ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: Simple to install. Easy OC built-in utilities. No real need to mess with jumpers.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: I've had other ASUS boards in the past but the CMOS in this one has been arranged in a nice simplistic GUI. However, I found myself going to and liking the advanced edit mode to see and edit some of the additional settings. I think this is the only place where you can set the OC settings. Great board nonetheless.

Pros: Works on Core i3/i5/i7, Celeron, Pentium processors.

Cons: We bought two of these boards to use with our Ivy Bridge-based Xeon processors because the product page claims support for them. However, we found that our processors do not boot with these boards, even with the latest BIOS updates. Asus tech support acknowledged that our Xeon processor isn't supported on this particular board, but several similar Z77 models do support our processors. However, Asus refuses to replace the board with a similarly priced model that supposedly supports our processors.

We spoke with numerous tech support staff and managers, and many initially agreed to a model exchange, only to renege later. In one instance, we got an RMA number and sent the boards back to Asus, with a detailed note stating that we want a different model returned to us -- not the regular RMA procedure, but only for the exact same boards to be sent back. In another instance, a manager promised us to send the model we're looking for if they had extra stock, only to return saying his manager would not approve and it is their policy to not do model exchanges.

We escalated this situation all the way up to the corporate customer care department, apparently the only people who can make model exchanges. The response we got is that "Xeon is not a desktop CPU, and some features may not work". This is exactly the same response we received from a low level tech support staffer weeks earlier.

It is very disturbing to us that "some features may not work" means that the CPU will not boot -- i.e. nothing works at all. The reasonable interpretation of that phrase is that features such as the integrated graphics, new power savings or turbo modes, or new instruction set extensions, do not work because the Xeon processor don't have them enabled. Obviously, we weren't expecting them to work, but the board should still boot with the processor if the manufacturer claims support for it. It's very disappointing that at the highest levels of Asus, they choose to hide behind vague wording when their advertising claims cannot be backed up in practice. Furthermore, legitimate customer requests, such as an exchange for similarly priced models due to compatibility reasons, are denied with no reasonable explanation.

In summary, we have spent many hours speaking with and writing emails to Asus support, still have two boards collecting dust, and Asus will not help us resolve this situation.

Other Thoughts: We will be picking a different manufacturer for future purchases that has anything even slightly outside the most commonly used system configurations.

Pros: RAM and Processor successfully over-clocked. So far stable. OC options in BIOS are very easy.

Cons: The RAM I bought was specifically in the manual, supported by the boards bios over-clocking setting but I had to bring the speed down a notch as the system was unstable. It it still slightly unstable, every now and then the system boots, then reboots before it attempts to boot windows.

Pros: I chose the board based on its feature set, but could have used two more SATA 6 GB connectors. I had planned on adding in a board for this, but find that the low cost boards do not have enough bandwidth to support two SATA 6 GB devices. Higher cost boards ~$100 exist but this isn't the range I had in mind. My fault, bottom line. The BIOS is simple and clean, adequate for my purposes, with more features than I will use. No fit-up problems with board into the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer SGC-1000 (except for the annoying RFI shield). I ran into one problem, but it was caused by me.

Cons: On power-up, i got repeated errors and no post. The fault appeared to be with the memory, and I used the Mem-ok feature the board provided, but no success. It was acting like a memory issue, but the manual mentioned that it was also a general catch-all 'something is wrong' light. After a number of component swaps, I was faced with the last one, the removal of the Cooler Master Seidon XL120 cooler. I removed it and the backplate, and found that one of the heatsink standoffs had just barely scored the top surface of the board, revealing copper. A possible short. I left the water cooler off, put the stock intel fan on, and everything started up just fine. I had not gorilla'ed the standoffs, and found one with a rough surface; the other three were fine. In a sense, this is a 'pro' comment on the board, as it faulted correctly, and started when the fault was cleared. There was plenty of clearance between the DRAM and the cooler.

Other Thoughts: The board has run well for over a week now. It is still running with the stock fan. No problems.
It would have been nice to orient the SATA ports so that they faced up. There is room to accommodate their orientation, but it is less convenient that straight down onto the board.
It would be nice to have some sort of retention mechanism on the USB 3 connector; only friction holds it in place now.

