small box with only a few additions beyond the board itself, they are Users Manual, CD containing some software, 2 SATA cables and I/O Panel. Inside the BIOS, Gigabyte offers the "M.I.T." or "MB Intelligent Tweaker" which contains all settings for tweaking your performance from overclocking your CPU to adjusting RAM latency and voltage. It would be good to note that inside the "M.I.T." there are options to overclock the PCIe bus which will provide a little bit of a performance increase to your PCIe cards. But remember, perhaps your PCIe Devices does not operate normally if frequency is set higher than the 100Mhz default. If your in the market for a low cost small form factor motherboard, either for a cheap LAN box or a powerful home theater PC you will find the Gigabyte GA-G41-ES2H is a great deal with a solid bang for your buck value

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The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 is an Intel X58 Motherboard targeted toward PC enthusiasts and gamers with aspirations for overclocking their components. Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 mainboard ships in a white and pretty standard sized box and a bunch of accessories, such as FDD and PATA cables, a pair of SATA cables with locks and L-shaped connectors and a pair of cables with straight connectors, a kit including brackets and cables for external Serial ATA devices, Connector bridges for two- and three-way SLI configurations and a metal panel holding the bridge, User’s manual, Brief installation booklet in 25 (!) languages;, Rear panel I/O Shield, DVD disc with software and drivers, and "Gigabyte" and "Dolby Home Theater" logo stickers. The board is quite expandable - and there are plenty of heatsinks, covering the VRM's, Northbridge (X58) and Southbridge. Gigabyte sure does not want you to be able to mistake who makes this Intel motherboard. Gigabyte provides six DDR3 DIMM sockets that support up to 24GB of system memory. Memory modules can be run at up to DDR3 2100 and they can be used in a dual or triple channel configuration. Just remember that X58 boards tend to like the sockets further from the processor to be populated first, so use the white slots first. The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 back I/O panel consists of legacy PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two Gigabyte LAN jacks, one coaxial S/PDIF Out connector, one optical S/PDIF Out connector, Firewire 400 port, and a clear CMOS button. One of the most talked about features with the X58 chipset is its support for both two-way and three-way CrossFireX and SLI for high definition gaming and professional workstations. The first two PCI-E slots run at x16, while the last one only runs at x8. Users should keep this in mind if they are thinking about purchasing this board for a triple SLI or CrossfireX configuration. Realtek is really making its mark in the high-definition audio and network industry and Gigabyte is featuring two of their 8111D chips, which support two Gigabyte LANs, as well as their ALC889A codec for high-definition audio on the GA-EX58-UD5 Intel mainboard.

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Motherboard specialist MSI has released the NF750-G55. This AMD motherboard will not only support AM3 CPU and DDR3 memory but will also provide SLI multi-GPU technology to easily boost the output of 3D effects. The MSI NF750-G55 offers support for SLI, Hybrid SLI and has some interesting proprietary technologies of MSI, like the True Blu-ray Audio, Easy OC Switch and Active Phase Switching. The included accessories of this AMD board are: a manual, a quick start installation guide, a drivers and utilities CD, the I/O back panel plate, SATA and IDE cables and a SATA power converter cable. Although the NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI single chipset officially only supports up to 1333MHz, MSI NF750-G55 motherboard comes with 4 memory slots which supports up to 16GB of DDR3 up to 1600MHz by doing a small change to the multiplier in the BIOS. The mainboard has two PCI-E x16 ports and 1 PCI port and the PCI-E ports are separated by quite a big distance. So, you can place a double slot card in the first PCI-E slot, but not in the second one. Cause, if you use a double slot card in the second PCI-E port you will not be able to use the PCI port at all. For the sound and the Ethernet connectivity, MSI uses Realtek ALC889 and RTL8211CL. Both chips are of high quality and supported with excellent drivers. The Fintek chip located next to the battery is in charge of the general I/O functions of the motherboard and also makes it possible to control fans with the popular SpeedFan program. The most interesting feature of this AMD motherboard is the “Easy OC Switch”. It consists of a pink switch that allows us to increase the FSB of up to 35% without having to do any other changes. In principle this feature is excellent, but it will only work well if the processor you are using supports overclocking without needing an increase of the voltage. Inside the BIOS, a unique program called M-Flash lets us update the BIOS and even to backup and recover old BIOS versions.

