I am disappointed with this motherboard, I purchased one the other week and I was building the machine the other day but felt that this board is of poor design. I found that after installing it all and then putting the graphics card I'd purchased in that there was a conflict between the onboard graphics (The Intel HD 4000 graphics) and the graphics card that I put in the machine. I bought a Radeon HD 7950. The problem I was having was that when I'd installed and enabled both drivers for the onboard graphics and the Radeon graphics card there was a conflict and Windows 7 Pro 64 bit wouldn't boot properly. I tried and tried with it and spent hours on end trying to get it to work with both running at the same time, I tried their software they recommended called LucidLogix Virtu MVP where it's supposed to allow you to select which GPU you want to use and which you don't when using a separate graphics card.
The conclusion that I arrived at is that it doesn't work, as I spent many hours trying all the possibilities of trying to get it to install properly and get it working. I did however manage to get LucidLogix Virtu MVP to install with both graphics drivers installed but this was only possible by plugging my monitor using the DVI-I connector into the onboard graphics. But I was trying everything in the motherboard manual about using LucidLogix Virtu MVP and setting it up correctly in the bios also like setting your graphics card to the PCI-E as the primary interface. It was no good and didn't work at all. I did however waste quite a lot of time with it and it doesn't appear to work really so I was very let down by Asus in how this board does work. The only solution was to simply disable the Intel onboard graphics in the Device Manager in Windows 7. It is a shame that this is the only way you can stop the conflict between the two GPUs. It is a shame with this motherboard that you have to put up with a disabled device in the device manager if you're wanting to use a decent graphics card in your machine.
Asus could have solved this problem but they didn't and I think it is bad on their part as a motherboard manufacturer, it could have been very simple really they could have either put a feature in the bios so you could completely disable the onboard graphics or even better could have just put a jumper on the motherboard so you could choose whether you wanted to use the onboard graphics and just deactivate the onboard graphics completely. They obviously failed here, it is such a shame that I have to put up with this problem and paying something around £155 for this board was such a shame.
Like I said I did spend many hours trying to resolve this problem but there appears to be no way around it. I was even thinking at one point about maybe changing the bios firmware again as I'd already put the latest one on but was thinking about maybe swapping to the earlier previous firmware to that but then I decided not to bother as there's probably no point and it would still not work properly.
I guess I can put up with it as just a disabled device in Windows 7, it shouldn't have to be like that though and Asus do things wrong at times, they can be poor at manufacturing things. I notice that this problem regarding this onboard Intel graphics issue has affected many people on the internet, you only have to google this problem and find that quite a few of their boards are causing a problem when trying to install a graphics card.
Shame really, the rest of the board seems good but this silly Intel HD 4000 problem really should be sorted out for future boards, I think Asus need telling really, they are muppets.
The conclusion that I arrived at is that it doesn't work, as I spent many hours trying all the possibilities of trying to get it to install properly and get it working. I did however manage to get LucidLogix Virtu MVP to install with both graphics drivers installed but this was only possible by plugging my monitor using the DVI-I connector into the onboard graphics. But I was trying everything in the motherboard manual about using LucidLogix Virtu MVP and setting it up correctly in the bios also like setting your graphics card to the PCI-E as the primary interface. It was no good and didn't work at all. I did however waste quite a lot of time with it and it doesn't appear to work really so I was very let down by Asus in how this board does work. The only solution was to simply disable the Intel onboard graphics in the Device Manager in Windows 7. It is a shame that this is the only way you can stop the conflict between the two GPUs. It is a shame with this motherboard that you have to put up with a disabled device in the device manager if you're wanting to use a decent graphics card in your machine.
Asus could have solved this problem but they didn't and I think it is bad on their part as a motherboard manufacturer, it could have been very simple really they could have either put a feature in the bios so you could completely disable the onboard graphics or even better could have just put a jumper on the motherboard so you could choose whether you wanted to use the onboard graphics and just deactivate the onboard graphics completely. They obviously failed here, it is such a shame that I have to put up with this problem and paying something around £155 for this board was such a shame.
Like I said I did spend many hours trying to resolve this problem but there appears to be no way around it. I was even thinking at one point about maybe changing the bios firmware again as I'd already put the latest one on but was thinking about maybe swapping to the earlier previous firmware to that but then I decided not to bother as there's probably no point and it would still not work properly.
I guess I can put up with it as just a disabled device in Windows 7, it shouldn't have to be like that though and Asus do things wrong at times, they can be poor at manufacturing things. I notice that this problem regarding this onboard Intel graphics issue has affected many people on the internet, you only have to google this problem and find that quite a few of their boards are causing a problem when trying to install a graphics card.
Shame really, the rest of the board seems good but this silly Intel HD 4000 problem really should be sorted out for future boards, I think Asus need telling really, they are muppets.