Pros: The BIOS is easy to use.
32 gigabytes of RAM capacity.
Enough SATA ports, also angled towards the front of the case.
8/4 pin supplementary power.
Looks great.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: I would really like if Asus had made the usb 3.0 port angled towards the front of the case, As well as a red color scheme version of this motherboard.

Pros: Booted up just fine

Cons: After hours of installing and uninstalling audio drivers and 3 calls to Asus, it was determined the audio chipset was bad. RMA to newegg cost $13 shipping and it will be another 2 weeks before a replacement arrives. So disappointing, hope the next one works.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the audio stopped working. Please make sure you update the bios and the latest drivers to see if that will resolve your issue in the future.

I hope the board that comes from Newegg will work properly.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me 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: None, couldn't get either to work. See other thoughts

Cons: Wouldn't work, no post, no BIOS errors. Got power, but that's it.

Other Thoughts: Once hooked up I could not get the board to post. Got no outbound signal to the monitor, and no BIOS beeps to let me know what was wrong. Sent board back and received a replacement that did exact same thing. After researching it seems I either had two DoAs, or my RAM was incompatible. I picked up some Corsair RAM from BB to test out, but still got same result. While I have been told ASUS can be picky with hardware compatibility, the board shoudl've worked. Ended up getting Gigabyte's version of the board which booted right up and ran flawlessly.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you received a board that was DOA. Please make sure to update to the latest bios as it seems could be an CPU compatibility issue.

Thank you for choosing ASUS as one of your motherboard brand of choice.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me 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: Perfect fit in my Corsair 200R case. Labeled pins helped me greatly with my first build.

Cons: None

Pros: I had no major issues setting it up (See "other thoughts"), and the BIOS is very easy to work with. Overclocking was a cinch, and everything's been completely stable... Though I opted to turn it down slightly, as I wasn't getting anymore performance (Time for a second/new GPU!).
The motherboard itself feels quite sturdy (Despite being smaller than my previous one), and I never had a concern while attaching a Hyper 212 Evo cooler. I'm a big fan of the overall slot placement (Especially the video card slot being near the very top).

Monitoring temperatures and usage via the included software is easy, and it gives you plenty of options/tools to further tweak (Which I'll personally be avoiding, so I can't comment anymore than that).

I was leaning towards a "gaming motherboard" but grabbed this one on sale. I'm very happy with my purchase. :3

Cons: The Ethernet drivers on the CD wouldn't work and I had to download them from the homepage on another machine. Of course, every OTHER driver was fine (Go figure).
You may want to download it ahead of time.

The CPU and one of the chassis fans are in an annoying spot, and need to be attached before any decent sized heat-sink (And probably any card in the top slot)... But that's not a big issue.

I could not place a fan on the right side of the Evo cooler due to my ram. Low profile ram shouldn't have an issue, but that's only my assumption.
Not a real issue as I think it works better on the left side for my case and the temperatures are fine, but it's something I felt I should mention.

Other Thoughts: After putting this together with a new 3570k Windows would not boot. I don't know if this was an isolated incident, or something that should be expected... I'm not knowledgeable enough to be certain.
I had already backed up everything beforehand, and I suspect anyone else would do the same before putting together a new system. After reinstalling Windows (7), everything was a breeze.

Not really relevant, but why is the HD audio input always on the bottom left!? It was such a hassle on the old motherboard having the cable sandwiched between the video card and the power supply. :x

Pros: Asus quality, easy set-up. It has good overclocking options.

Cons: Flimsy board.

Other Thoughts: I bought this board to upgrade from my Amd Phenom II 940 and was very excited to put it together. My first build went together fine, but I was having a problem in bios with my pc randomly shutting down and not restarting. Once I got into windows I was rock solid however. I overclocked to about 4.1 on the asus overclocker and after 6 hours of prime95 was at 39 degrees celsius.
I rma'd the board because of the bios issue and received my second on, but after building it I couldn't get the pc to boot up. Turns out my heatsink/fan(thermaltake Frio) was too heavy for my board. It was warping the board and causing a short that prevented my psu from allowing the pc to boot. If I lifted up slightly on the heatsink, I could boot up, but that's not good enough. So I'm running a 3570k with this board on the stock cooler for the time being and having no issues.