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After releasing a wave of socket LGA-1156 motherboards under the P7P55D series, ASUS is ready with its newest socket LGA-1366 offering, based on the Intel X58 Express chipset, supporting Core i7 "Bloomfield" processors. The Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard supports new technologies such as USB 3.0, and SATA 6 Gb/s, along with making use of the company's Xtreme Phase motherboard component design. This Intel motherboard has two SATA 6 Gb/s ports driven by a Marvell SATA 6 Gb/s controller are color-coded white, and placed next to the SATA 3 Gb/s ports color-coded blue, provided by the ICH10R southbridge. Driven by an NEC-made controller, the two USB 3.0 ports are color-coded blue, and placed next to the PS/2 connectors on the rear-panel. A new 16 Phase power delivery circuit is responsible for fueling the Intel LGA1366 socket, this should provide plenty of stable power for those who enjoy overclocking. The six DDR3 memory slots support up to 24 GB of DDR3 memory across a triple-channel (192-bit) memory interface. Components, heatsinks, and slots on the Asus P6X58D Premium Intel mainboard stick to the blue/white/black color-scheme. Heatsinks over the VRM, northbridge, and southbridge are connected by heatpipes. For expansion, Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard has three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrically x16, x8, x8, or x16, x16, NC, depending on how they're populated), two PCI, and one PCI-Express x1. In the connectivity side, Asus P6X58D Premium Intel motherboard provides two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, USB 3.0, FireWire, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. Asus-exclusive features include Precision Tweaker 2 (provides voltage control with a fine-resolution), Stepless Frequency Selection, and ASUS CPU Parameter Recall.

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Based on Intel G31 Express, Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Intel motherboard is one of the onboard graphic solution using Intel GMA 3100. Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L motherboard supports Intel socket LGA 775, 4GB Dual Channel DDR2, Integrated Graphics, 1 x PCI Express x16, 1 x PCI-E x1, 2 x PCI 2.2, 4 x SATA ports, Gigabit LAN controller using Realtek 8111C, Realtek ALC883 to provides 6-Channel Audio, Up to 8 x USB 2.0 ports and has micro ATX form factor. The Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard has obtained WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification for latest Microsoft's Windows 7 from Microsoft for an Intel-based motherboard. As Gigabyte tradition, this Intel mainboard also equiped with dual-BIOS texhnology that automatically recovers BIOS data when main BIOS has crashed or failed. Coupled with Intel’s highly efficient 45nm CPU’s, GA-G31M-ES2L Intel motherboard is able to provide exceptional levels of power savings and enhanced power efficiency without sacrificing computing performance cause of Gigabyte Easy Energy Saver technology. Today, Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L Intel motherboard supports EuP Lot 6, too. The EuP (as known as Energy Using Products Directive) is part of new European Union's environment regulations. EuP established is based on the concern of environmental issues regards electronic devices been gained popularity and how to improve energy efficiency for better and greener life. Gigabyte presents standard motherboards to help you effectively improving system performance and saving more energy.

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Here is the bestselling Intel motherboard at Amazon.com. Gigabyte has long been a leader in energy-saving motherboards and their GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard continues the trend. This Intel board features 6 gear power switching. This lets you have power when you need it, and save energy and money when you don't. Based on Intel's P45 Express and ICH10R chipsets, this ATX board is ready to host the latest LGA775 Core 2 Extreme multi-core processors along with Core 2 quad-core, Core 2 Duo, Pentium D and Celeron CPUs. Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Intel motherboard offers CrossFire support in dual x8 mode, native support for DDR2-1366 memory speeds, a revised cooling system, dual PCI-E, Gigabit LAN controllers with teaming, and Dolby Home Theater support via the Realtek ALC889a. Add in an integrated TPM data encryption chip, eight SATA ports, and IEEE 1394a support plus several other features. The P45 supports either DDR2 or DDR3 memory. Officially, the P45 does not support a 1600Mhz front-side bus, as found on the high-end Core 2 Extreme QX9770 quad-core processor. However, all motherboard manufacturers (aside from ECS) are marketing their models as FSB1600 capable. Memory-wise, the chipset has been validated for operation up to DDR3-1333 and DDR2-800, but a few manufacturers have certified their own models for operation up to DDR3-2000 and DDR2-1366+. The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard stays true to its mainstream roots by shipping in a comparatively plain white box. The motherboard itself is packed in a standard anti-static (ESD) bag, unlike the high-end EP45-DQ6 which ships in a protective plastic enclosure. Gigabyte have bundled great quality cables with the GA-EP45-UD3P Intel motherboard. The cables come with handy 90 degree connectors, and all the connectors have a clip that ensures that they remain securely fastened to your hardware. The eSATA bracket further enhances this motherboard's already impressive connectivity options, and comes with a very handy external molex connection, which could be used to power external radiator fans for a water cooling system. This Intel motherboard has a superior layout, great BIOS, incredible overclocking capabilities, high quality components, and a price that belies its feature set and performance. Every slot or connector has been perfectly placed to ensure ease of use and no compatibility problems. Even running CrossFire on the board was easy as all of the SATA ports remain accessiblen.

