Intel DP55KG Extreme Series Desktop Motherboard (P55 ATX Core i7 Core i5 LGA1156)

I decided to build a computer after a 10 year hiatus.SPECS:I chose this motherboard, 4gb (2x2g)Corsair XMS 3 1600mhz ram,the new unlocked Intel i-875K processor cooled by a Corsair Hydro H50. Also went with Ultra X4 750 watt modular Power Supply, Hitachi 1gb 7200rpm Sata HD, Lite-On 24x DVD+RW, the LEXA S Case, and the EVGA GTX480 video card, and Asus XONAR Essence ST Soundcard. I have a 30 inch Dell 3008WFP Monitor, Apple Blue-tooth Wireless Keyboard and Logitech Performance Mouse MX to complete out my build. I am running Windows 7 Professional 64bit 1 user OEM.INSTALL:It took me most of a Friday night to get this built. Mostly because the back plate of the Cooler doesn't fit correctly, I had to live with some bow in the back plate to get the 4th screw in. But all and all not too bad. It booted fine the first time. I didn't realize you can't use a Blue-tooth Keyboard at first so I had to grab an older cordless usb Microsoft one to actually set up Windows. The motherboard lined us great with my case and the SATA Cables and many of the other cables were able to route behind the motherboard through rubberized holes in the case. I had no issues installing the motherboard at all, just fine, and well laid out to plug in 4 fans, a water cooler, sata plugs, case front panel wires, power wires, etc. A+++PERFORMANCE:I didn't know how to overclock anymore after 10 years. So I read some stuff googling and wasn't sure and instead just used the Intel Desktop Control Panel to experiment. I ended up setting the Ram to 1600mhz and only changing the multiplier to 29x in quad config, 30 in three, and 31 in 2 and single core. I get a score of about 9,000 on CPU Mark. That was all I needed to do, no changing voltages or any of the rest of it. That is what worked best and has run cool and solid ever since.FEATURES:The blue-tooth doesn't work for my Apple keyboard, it recognizes it, lets you type in the code but loses connection, so I use a small usb dongle instead. The Video Card sits fine. There is some bling you can turn on in the bios for lights and a blue skull with glowing red eyes. I turned it on high since I have a case window. The real feature is the Intel Control Panel. It shows temps, overclock settings and fan speeds and lets you save profiles. That is a great feature and now that I am done overclocking, I don't use the bios anymore. I also downloaded the latest drivers and firmware from Intel. Paired with the Asus Soundcard (got because of the powerful headphone amp built in) I just use Grado SR-80 and Sennheiser RS140 wireless headphones and a set of Altec Lansing FX6021 speakers.FINAL IMPRESSION: For me this was a good jump back in to building my own computer. I wasn't satisfied with anything pre-built that I could afford. Building my own let me spend in the areas I valued. The Intel Board was a great choice because it runs well and is very expandable with a second or even third video card and lots of SATA and USB Ports. Get one!

This motherboard was a big letdown for me out of the box. I bought it to supplement a new LAN rig I built, and right from the get-go, there were problems. Admittedly, the first few weren't entirely the board's fault (heatsink wouldn't sit properly, though it was aftermarket which didn't help. Also, the memory bus that it supports is a paltry 1333MHz, so when I bought a higher-speed DDR3 RAM, the board couldn't take it).Hardware problems aside, this board's MASSIVE, GLARING flaw is in the fact that its network adapter doesn't actually come with installed drivers, nor do they come on the driver disk. That's right, you have to use a separate computer to download the drivers, then switch over to your motherboard (you need the OS installed to do this, by the way) and install them. So that's a pain in the tuckus if there ever was one. I'm not sure if other people have had this issue, but on my particular board, after every restart, the drivers get erased and must then be reinstalled. That means each time I turn the dang thing off, I need to reinstall the drivers.Now, for the good parts though. This thing is a MONSTER when it is working. I've got a 2.8Ghz i7 being overclocked to 3.47Ghz, and this thing still runs like a beauty. It has onboard RAID support (though you need to configure that in the BIOS before you install the OS: just switch the drive settings around). The RAID program that comes included with the board drivers is simple and works wonders. Also, the Intel DCC, which lets you view information about your processor and memory chips, as well as overclock and tweak all of your chips right from the desktop, looks really snazzy and works like a charm. If you're a gamer who wants a really good looking board, and can find a fix or overlook the problems this board has (I sincerely hope they release new and better drivers: as of the time of this review, I was on version 14.8), then by all means, buy it. Its onboard skull, which has an integral HDD light (the board itself has its own backlighting that can be turned on in the BIOS) looks great through a windowed case and draws a lot of looks at LAN events.In closure, this board has a lot of issues, but will also treat you really well when it works. If you buy it though, you gotta get the best gear to work with it, so an i7 is a necessary buy too, as well as good memory chips. Maybe they'll release support for higher memory processing power later, which would be a great bonus, since right now that's all that's holding this board back from being a speed demon.UPDATE:Fixed driver issues a couple of months ago with a BIOS update a few months ago. Works perfectly

I have only had this board running for a few weeks so I can't comment on it's reliability. The board was easy to install in an Antec Sonata case. The construction seems solid. I installed a i5-750 processor , 4 GB of Kingston ram and an ATI Radeon Video Card. The system fired up without a glitch. I loaded a Debian Linux operating system on with two problems. The sound didn't seem to work and the OS couldn't find the network interface. The first problem was solved by turning up the PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) level on the sound mixer. This is just something to remember since it took a while to find. I solved the second problem by putting in an inexpensive above board PCI bussed NIC. The root problem is still unsolved. The operating system just won't find the chip set. Users of Windoz probably won't be bothered by this glitch. The system is really really fast. It's about 15 times faster than my old one. A real pleasure to use. The board will take up to 16 GB of ram has ports to burn, has an advance surround sound audio system, a GB network interface (if you can get it to work). Check the specs for memory and compatible processors with the Intel site before purchase. From some peoples complaints, it's obvious they didn't. Don't forget this is a PCIe buss board not PCI although there are two older PCI connectors on the board.