ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX DDR3 USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s ATX Motherboard

This is actually my first ASUS board. I have been using MSI products for the last few years with no issues, so why the change? Upon reading the specifications of the new MSI, I liked the fact that ASUS has more features including the core unlocker that allows all cores to achieve full performance capabilities, also I've heard from friends that ASUS makes some really good bios chipsets. This board has some really noticeable features like USB 3 and SATA 6 which don't have so much of an impact on users now, but will soon in the future. Another feature which I have not seen before is the easy bios upgrade feature that allows a user to upgrade bios in bios and checks the file to be sure its compatible with the chipset. There are many other feature which I haven't had the chance to mess around with yet, like the Hybrid CrossfireX technology and ASUS TurboV EVO, not to mention even more overclocking features, however, I must admit I'm not one to overclock even with liquid cooling installed, mostly since I'm not a millionaire and can't afford to overheat a cpu, but if you have the money and experience this board will definitely take advantage of what your processor can do, also this will support the new 6 cores; also this new chipset features the Radeon HD 4290 onboard GPU that supports 512mb and has direct X 10.1 features and comes with multiple VGA outputs, HDMI, DVI, RGB. I only used the onboard when first firing her up, so I didn't get a chance to see what it could do in games like Bioshock or Battlefield Bad Company, but I can imagine being able to play at 1920 X 1080p with just about every setting maxed. If there is one negative thing about this board it would have to be that it has no floppy drive support, and while you don't really need one anyways, I did buy a brand new one, along with floppy disks, but that's just being to used to older tech since it was required to have a floppy disk to create partitions and for RAID drivers in the past.Overall, the price and technology in this board is more than exceptional and had it up and running with the first power on without any problems, ASUS also gives you some pretty good software on their driver CD like ASUS Probe 2 which has a great interface and shows motherboard and cpu temperatures. Now I just need to save some money for another Radeon card then I can give crossfire X a test run. -Great board.

bought this board since it was an AM3 socket which was what i was looking for, overall im very impressed by the board, had a bit of a problem installing the board in my case, since there wasnt quite enough room for the back panel cover.

the board has a great design too, love the mem-ok button, had some initial problems with my RAM (it doesnt accept 1600MHz RAM right off the bat), but thats simple to get around, just put the RAM in, and use the MEM-OK button and it will work perfectly fine, then just go to the BIOS and change the frequency to the 1600MHz that you wanted.
the BIOS is also great for this board, lets you tweak allot of stuff very easily and the layout is very user friendly.

If you want to take a gamble, you can opt to try the core unlocker, some AMD processors have locked cores, for example the Athlon II and Phenom II X2 and X3 models are models with locked cores, if you are lucky enough, the locked cores will be in workable condition, therefore, adding 1 or maybe even 2 more cores to your processor. just a bit of a warning and note on that, the X2 and X3 models are usually designated that because of manufacturing defects on the locked cores, so remember that theres no guarantee you will get extra cores, and also if you do unlock the cores, you may have to fiddle with the settings to get them to be stable. but hey, if you buy a dual/triple core and try the unlocker, you cant loose, at worse you will just be stuck with the processor you paid for, which is still pretty good since AMD offers very good prices for their products, the best is getting a hell of a lot more bang for your buck by getting a quad core for the price of a dual.

A bit of a side note, the GTD version(this one) comes with a decent integrated video card (ATI Radeon HD 4290) which you can change the amount of integrated memory it uses, up to 512mb, so you can have a 512mb DDR3 video card right off the bat without paying for a video card, and i must say, the integrated video card impresses me, you cant do anything past light gaming with it, but it runs TF2 (high settings) and Fallout 3 (medium settings) pretty well, i have even heard you can play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on minimum settings smoothly. you should be able to play almost every game on minimum settings smoothly at the very least as of now (Oct 2010). so, if you are on a budget, you can forgo buying a video card temporarily with this board, which is what i did, I eventually got myself an ATI Radeon HD 5770.

overall, I highly recommend this mobo, its feature set will come in handy for users of nearly any level, plus, you wont need to upgrade the mobo itself for years since its built for upgrading.

Build:
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 - AM3 - AMD 890GX - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s - ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0 GHz 4x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail ADX640WFGMBOX
Corsair 4GB Dual Channel Corsair DDR3 Memory for Intel Core i5 Processors (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
OCZ OCZ550FTY Fatal1ty Series 550W Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM SATA II WD5000AAKS
Thermaltake V5 Black Edition Mid-Tower Gaming Chassis VL70001W2Z (Black)
Lite-On LightScribe 24X SATA DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive IHAS424-98 - Retail (Black)

I ahve used ASUS boards almost exclusively for several years now with no failures period. I guess I was preparing for one from this board as the technology was new, ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 promised a lot. Frankly, I expected to experience promises unfulfilled. Not so. I bought the board and an AMD 965 processor from Amazon, assembled the pieces and was amazed by an initial output of 3.67 ghz (AMD Turbo) on the processor. 1600 mhz memory ran at 1460 or so. I was impressed. And the best part of computer building, in my opinion, and aside from all the bios items working, and proper lights going on is the tuning. This board is simplicity itself to build and a wonder to tune, and I am way picky about my machine's ability to perform, and that takes tuning. Never in 30+ builds have I ever experienced teh level of direct change possible on working components. This build is the AMD quad core at 3.75 ghz, 8 gigs of Corsair DDR3 1600 RAM at 1500 or so mhz, ATI 5770 PCIE at 108, on the board. It shows a running temp of 81 degrees!! This is one sweet board, and Amazon delivered 36 hours after a midnight order - well done!

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