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The Asus P7P55D Intel motherboard comes in a beautiful blue package. The front of the box has plenty to say about the features of this particular Intel mainboard, from Windows 7 and ATI CrossFire support through to its 12+2 phase power design, and from its use of Japanese capacitors through to the motherboard's automated overclocking abilities. The Asus P7P55D Intel mainboard keeps its bundle simple, but still includes enough cables to get you going as well as a paper manual, driver disc, and backplate for the motherboard. The whole design of this Intel board is very clean with plenty of space for your system's components without any overlap, while the actual aesthetic of the board is hugely pleasing if you're worried about such things. The backplate of the motherboard features PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors, eight USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA and one FireWire input, a single RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet port and a combination of six analogue audio inputs and outputs coupled with a mini-TOS optical output. The use of a dual-channel memory controller by all Lynnfield CPUs means we find just four DIMM slots here, which should support a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 memory. Featured below these slots is ASUS' MemOK button, which can be used to get your machine booting if you're having issues with memory incompatibilities. The Asus P7P55D Intel motherboard uses VIA Vinyl 1828S as audio controller with ten-channel capable, VIA VT6308P chip tp provides the goods in terms of Firewire support and a Realtek RTL8112L chip to handle the Gigabit networking.

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The EVGA 141-BL-E760-A1 Intel motherboard is engineered for those who demand more than the best. The EVGA X58 Classified raises the bar for enthusiast grade motherboards everywhere. This Intel mainboard is based on the Intel X58 platform and supports the Intel Core i7 processor. The most striking visual appeal of this board is the awesome black and red finish. There are 4 PCIe x16 slots supporting 2 way, 3 way, and 3 way SLI with PhsX configurations. You can install up to 24GB of triple channel DDR3 1600+ memory to run the front side bus at full speed on this Intel motherboard. The EVGA 141-BL-E760-A1 X58 SLI Classified comes with never before seen features such as 10 phase digital PWM with switching frequency up to 1333 KHz, 2 8pin +12V connectors capable of delivering 600 watts of power, high quality ESR and ESL film capacitors, E-LEET Tuning Utility and much more. E-LEET Tuning Utility allows for fine tuning, i.e. adding additional overclocking parameters to your initial overclock just to make things more stable, push the "envelope" higher than it already is, by adjusting virtually all of the important Voltage and Frequency adjustments available with this Intel motherboard.

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With the release of the X58 chipset, a lot has changed in the world of computer hardware. Where, gamers and hardcore enthusiasts are able to purchase a motherboard which supported both SLI and CrossFire, are able to run memory in an all-new triple-channel scenario and last but not least, make use of the awesome performance the i7 series processor offered. One of the most popular X58 motherboard which supports the i7 processor series is the Asus P6T board. In many reviews and tests it has delivered outstanding performance and has proven to be a favourite amongst overclockers. All models of P6T motherboard have three mechanical PCI Express 2.0 graphics slots but the Asus P6T DELUXE V2 Intel Motherboard offers Tri-SLI with either x16/x16 or x16/x8/x8 lanes of PCI Express. In the other hand, the P6T motherboard only gives proper support to two slots with 16 lanes of PCI Express to each slot as the third slot gets a mere four lanes. If the P6T supports both SLI and CrossFire X, this Asus P6T SE motherboard does away with SLI support and only supports CrossFire X. This makes Asus P6T SE is one of very few X58 motherboards which do not support SLI as well as Crossfire. However, the removal of SLI support is what makes the P6T SE cheaper. This Asus P6T SE Intel Motherboard arrives in a shiny holographic blue box with many of its features adorning the front. The rear of the box explains two of the P6T SE’s most unique features: TurboV and EPU. Turbo V is basically a real-time overclocking utility suite whilst EPU is a feature which helps to reduce power consumption. The Asus specification for the P6T SE motherboard suggests that a number of BIOS options for voltage settings would be missing compared to the Asus P6T DELUXE V2 Intel Motherboard, especifically vCPU PLL, vNB-PCIe and vDRAM. However, after seeing the BIOS, the options are exactly the same as the Asus P6T DELUXE V2 Intel Motherboard. Truth be told we wondered about the spec as the idea of a Core i7 motherboard with fixed DRAM voltage is absurd. The Asus P6T SE layout is well designed and makes cable management much easier. Moreover, the amount of space around the CPU area makes installing an aftermarket cooler very simple. The Asus P6T SE Intel motherboard is a cut price gem that delivers marginally less performance than the Asus P6T DELUXE V2 Intel Motherboard but its price makes it very tempting indeed. To sum it up, if you have no intention of going down the SLI route and are looking for a high performance budget X58 board, you can consider the Asus P6T SE Intel Motherboard.

