ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Great Motherboard for the price. I can boot Backtrack and Linux Mint just fine.

Cons: There is no Windows 8 Ai Suite for this model. Normally I would not complain but there is a known fan glitch with where the motherboard thinks the fan is spinning around 655,555 RPM if the actual fan speed falls below a certain percentage (Only happens with some cpu fans). I can fix this By forcing a minimum of 70% of fan speed using the Ai Suite for the R2.0 model. However, there are glitches in the temp/voltage readings because the R2.0 is a slightly different board. I have an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 Rev.2 by the way.

Other Thoughts: Please Asus, response to my complaint and release a Windows 8 Ai Suite that works for this motherboard. I have been a longtime loyal customer. Never had an issue accept this one time. I will be more than happy to give 5 eggs if the software is released.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I have checked with our head quarters and doesn't look like they will be relaeasing a AI suite II that is compatible with windows 8.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Nice BIOS setup

Cons: UEFI - Microsoft locking out all other operating systems
Who got the idiotic notion to build a Windows only mother board?

Other Thoughts: I had an ASUS A8NE board for nine years, Bulltet proof!
This M5A97 LE R2.0 cannot even boot Ubuntu!!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Unfortunately, we don't support ubuntu on our motherboards.

Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey

Pros: Lots of awesome features including core unlocker and lots of overclocking tweaks.

Cons: I am going out of town for a few weeks and just discovered that there is not "Power on in case of power failure" feature. This is kinda disappointing. I just hope I don't have a power failure while I am away.

Pros: This motherboard was easy to install and has a very user-friendly BIOS to work with. Even though this particular one is discontinued according to Newegg, I wanted to offer my feedback after a year of use. I use an AMD Phenom II x4 980 Black Edition CPU (running at 3.7 GHz) with this motherboard, and a 6870, soon to be a 7950 3GB XFX card plugged into it. I could clock the CPU to 4 GHz, but haven't tried.

Cons: None that I have encountered so far after over a year of use.

Other Thoughts: Now, don't take this advise as LAW, just consider my experience and do research for yourself!!

Speaking of BIOS, if you want to run a FX-8350 AMD CPU with this motherboard, you will need to update the BIOS to 1605 (latest version on the ASUS support site.) At least, with the REV 1 boards you will. Newegg sells the rev 2 boards, so this may not be an issue. I included that for anyone that still use a rev 1. Make sure you research flashing your BIOS before you attempt it. I researched flashing my BIOS to be able to run the 8350 without having to buy a new board just for that purpose.

If you want to run the newer FX CPU's, get the newest version of the m5a97, to make it easier on yourself. If you already have an older version like I do, then you can research your options like updating the BIOS like I did.

Pros: Compared to other boards which have combination of 3Gbps and 6Gbps, this board has nothing but 6Gbps ports. Ports also downgrade to 3Gbps without issue, as I have not fully acquired 6Gbps HDDs yet.

Has 2 USB 3.0 ports which have the ability to stay active even when there is no power to the PC. These also downgrade to USB 2.0 without incident, and still retain the remain powered on functionality.

UEFI BIOS is fantastic, and the GUI makes it really simple and quick to make adjustments to any settings needed. The Basic mode allows for simple changes like; boot order, power modes (Power Saving, High Performance, OCing).

Reads 16GB of RAM flawlessly, and no issues (see Cons for minor timing problems)

Audio is great for what you get, no issues or popping noises on my 5.1 surround system through analog.

Cons: I received Corsair Vengeance 16GB Quad-Channel memory DDR3-2666. When setting the ram to that speed, I began receiving lots of memory errors, and BSODs. Come to find out the motherboard did not recognize the RAMs timing properly, and I had to go in manually adjust the timings accordingly, and this solved the issue.

Other Thoughts: After about 5 months of use, the board is still functioning without issues.

It has even OC'd my AMD FX-4170 up to 4.5GHz, and running very stable with stock cooling. Also have a GeForce GTX560 and GeForce 9800GTX+ in both PCI Express slots, and still no issues.

In my experience, this is the best motherboard I have made to date. :)

Pros: Board looked good on paper. Thought I was getting a good price on it.

