After a series of electrical misshappens destroyed my previous board, I purchased this one, which looked inexpensive and useful enough. This is the B360M DS3H model, which I feel the need to clarify because Amazon keeps grouping up all the reviews for several different models and people don't always notice this.
After pairing it up with a new CPU and RAM (my old ones were not compatible and likely just as destroyed anyway) I booted my PC up, checked the BIOS options for a bit and let the OS (Windows 7 64 bit) load. Everything went fine until I tried to move the mouse, which didn't respond, and neither did the keyboard. I knew it wasn't a problem with both devices or the board because they both ran fine at the BIOS settings.
As it turns out, all the USB ports of the board, even the 2.0 ones run in a 3.0 base, and Windows 7 is incompatible with USB 3.0. I had USB 3.0 drivers installed, but they only worked with my previous board. After desperately searching for compatible drivers, I found them, installed them... and they did nothing. USB still didn't work.
So yeah, I had to install Windows 10, which I was going to do anyway (already had the license ready), but I just wanted to use my PC normally for a bit before. Alas, it was not to be. A few more hours had to be waited upon.
As for the board, it works fantastically. I find the performance in my software and games to be much better than before. Granted, it's hard to gauge just how much of that is the board and how much is actually the new RAM, CPU and OS (I keep the same GPU), but still, the board had no compatibility issues once W10 was installed. But, keep in mind, if you intend to keep using Windows 7, this board is not for you.
| Memory Speed | 2133 MHz |
|---|---|
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
