The ASUS A7V8X is definitely one of the most innovative boards we tested in our labs. With a strong feature set like USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet (optional), AGP 8x, Serial ATA, RAID and 6 channel audio. With these new feature, it definitely brings the overall I/O performance to another level. 

In our tests, the performance of this board is pretty good if you were to run in the official DDR333 mode. DDR400 mode is a bit disappointment though. I have made a check with different manufacturers and they told me similar stories about the problem of running DDR400 mode. Furthermore when you run at DDR400 mode, you can only use 1 pc of DDR400 module as documented in the manual.

Overclocking wise, we managed to overclock up to 185Mhz FSB. Looking at the chart of the selectable FSB and corresponding PCI, it seems that at 200Mhz, PCI is running at 44Mhz. I am pondering where is the 1/6 multiplier ?

The board layout needs to be improved. The AGP Slot's retention clip is too close to the DIMM slots and makes it quite difficult to remove DDR if the AGP card is installed.

Documentation is concise and the multi-language BIOS is definitely a welcomed move. Installation is very straightforward, there is ample space around the CPU. Most of the heatsinks should have no problems fitting it.