I love this board, High end for good price, although XP has caveats
Pros:
Price, features.
Cons:
XP install requires some administration.
The Bottom Line:
Great value for the money, very fast.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I'll qualify my positive review with a caveat that installing Windows XP using the RAID device requires either buy a USB floppy or creating a Slipstream installation of Windows XP to use for installing. Using a USB floppy has its own issues (others have noted), so I don't recommend it.
I created a slipstream install and it worked great (having read other peoples notes). Essentially this inserts a customizable set of drivers, SP's and whatever else you desire into your Windows install so the OS can find them during the install. Burn the DVD and your ready to go. I like this approach in general when system building, as if you ever must reinstall, you don't have to round up driver disks during the install. Its faster to get the drivers, burn the DVD, then to reboot your system 20 times installing all of the different drivers. You don't want to use the ISTOR drivers from the floppy anyway as they are not the latest, you must download the latest from Intel.
After the install, its been very stable, feature rich (with NO overclocking capabilities), for a fairly low cost high end system. You should (as when doing all system building, of course) insure the components are compatible, especially the memory. I used Corsair DDR2 800 Mhz and had no issues. Power requirements are also important, I used a Silverstone Zeus ST56ZF 560 which is quiet and more than enough for running all of the internal components.
These boards are widely available, and even more inexpensive than when I bought them.
