Stephen MSI X58M @ ITReviewed
“MSI should be applauded for bringing Intel’s X58 chipset to the masses at a sub-£150 price point. Sure there are full-size motherboards that offer better performance and overclocking features, but for mainstream users building a MicroATX-based machine the X58M is fantastic value. The motherboard offers an almost perfect balance of features and performance, and would make a great choice for a high performance small form factor multimedia (HTPC) or gaming system.”
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P @ Neoseeker
“Overall, the Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P is a great board for a great price. The differences with the higher end MA790FXT-UD5P are small. Except the different chipset, there are some other physical differences which allow saving a couple of pennies here and there. These neither affect performance, nor reliability. If the higher-end MA90FXT-UD5P does not fit into one’s budget, the MA790XT-UD4P is there to help.”
ASUS M4A79 Deluxe @ Motherboards.org
“ASUS has done their usual solid job with a new motherboard release. As the chipsets used on this motherboard are not new, the performance across different boards using these two chipsets should be pretty close and they are. A lot of AM2+ motherboards support the AM3 CPUs with a BIOS Flash allowing for easy upgrade options for older motherboard chipsets.”
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT UD5P @ Motherboards.org
“From a platform point of view the Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P motherboard fits the bill as a motherboard that supports AMD’s latest CPUs on the AM3 platform including the 810 we used for this review. Features-wise this board has all of the features that an enthusiast will want from a new AM3 motherboard except for one. For those expecting to run three or four ATI cards in CrossfireX mode will be disappointed as this board only has two PCI Express x16 slots but that is not the target audience of this board.”
ASUS Rampage II GENE @ TBreak
“Asus’ Rampage II GENE is an amazing motherboard that will suit the gamer most. It is packed with features such as CrossFire and SLI support, can accept up to 24Gbytes of DDR3 memory and also features superb overclocking options. In fact, its overclocking options are almost identical to those offered by its bigger brother, the Rampage II Extreme.”
MSI Eclipse Plus @ OC Club
“MSI has certainly delivered a great board with the Eclipse Plus, overclocking my i7 to 4GHz was fairly easy although with base clock frequencies past 200 some moderate tweaking had to be done, I even managed to get a CPU-Z at 4.5GHz. If an overclock fails, the motherboard must restart three times to clear – an annoyance but with the clear CMOS button near the PS/2 ports users can easily reset the BIOS and continue overclocking.”
MSI Eclipse Plus @ X-Bit Labs
“The reason why we remembered about all these circumstances today is because we got our hands onto a new MSI Eclipse Plus mainboard, which we are happy to discuss in our new review. It differs from the predecessor not only by the “Plus” in its model name: it looks different, boasts a number of additional features and most importantly works way better. We would like to start, as usual, with the closer look at the board and accessories.”
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P @ PC Perspective
“The appearance of the board is quite pleasing, and the layout again cause very few issues with me. The cooling system on the chips was also quite functional, and again was quite attractive in design. The Ultra Durable 3 features also seem to add a lot of value and security, and I believe that they actually add real engineering value to the product.”
ASUS Maximus II Gene @ Benchmark Reviews
“ASUS has some tough shoes to fill. Fortunately, they’re familiar shoes; their own, in fact. A long string of high performance motherboards that got adopted simultaneously by the enthusiast and gaming sets, led ASUS to create a specialty brand segment they call “Republic of Gamers”.”
ASUS Crosshair III Formula @ Motherboards.org
“The board also has the features you want from an AMD board including support for AM3 Phenom II CPUs, an LCD POSTER, the ability to “Level Up” your CPU with the flick of a button and onboard Start, Reset and MemOK buttons on the board. The one negative on this board is the lack of more than two PCI Express x16 slots as the flexibility of more slots offers more choices for the gamer.”