MSI Intel B85 LGA 1150 DDR3 USB 3.1 Micro ATX Motherboard (B85M-E45)

Pros:Powerful BIOSWell labeled componentsCons:No control over CASE2 and CASE3 fansCPU power far from bottom mount PSUI have been running this board for 6 months with no problems.I bought this looking for a motherboard with 4 RAM slots and ATX size for future expansion. This one had good reviews and looked like a good deal.If this is your first UEFI board (like it is for me), you may be in for a pleasant surprise. The BIOS is very easy to use. The boot order is layed out on the main settings page, and you can drag the categories to change theorder. You have to go into the Boot settings to change the priority in each category though. Of course there is also an F11 shortcut to choose a boot source. Settings have mostly very helpful messages to explain the differentoptions.From my research I wasn't sure how it would handle my existing MBR disks vs. future GPT disks. I have had no issues. The boot categories differentiate between UEFI and legacy boot sources, and it has had no problems detecting mydifferent boot media (I did have issues after some hardward changes, but I blame them on Grub, not the BIOS).The "OC" settings are limited since this is not a Z87 board. You can turn the processor Turbo mode on and off, and you can choose a frequency for the processor to run at (up to the Turbo spec). You can also set the power limitsit uses to manage Turbo mode.The BIOS also controls the CPU1, CPU2, and CASE1 fans. You can manually set the fan speed (in %), or give it a CPU temperature range to regulate. It shows a graph and values of the temperature and fan speeds for these. The controllable case fan plug is located behind the CPU, so it is most useful for either side fans or rear/top fans.There are sensors for motherboard temperature, each CPU core temperature, and the previously mentioned fans. There is also a voltage monitor for the power supply. There doesn't appear to be any feedback or control of the CASE2and CASE3 fans.There is even an "explorer" that shows an image of the motherboard with info on the important parts. I'm not sure how useful this since the computer must work to get to it, but it is interesting.The only other negative thing is the location of the processor power plugs. If you have a bottom mount PSU case (like most are these days), it is about as far from the PSU as it can possibly be. I was able to run the cable acrossthe motherboard to get to it, but it was a close fit. This seems fairly standard but is still a slight frustration.All of the sockets and plugs are well labeled as to what goes where.I had no problems installing either stock or aftermarket CPU coolers. Keep in mind some of the larger ones may interfere with the closest RAM slot.Make sure you line up the rear I/O cover correctly, I messed up the first time and had metal tabs blocking some ports.Note on BIOS: I tried the M-Flash to update the BIOS from a USB stick, but the BIOS just froze. Fortunately a reboot just brought it back with the ond BIOS version. Evidently this is not unusual. I used the DOS updateinstructions instead, and that worked fine. It's not too hard if you have Windows available to make the DOS boot disk.

I got this for a steal, so if I had to pay full price it would be closer to 4.5 stars. Good board, not the best, but for the money...yes.This is a great little board that has 4 expansion slots, more than most other mini-ATX boards. Setup is very easy, but be forewarned, this is an ECO board, and is designed for just that. Don't be surprised that there are no voltage controls, no FSB frequency control, no voltage controls for anything.That all being said, it has been running great so far. The ECO tool appears to function as advertised, and this thing is spot on with power management. I can't say the same for many other boards that I have built with over the years, there always seemed to be some power state that got funky, but with this no issues.The BIOS is friendly, setting up X.M.P. for my memory worked perfectly. Which, with an ECO board sounds kind of counter-intuitive but hey I want ecology and some performance after all. Lots of regular, clearly labeled and explained options. Flashing was a breeze. It pulled in right from the USB, recognizing it without me having to hunt for anything. Just put the new update onto the USB drive, rebooted, went into the menu, clicked the M-Flash and away it went. Easy-peasy.A little warning, at first I thought I had a DOA board, and I hadn't hooked up the monitor, but was expecting to see at least fans moving. What ended up happening was, since I was using a Dell HSF that I rewired the pin header, the pin header was off by one pin when I put it on the header (it has 5 pin holes and the lock mechanism I shaved off to get it to fit so I had shifted pins by 1 each). The board, cleverly picking up this issue, stopped all function. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but since this board has NO BOARD LED FOR POWER PRESENT, that had me confused. I had to clear the CMOS before it would do anything. No fans would spin, nothing. So just in case that helps someone else. A board power LED should really be in this board. ECO or not, because they are like micro-watts or less. Truly. One strike MSI designers! A board should ALWAYS indicate power present. But hey nothing ground-breaking.The MSI software all works way better than expected and doesn't cause any issues on the system. Very very happy with this board so far. My only complaint is you should be able to tweak the 3 pin fan header output to slow your fans down. It's kind of annoying to have everything else running auto and not being able to roll down the RPM's on the secondary exhaust fans. I'd like it quieter.All in all this is a good motherboard. It would be great for a low power NAS system. I have it as a multi-purpose desktop/HTPC/etc box.