Cons: Refubished Board I received was faulty. It often Crashes with a Stop 0x124 error. CPU fan also at full speed at all times with no way to control it via bios or Asus software. Worst part of all.... Worst Customer service EVER! See Thoughts

Other Thoughts: Dear ASUS,

What takes you sooo long to answer the Freaking Phone??? I have already applied for a case number on your website but that does no good when you answer the phone??? Who wants to spend 30mins or more listening to your recording about your accolades and how great your customer resolution response time is???

When I did get someone to finally answer he looked up the S/N and saw that the board came back for bad transistors. You guys was supposed to find and prepare a replacement board to send to me first before I sent this one back but I have not heard from you and right as this moment I am on the phone listening to piano music wanting for you to pick up the phone so I can ask you about the progress on getting my replacement board.

FINALLLY George answered! Let's see how this goes.

Asus we got way back to the Socket 7 days. I expect better from you.

I didn't buy this board from Newegg but I always check and give user reviews no matter where I get an item from.

George was no help. They are out of the board. Now I have to wait for a corporate stock check. Thanks Asus, there goes my desires for a Nexus 7 tablet in the future.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the issue you had with the motherboard and your experience with our customer service.

The Stop 0x124 may be hardware-related. Please try the following troubleshooting here: http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/35349-stop-0x124-what-means-what-try.html. If no change, please RMA the motherboard. Regarding CPU running on load constantly, please enable Cool'n'Quiet in UEFI > Advanced > North Bridge Configuration, and also try enabling C1E Support. Both these settings are disabled by default. If you have not received a RMA #, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference#C1037-7982 in the subject line).

For support information, please visit http://support.asus.com. For service, visit http://service.asus.com. For motherboard
warranty, visit http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!Motherboard%20Warranty/c1c20.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Good Price, nice looking board

Cons: Doesn't use full amount of RAM, board sees all 4 sticks of ram but will only use 2 of them

Other Thoughts: I've tried resitting the RAM in different slots, updating BIOs, setting timing for the RAM, different RAM types, and windows tweaks. Sad thing is that this is the THIRD defective board I've got from ASUS, it will be my last from them.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the memory issue you had with the motherboard. Can you tell me where does it show that the board only uses two DIMMS out of four? If the board detects our DIMMS, then it can use all four. The M5A97 supports: 4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz ECC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory. Are you using 64bit OS? Windows 32bit can only address 3GB max memory address space. To continue support, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-7999 in the subject line). Thank you.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: great mobo, asus really does know how to make a great product, the bios make it really easy to tweak everything. i love the blue heat sinks, it really matches my fans, lights and ram nicely.

Cons: some of the inputs on this board are positioned in inconvenient places but its nothing too annoying. it seems to run a little warmer than i hoped but with good cooling its not a problem.

Pros: It's a great board for the price.

Cons: Seems like the USB ports stop working for me. I get a message "USB device not recognized." Troubled, I try a different port. Same issue. I plug it into the USB ports on the front of my case, and it works just fine. Went on the ASUS website to find all the updated drivers, updated everything, same issue. I buy a lot of ASUS products, kind of sad that this happens. My cords are now all over the place. I can't find where to contact their customer support to address the issue.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the USB issue you experienced when using this motherboard. Please try the following:

1. Shutdown, wait, and restart
2. Uninstall the USB device in Device Manager. Unplug the device then reconnect
3. Reinstall USB controllers in Device Manager and restart

If you need further assistance, please contact us at 1-812-282-2787 or me at cl-benson@asus.com.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: was fairly cheap at the time when i bought it.

Cons: Will not recognize hard drive in all sata ports.

Other Thoughts: I've had this mother board for a while siting in the box till I could finally put the PC together. Everything was put in ready to go, then no matter how much I tried I could not get the hard drive to read on the sata ports. after so many cables and ports later wasn't worth it. Hard drive works fine tested it in another computer. Maybe I just had a bad batch.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry to hear about the SATA port issue you had with the motherboard. The cable may not be making a proper physical connection in the SATA port. Please RMA the motherboard to us using the RMA submittal form at: http://vip.asus.com/eservice/usa_rmaserv.aspx or call us at 1-812-282-2787.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty