ASUS NVIDIA nForce Chipset A7N266-E (A7N266-E W/PA W/LAN) Motherboard

Pros: loaded with features (awesome sound and great 3D video!
Cons: Soundcard (riser) is too low on the board to fit perfectly. No onboard NIC.

I am an A+ certified technician. I built my own computer with this motherboard. At the time it was the fastest motherboard with the ASUS name. I have a Athlon XP 1800 (1.5ghz) chip on it and new 300watt power supply. I've never had a problem with it...

the asus nfroce a7n266-e motherboard is great. nvidia did a great job on the 420-d chipset. most of the things you will need are built in the motherbord. like gforce video card and sound blaster sound card, a lan card and virus protection. i did notuse the on board sound card,i installed sound blaster audigy. the board is fast very fast.

Nice card, it was easy to install, even for a first timer, except for two things: 1.) The pin to hold the fan in place was hectic to bring down (could be cause of my inexperience). 2.) The ACR card provided with the board which contains the connections for the speakers etc., was a bit hard to install, I had to really squeeze it in. They made the ACR card about the same lengh as a regular PCI card, while bringing its specific slot a quarter of an inch closer to the back of the card, making it difficult to install without forcing it, which I hate to do because it makes me very nervous to squeeze in an investment of a few hundred bucks.

have not been able to get Windows or any Linux distro's to load up to a GUI. Windows always gives a BSD about two thirds into the installation process. Linux loads, but to no GUI (command shell only)