Processing and layout:
Here the white board to score directly. Clean and and effective heatsink, partially screwed (!) Components, SATA connector (!) As an additional power supply for graphics cards, and a very well thought out layout.
Example desired? OK, let's take the additional power supply for graphics cards. If the manufacturer is thinking of something, then these are mostly in the middle of the board, and there are Molex installed. Which means you have a four-core cable laying across the motherboard, and you have to work with extensions if you want to have somewhere additional current-carrying connector between the graphics cards. Such a thing never looks clean, and risk one runs even possibly (do not laugh! I have quite a few hair-raising things in support experienced) a short circuit causing.
Here which is designed as SATA connector, and in addition is this on the edge of the motherboard. So completely unproblematic position and 'modern' in an execution. Similarly, the socket for the power supply of the CPU is close to the edge of the board - because I had already seen some nonsense with other manufacturers ...
What we come to the most important (for me) point: it can block four or six graphics cards. While this makes for games little sense, but for my purposes this is ideal.
However, there is also a problem because the board is of dimensionally somehow between ATX and E-ATX. In my FT02 it would not have fitted without major modifications (it would collide with the radiator in the floor), and also in my present case (the Fractal Design ARC Midi R2) it was a bit tight with the cable bushings. So there you should make sure that you go has enough space forward.
Appearance:
The board just looks sophisticated with a high! Especially in a case with window and black interior can be as visually incredible amount to do with. This was partly because gigabytes (apart from the 'trim' to the heat sinks) has deliberately avoided color.
Cooling
The heatsink of a suitable size and also work very well. During the cooler on my old DFI have been hot unpleasant, so be the only warm.
While there is a suitable water cooler from EK for this mainboard, but this is not really necessary. It is really interesting only for aesthetic reasons, with me, the high price but then something deters.
Technology:
But here we have a lot of light and some shadows. Generally only einal one thing first: it is very stable at default settings, and no assembly made during installation or operation any problems. I switched from a 790FX on this board, and to reinstall the OS was not necessary. Disk infected, some drivers related reboots, and it runs ...
The BIOS is still in the old style, and the (not visible) UEFI Part will only be addressed if it is required. Who bit deals with UEFI, which will very quickly realize that this is a huge advantage (!) ... I had no problems, and also the FX has been recognized with two CPUs at once.
However, there are - enforced by the BIOS limits - a few obstacles to memory. My 1866er Dominator GT run at a Phenom II with 1600 (with a FX 1866), and even higher clock speeds are only possible with a lot Probiererei. That was resolved much better with my old DFI, the same memory was properly recognized, and ran there at once with my Phenom 1866. Incidentally zickt the Board also very much at the Vengeance series of Corsair rum - which has already some people prepares a lot of frustration. It's worth it to Kompabilitätsliste of gigabytes to look, or to use the RAM modules from AMD / Patriot.
However, the power supply for the CPU is not without its problems. On the one hand the board is (as of revision 3.0) as one of the few for the new FX from AMD released (FX 9370 and FX 9590), on the other hand there is under load quite a high voltage drop of overclocking the CPU difficult. From the Revision 1.1, identified by the marking (the first image that would be in the top left), the been although much improved, but the error is just still available.
Very good, though, is that here a board which receives hardly leaves much be desired with the equipment. The mere possibility of eight (!) Drives to be connected is not so common to find in this price range.
TL / DR
Outstanding Board for User - for extreme overclockers but less suitable. The oversize of the boards can cause problems, but there are really only a few minor things to which one has to pay maintenance. However, since the board is very suitable for me (I just not cycles), I have no reason to deduct a star and forgive a perfect score. For my second computer I'm going to buy anyway again this board ...
Purchase recommendation
Tips:
1. Take the best the gray bushes of the Marvell controller for optical drives.
2. If you want to spoil a lot of fans to buy the best one or two Y-cable (such as the Nanoxia - 3-pin or 4-pin PWM Nanoxia) with.
Postscript
The board gets along wonderfully with the Patriot Viper3, Black Mamba (running at a clock speed of 2000 MHz). Once I have the second kit, I'll still grudge here.
The AMD FX 8320 runs only by raising the Mutiplikators, out-of-the-box with just over 4 GHz. The old Phenom II 965 made some problems and even the 8150 would not really (well were 'worse' chips - it is and remains just a matter of luck), the new FX runs.