ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

This is my 5th ASUS board. While I considered other brands, I decided to spend a few extra bucks for the peace of mind of knowing this thing was going to work without hassle. Once again, ASUS didn't let me down. Put in my i7-3770k and everything started up with no problems. UEFI BIOS was pretty cool - nice to be able to use a mouse! The starting BIOS menu had everything needed to get things up and running quickly, with all the fun stuff just a click away in the "Advanced" menu. This was a nice improvement on previous BIOSes - having all the critical items in one place and not have having to dig through all the detailed settings from the start. Haven't really played around with (but am looking forward to) overclocking yet, nor have I played around with the hybrid GPU, thermal radar, and various other software utilites yet, so I can't really comment on that aspect of the board.Positives:- UEFI BIOS - easy to get started. Worked out of the box with no update needed.- Thermal armor looks pretty sweet. Yeah looks aren't really a factor in most mobo purchasing decisions, but hey - its a bonus.- My kids love being able to charge their devices even while the machine is powered down - nice touch.- Q-connector much easier than plugging in every little connector one at a time.- All the standard Intel chipset goodness is there - 6Gb/s SATA, plenty of USB 3.0/2.0 connections, Intel LAN controller, etc.A few notes for those considering getting this board:(hard to call these negatives, as they probably won't be a factor for many)- For those with big CPU heatsinks (Scythe Mugen 2 is what I'm using), you may not be able to use memory sticks with big heat sinks. I used Corsair "Low Profile" memory and it fit just fine, but memory with fins/etc sticking out would have had me choosing between a new heatsink, new memory, or limiting myself to 2 slots.- For those who want a perfectly silent system, you might consider removing the thermal armor and the fans needed to keep the air moving underneath. This is the closest thing I have to a complaint, definitely not enough to take a full star off, but the fans for the "thermal armor" are now the only audible part of my system. Its not loud (my laptop is a lot louder), but barely audible. It may be possible to tune the fan speed down a bit, but like i said, I haven't played around with that quite yet.EDIT: I have now adjusted fans via the supplied software - noise is now a non-issue.

Bought this for my new PC gaming platform build in Nov 2012. Whew, love it.Pros:1. Very rugged appearance. My case has a clear viewing port and this thing looks like it belongs in space.2. Extremely good cooling. My largest worry was overheating. Right now the highest temp I've ever seen on this beast is 40 C right beside my Ti 660 graphics card. CPU is usually sitting under 28 C even when playing a highly graphics modded Skyrim.3. Easy component install and dust covers (needed with high cooling intake)4. Decent BIOS and startup software. I really like the tools such as temp monitoring and fan control which come standard.5. No install or componentry issues, first time around on 1st PC build.Cons:1. Cooling plates look nice and are very effective, but is a pain for installing screws. They get stuck under the plates. Make sure your screwdriver is magnetic.2. A bit pricey. I'm sure this is for the added cooling efficiency, but similar boards with similar features are a good savings.

Having had the ASUS P5N-T Deluxe board previously which is still running after years of hard work, I was itching to buy something new. Something that wouldn't be outdated in 3 months, have all the right slots, reliability and good price tag. I was hesitant to buy another ASUS board I must admit. The first board had spelling errors in the BIOS menus and the manual stated the board was DDR2\DDR3 compatible which simply couldn't be possible when it first came out. I wondered if these guys can't spell properly in the BIOS menu descriptions or the manual, how good can their coding be. Well, I have to admit the products perform exactly as expected. This board was especially inviting to buy with the 5 year warranty and military grade components.NZXT H2 Classic Silent Midtower Chassis, White is the case I put this motherboard in for sheer silence. Powered by PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 600W Modular Power Supply features 100-Percent Japanese 105°C rated Capacitors for solid efficiency without any worries of overloading the hardware and a piece of mind knowing the components will last for years to come. Then added in 2 kits of Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL9 @1.5V UDIMM 240-Pin Memory BLS2CP8G3D1609DS1S00 for a total of 32GB RAM. Then along with that went from a 2nd Gen Core i3 to Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K with Arctic Silver 5 Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Paste 3.5g and cooled by Corsair Cooling Hydro-Series All-in-One High-Performance Liquid CPU Cooler CWCH60. Topped of with a ZOTAC nVidia GeForce GTX560 Ti 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/HDMI/Displayport PCI-Express Video Card ZT-50306-10M.The best money I ever spent. Everything worked the first time, no glitches or hiccups or random reboots or hangups or blue screens. Just flawless rock solid performance all around with solid low temperatures on every component. The board comes with Asus Thermal Radar in it's suite of Apps provided by the Asus Suite 2 which for any computer enthusiast is enough to play with for days and nights to come tweaking all the settings that are tweakable.Plus it supports 3 monitors if you have a video card installed and I finally have 3 extended desktop monitors I am able to use while browsing the internet, researching, reading, compiling Android from source code, have VMware workstation running multiple VMs, Photoshop CS5 Extended open for minor work. The list is extensively long on how much I can do at the same time now without any hesitation from the hardware starting to overload on itself from something I'm trying to do. Absolutely rock solid peformance as promised by Asus, so I must give it to them as respect is due for delivering a high quality product, it was worth it!Not to mention the PCIe3.0 support with USB3 ports. Plus the memory testing feature which will let you know if the memory installed will cause an issue booting up which you can test before trying to actually boot the hardware. The BIOS is nothing like I ever seen before. I would recommend this for anyone who can appreciate the technology for what it offers and is capable of doing, definitely not your surf the web and read emails only type of motherboard, it even comes in a really cool box!