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The MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard comes packaged in a nice white cardboard box. Based on AMD 790GX chipset, this motherboard supports the latest Phenom II processors on the AM3 socket, and that it is part of the Gaming series and supports ATI CrossfireX technology. The AMD 790GX chipset offers an excellent low cost DDR2 solution for Phenom II owners but currently available implementations lack some of the higher-end bells and whistles that many enthusiasts and gamers want. Amd please note also that Socket AM2+ processors WILL NOT work in Socket AM3 boards, whilst Socket AM3 processors will work in socket AM2 and/or AM3 motherboards. The 790GX chipset technically supports Hybrid CrossFireX, allowing two or more discrete graphics cards to team up with the IGP, but many currently available boards generally only offer a single physical PCI-E x16 slot, there are exceptions of course but only a few. The 790FX-GD70 is built on a brown PCB, typical of the MSI motherboards. At first glance, the AM3 socket looks the same as an AM2+ one. In fact, an AM3 CPU has 938 pins instead of 940. On the right side, it is mentioned that it is optimized for Hyper Transport 3.0 technology. The CPU heatsink retention system has not changed so all heatsinks since the AM2 socket will fit. The MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard has four PCI-E slots. Each PCI-E x16 slot can house a graphics card with a dual-slot cooling solution. Using such a setup, there's not going to be much room to add anything else. The MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard has eight SATA 3.0Gb/s ports and one IDE port present for people still using older drives. MSI also kept the floppy disk drive connector. Alongside it are present the front USB headers, the Firewire header, the audio header as well as the CD internal audio connector. Finally, with the board are supplied four SATA cables, one IDE and FDD cable, a Molex to SATA power connector converter, a USB bracket, two CrossfireX bridges as well as a bunch of Q-connectors. These make the connection of the front panel wires easier. Also, standard stuff is the user guide and the I/O shield. MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard is an awesome AMD motherboard with many innovative features. It is a great board for a computer ganing or dedicated for work. Its power saving features allow it to reduce power consumption, while still delivering the performance when needed.

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Asus has long had a notable reputation within the overclocking community and Asus P6T DELUXE V2 motherboard continues the trend. Based on Intel's X58 Express and ICH10R chipsets, this Intel motherboard is ready to host the newest LGA1366 Core i7 processors for ultimate powerful performance. Up to 24GB of DDR3 1333 RAM with triple channel mode can be installed and get more clock (up to 2000Mhz) through overclocking. Three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 cards can be mounted with support for either NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFireX. Asus P6T DELUXE V2 motherboard cibtains 100% all high-quality conductive polymer capacitors to give longer life and higher energy efficiency by supplying power to vital components independently. For connectivity, this Intel motherboard from Asus comes with six SATA drives at 3Gb/s, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN and eight USB 2.0 ports. Also, get eight channels of HD sound from the ADI AD2000B audio chipset for pure, clear audio. If you have a problem about the shutdown in Vista, don't worry it's not a problem with the board, but it's a problem with the software Asus budles on the driver disc. If you can avoid it, "Do not install ASUS ACPI". However, if it's already on, do a little research as to how to get rid of it. You'll see the program which causes the computer to hang on shutdown in task manager.

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The Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P uses Gigabyte's famed Ultra Durable 3 technology on this budget friendly AMD socket AM3 platform. This technology brings 2 oz copper PCB and further helps to reduce the system temperature and dramatically enhance the performance. Based on AMD 770 chipset, the GA-MA770T-UD3P supports all the 45nm AMD AM3 Phenom II series processors that feature DDR3 memory controllers and HyperTransport 3.0 technology. According to AMD the 770 chipset lacks ATI CrossFireX Technology, Quad PCIE Blocks, GPU-Plex Technology, and Auto Xpress. Three of these features revolve around the board only having a single PCI Express 2.0 slot, so if you only plan on running one video card these features don't mean much to you. The layout on the board was actually quite good, with no real issues. The Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P has 4 dimm slots that support up to 16GB of DDR3 memory in dual channel configuration at speeds of DDR3 800, 1066, 1333 and 1600 (overclocked). And just to the right of the dimm slots is the 24-pin power connector that is placed perfectly at the edge of the board. The Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P has two legacy PCI slots, four x1 PCIE slots and one x16 slot that conforms to the PCI Express 2.0 standard. The six SATA connectors support RAID in 0, 1 and 0+1 modes. The audio on the board is powered by the Realtek ALC888 which provides 7.1 Hi Def audio and LAN is powered by the Realtek 8111C/D(L) chips. The CPU socket is actually clear of all obstructions, and should not have any problems with an aftermarket cooling solution. The bundle is super thin on this board. Just two SATA cables, an IDE cable, owner's guides, the driver and app CD, the backplate, and the all important sticker.

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