Advantages: Modular power connectors, good design, solid build, designed in the UK.
Disadvantages: Large

...for the power supply[1]. ATX 2.2 includes changes to the main power connector (20pin to 24pin), removed auxiliary power connector and includes a need for a 3.3v tolerance. Effectively ATX2.2 is a a new standard variant based on older designs looking to power newer technologies but also to provide increased power modulation and better tolerances to power deviation. Intel BTX, another form factor standard that talks about heat sinks, finalised about a year ago. From the point of view of the consumer it makes it harder to have a very small case that complies to all specifications however it should also improve tolerance to heat substantially. From the point of view of the manufacturer it is difficult as it means doing some simple redesigns. SLi (Scalable Link interface), this is the interesting specification that's going to take some time... Read review

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

...Without a doubt one of the most powerful feature packed Micro-ATX Boards ever to roll out of the ASUS factory. This small form factor motherboard using the intel i865 chipset which will take right up the the latest(at time of writing) 3.4 Ghz CPUs, as well as the newer Prescott CPUs with increased Cache and even Extreme edition CPUs. Add to that an impressive array of onboard features including: 8 USB2 Ports(4 on the rear I/O shield, and PCI plate which will allow you to connect a further 4 from USB headers which are useful for cases with front usb connectors) Onboard 10/100 Lan. For connecting to a home network or router for internet access or file sharing. Dual Channel DDR 400. Dual channel is basically a way of putting in two identical sticks of rm, for example 2x 512mb crucial 3200, and the motherboard splits... Read review

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Advantages: Very stable MoBo, built in ATI Graphics, reasonably priced.
Disadvantages: No SLI

...I purchased the RS482M4-ILD motherboard on 10th November 2005. The board arrived complete with a variety of cables. The board was well packaged and looks quite robust. For a review with all pictures search for MSI RS482M4-ILD review .This board is based on the RADEON 200 chipset. It includes on board Video. What you get in the box:Amongst the cables there is a SATA power cable and a SATA motherboard to disk cable. You also get 1 IDE and 1 Floppy cables. There is a Serial port via ribbon cable, TV S-Video and SPDIF connectors and 8channel sound via another cable. MSI provide software that includes a utility for checking all the updates available for your motherboard. This works well and it will inform you if your software is current or not. You can select all the updates that you want. Fitting the motherboard to your ATX... Read review

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Advantages: takes both SDRAM and DDRAM, jumper-free set-up, easy installation
Disadvantages: none

...to do, other than adjusting the time on the Processor clock. The BIOS allows for adjustment of the FSB so that it is possible to overclock your system, although I have yet to delve into that possibility. The power supply is of course an ATX one. The necessary screws were supplied, and also assorted raisers/spacers to allow users whose case is a tiny bit big to attach their motherboard whilst avoiding bending the motherboard. As with all systems, of course, you should make sure that you are grounded before you starting putting this one together. Having put together a lot of systems in my time I didn't refer to the installation manual, although for people putting together their first system it is very useful, especially as it offers a step by step installation guide. The motherboard was shipped with a variety of software. Trend PC... Read review

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Advantages: Good stable board
Disadvantages: Not many PCI slots

...Motherboards are critical to any computer. The selection is wide and the features each contains need to be closely looked at. I was building a new PC and I came across this motherboard. It is a micro ATX board so is alot smaller than any ATX board so therefore has the disadvantage of not having much opportunity for expansion. There are only three PCI slots which is fine if you do not require many but considering that a modem, soundcard and now wireless cards need PCI slots then this does not leave many options if you wish to install these. The board itself has many features and comes with onboard graphics and sound. The advantage of this is that money is saved on needing to buy a graphics card and sound card. The disadvantage of this is that if you do use the onboard graphics it uses your system memory and therefore can slow... Read review

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Advantages: Faster than equivalent Intel chips and lower in price
Disadvantages: No heat cut-out protection so fitting them is risky. They are easy to crush if you're not careful...

