ASUS P5RD2-VM - motherboard - micro ATX - Radeon Xpress 200

Advantages: Very stable
Disadvantages: Quite expensive

...I had recently had to make the decision on whether to upgrade my motherboard to another SDRAM board or to change to DDR. I decided that DDR was the way to go, as it is so cheap at the moment (same price as PC133). So, now I had to decide on one of two boards, the Gigabyte 7DX, which a friend of mine owns, and the Asus A7M266. Both were very similar to each other except the price, the Asus is a little dearer. However I have read reviews of both, and the Asus seemed to come with better software and was also said to have better overclocking abilities. This swung it for me. The Asus it was to be. This board has been better than expected; it is a lot more stable than my old one. It can also be overclocked a hell of a lot more.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: 800FSB P4 support, SATA, 8 USB2 connections, AGP 8X and 6ch Sound with SPDIF
Disadvantages: ASUS motherboard site can be down at times

...to as AGP 3.0) meaning that all the latest graphics card such as the new Radeon X800 are able to run at full speed. This means that you can pack as much punch in with one of these small boards as with the normal P4P800 Deluxe which is a full size ATX board. *It is worth noting that the P4P800-VM comes with intel onboard graphics, these are more than enough for day to day desktop use, but for game playing you're better off using the AGP slot and getting a card.* Onboard 6ch Audio with SPDIF out. The cream on the bun! Being a smaller form factor you don't have the usual 5 or 6 PCI expansion slots, so to eliminate the need for a sound card ASUS have integrated a sound card which rivals creatives original audigy. It also has a Co-axial SPDIF output for use with any compatible amplifier or speaker set, meaning that at no additional cost you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: All the latest connections
Disadvantages: have not found any

...I Purchased this motherboard on 31/03/04. The installation was simple with no problems, I used the amd athlon 64 3200+ Processor, the Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 120Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache ATA133 Hard disk, 350w power supply, the Sapphire Radeon 9600 AGP X8 256MB Video Card and the LG 8x DVD DUAL R/RW/RAM IDE BURNER drive. I would recommend this motherboard over all the others firstly because it is made by Asus which is a leading company with a lot of experience. Secondly they always give all the leads and connectors, screws etc needed to get you up and running. The software provided is very good and easy to install and use. I have build a large quantity of computers over the years using other cheaper motherboards like msi and have had problems and crashes etc. I hope this reveiw helps you.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful