ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Deluxe

Asus Xonar D1 - move over creative, your time is up.

Advantages: cheap, works in vista, does the job far better than the competition, optical output!
Disadvantages: limited inputs (see review)

The souncard market has never really been swamped with options. For those of us who don't use onboard sound and demand a seperate sound card for our sorround sound/gaming/music needs theres never been much choice. Most people go with Creative as they are well known and apparently respectable. I did just that a few years ago, it was a mistake. Their driver and customer support, especially for Windows Vista users is seriously lacking. I was finding my games locking up, my computer suffering from fatal errors (aka Blue Screens of Death) and just general sound issues that were hindering my enjoyment. Research soon showed that the creative card was to blame. As a result i threw my old creative soundcard in the bin and opted for something new, the Asus Xonar D1. Simple, small and effective. Asus's card supports Vista and its drivers are ...

AgeUK 27.03.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of ASUS Xonar D1

Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe Motherbaord ACE

Advantages: Has many sata ports, has 4 GPU ports, is able to run at 1066mhz
Disadvantages: Ram can only run at 1066 if processor is quad core.

The transition from AGP to PCIE was without a doubt extreamly easy. Along with this motherboard, I had 2 Kingston 2GB 1066mhz ram, an AMD Phenom 9950 2.6ghz black edition, an ATI RADEON 4850 HD (1gb, Asus edition) and a 650w Antec Power Supply. The motherbaord an IDE port and many SATA ports which was very useful as i went from using an old IDE hardrive to a SATA hardrive. The IDE and SATA ports are also placed conveniantly on the sides allowing air to flow freely throughout the machine. With this intact the motherboard stays below 45C. I do have 2 other fans on the machine, one on the back and the other on the front. All air is moving out of the PC from the back. The manual that came with the motherboard is exceedingly helpful. It gives you clear information on what ram does and doesn't work with the board, and how to install ...

semiflex 28.06.2009 · Read full review
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Review of ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe - motherboard - ATX - AMD 790FX

ASUS P5W DH Delux Digital Home Series Motherboard

Advantages: Cooling, Upgrades, BIOS updates, Stability
Disadvantages: ASUS website is cumbersome at times

I have now owned this motherboard for over a year. I have upgraded the CPU from a dual core to a quad core pentium, I have doubled the ram from 2 to 4Gb, I am currently running 4 SATA HDD's 2 in a RAID0 configuration and I am about to upgrade the graphics card to a dual crossfire X1900. All in all this PC runs everything I have ever thrown at it and has never failed me. It has been a joy to setup, easy to configure and simple to run and update. Don't listen to people who complain about unstable bios. The bios on my PC has been faultless. I am seriously considering getting another of these and building a second PC with the bits from my first, then upgrading my main PC again. All in all, the perfect motherboard for gamers and graphic designers alike. The only negative I have about it is ASUS themselves. Their website is ...

WhyDoINeedAnotherName 08.01.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Digital Home Series - motherboard - ATX - i975X