Thank You guys for all your help, I finally made my decision.

[steve1616]

I wanted to thank everyone for their great advice on this forum. I ordered my P5K-Deluxe yesterday. I was having a real hard time between the P5K-deluxe and the Gigabyte P35-DS3 and DS4 boards. I really thought the Asus P5K-deluxe had great value, and performed way more consistant performance wise throughout the reviews, even though one site might love it, and another review site might have been less than impressed. I almost went for the cheaper route of the P5K-E wifi, but I found the P5K-deluxe for only $10 more so it made my decision easy. I was scared of setting the motherboard up at first, but the more I read about the process, the more I found out it doesn't look all that bad. It seems no different than when I would have to flash a computer for the model of car that I had to put it in. In fact, that puts a lot of perspective in why motherboards can have such bad reviews. I had to flash computers for automotive shops all the time because I had the special diagnostic software and scanner set up to do so. I flashed a lot of computers for cars, and almost none of the computers I flashed were bad. Mechanics can be really stupid, and when they can't figure a problem out, they always blame the computer. This is mostly because they have no idea what in the heck the computer actually does so they point their finger at whatever is the most scary to them. In my own shop, I only had one car that actually needed a new computer, and that was because the exhaust manufold caused a small fire which fried the computer and other stuff. Some shops would refer people to me that the shop had diagnosed as a computer problem. I almost always found a wire that had been broken or shorted or just touching a ground, etc.

I can't wait to get my motherboard. Thanks for the help.

Steve

 

[krnmastersgt]

Nice board, apparently newegg people give it sub-standard reviews but like I said before, a lot of people blame their mistakes on a defective board. Have fun OCing with it, the BIOS on that thing is superb for first timers or veterans

 

[steve1616]

I noticed that the review sites compliment companies like Abit pretty good on their Bios, but don't give Asus much for compliments in this area. From the screen shots, it looks like one of the very best laid out bios's that I have seen. I am really excited about this purchase, and I can't wait to overclock for the first time.

 

[chuckm]

Nice choice, good luck with the build.

 

[imported_wired247]

Originally posted by: krnmastersgt
Nice board, apparently newegg people give it sub-standard reviews but like I said before, a lot of people blame their mistakes on a defective board. Have fun OCing with it, the BIOS on that thing is superb for first timers or veterans

I have learned to generally ignore 99% of newegg reviews. sometimes a few of the negative ones can have detailed info to clue you in to specific issues that come up from time to time, but 99% of the reviews aren't worth the internet they're printed on

so my rule of thumb: things work as expected unless someone posts a specific review saying it doesn't. my other rule of thumb: don't buy stuff online that is difficult to RMA... like large monitors for example...

 

[tcsenter]

Well...I am not sure this class of motherboard is the most suitable for someone with your experience level, particularly an ASUS product. For the past year or so, it almost seems as though ASUS BIOS support is struggling to keep pace with the prolific and unwieldy nature of ASUS product releases.

i.e. Its easier to support 20 motherboard models at any given time than 60

I would have recommended something with a lot more refinement and maturity, such as Intel D975XBX2 or DP35DP. Either of those boards will be actively supported by Intel for another 2 ~ 3 years. Intel has much longer support phases compared to almost every other motherboard manufacturer. Or even one of the base models from ASUS instead of an enthusiast-class model, which tend to bring more complexity than many users are prepared for.

Make sure you update to the latest non-beta BIOS using the EZ Flash or DOS method (before installing the OS), instead of using ASUS LiveUpdate after the OS is installed. ASUS LiveUpdate has become synonymous with 'Board Bricker' on ASUS Forums.

Good luck!