...sorts of annoyances. Since the system was so old there was little point just upgrading the CPU, the motherboard would only support upto 400Mhz and I don't even think shops sell that speed of processor now, such is the rate of progression in technology. That meant I needed to buy a new motherboard as well as the processor. Although I was on a relatively tight budget, I noticed while looking online that the speed-to-price ratio was such that for around £100 I could buy a processor 4 times that of my original, 1.4GHz. I decided on a Thunderbird chip as they are very good performers for their cost and faster than the equivalent Intel chip (not including Pentium 4). One problem however is that the faster chips require more power so I needed to buy either a new power supply and fit it myself or a new case with a more powerful power supply... Read review

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Advantages: HDTV output, supports AMDs Cool 'n' Quiet
Disadvantages: Only one lan

...The ASUS M2NPV-VM Motherboard for AMD single-core Athlon 64/ Sempron and Dual-core Athlon 64 X2/ Athlon FX processors using socket AM2 is very user friendly, I went with AMDs 64 x2 3800+ processor in the beginning then moved up to 4200+ 2Gb Ram without any hassle, very easy to setup and fits easily in a standard ATX case. A possible downside to the board is that it has a limited number of slots due to being a micro ATX sized board. That's not a big deal for me as the only two cards I'll be buying in the future is Graphics and a extra Lan card. Board Layout `````````````````` >In the upper right hand corner of the motherboard are the ATX 24 pin power connector, Floppy disk connector, Game/Midi port connector and four DDR2 slots. These DDR2 slots support a maximum memory capacity of 8GB and the frequencies supported is DDR2-800MHz/667... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, cheap, stable, excellent support and v good manual
Disadvantages: Requires a minimum of Win ME upwards

...and then if these are out-dated you have the very simple task of just clicking on update and your chosen driver updates are done for you with nothing else required, its extremely simple and straightforward and a massive bonus of this and other MSi motherboards to have included. The 845E max is a typical ATX motherboard and therefore will fit into most (if not all) modern desktops and the exact size dimensions are... Width 30.5 cm Depth 20 cm Heres a full list of the included supported features of this motherboard as specified by MSi themseoves on thier website... Expansion Slots Total (Free) 1 ( 1 ) x processor - Socket 478 1 ( 1 ) x AGP 4x ( 1.5 V ) 2 ( 2 ) x memory ( 2.5 V ) - DIMM 184-PIN 1 ( 1 ) x CNR 6 ( 6 ) x PCI ( 3.3 V/ 5 V ) Interfaces 1 x storage - floppy interface - 34 PIN IDC 2 x serial - RS-232 - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1... Read review

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Advantages: Stability and price
Disadvantages: Possibly limited PCI slot and memory DIMM's

...Hopefully this review may help others seeking an impartial opinion. To start off, il just outlay some brief specifications with opinions provided. Further specifications are available off the msi website. http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&maincatno=1&p rodno=1219 CPU Socket 775 for Intel P4 3xx/ 5xx/ 6xx/ Pentium D, Celeron D, Core 2 Duo processors. Also supports EIST and HT processors. Really handy as it supports my current p4 prescott HT and allows upgrade potential. It might seem like an obvious point, but finding a reliable board that I could use indefinitely on a p4 HT and then a dual core in the future was challenging. MEMORY DIMM1 supports 2GB max DDR2 400/533/667 and DIMM2 supports 1GB max DDR 266/333/400. From the image, you may have already guessed this is a micro ATX board, so... Read review

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Advantages: Triple Fan, nice gold colour, Serial-ATA cable, cheap, 650W
Disadvantages: None

...When I upgraded to a 64 bit AMD Athlon, I upgraded a few other bits and pieces too. A new graphics card, new hard drive, and new CD-Rom drive, along with the new CPU, my old power supply just wasn't capable. I wanted a strong supply, at a budget price, and Q-Tec seemed to fit the bill quite nicely, at the price I was dubious but the PSU has performed admirably now for well over a year. The PSU is cooled by three fans, 2 x 80mm, and 1 x 120 mm, which you would expect to be noisy, but this wasn't the case. The quoted noise level of 29 dB seems nothing compared to another fan within my case. These fans are