Introduction

ASUS launched its Republic of Gamers line of motherboards a while ago with the initial offerings of the Striker Extreme and Crosshair motherboards. While these motherboards did have a lot of features they were a bit lacking. Their third offering the Commando is based on the Intel P965 chipset, which is known to be highly overclockable. The Commando features the P956 as well as the LCD poster, onboard switches, support for 45nm processors and the SupremeFX audio card. With all these features it sure seems like ASUS has gone in the right direction with the Commando. Read on to see what the Commando has in store for us!

Specs

CPU: LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Extreme / Core2 Duo / Pentium Extreme / Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron D Processors Compatible with Intel 05B/05A/06 processors
- Intel Quad-Core CPU ready
- Support Intel next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU
Chipset: Intel P965 / ICH8R with Intel Fast Memory Access Technology
Front Side Bus: 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz
Expansion Slots:
- 2 x PCI-E x16 (@ x16 and x4 mode)
- 4 x PCI 2.2
Storage:
- 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
- Intel Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
IEEE 1394: 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel)
USB: 10 x USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel)
ASUS Features:
- LCD Poster
- Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS
- Q-Connector
- ASUS CrashfreeBIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash2
- ASUS MyLogo3
- Back Panel I/O Ports
ATX Form Factor: 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)

Packaging

The Commando comes in a really attractive retail box. Just like all of the other Republic of Gamers motherboards it is gaming themed. The back of the box has a list of features and specifications.

Opening up the box there are 2 main components, the motherboard (protected in clamshell type packaging) and the accessory box. Inside of the accessory box you will find SATA cables, floppy cable, IDE cable, SATA power cables, I/O shield, PCI USB connectors, PCI firewire connector, heatsink cooling fan, Qconnectors, manual, cable ties, driver CD (that includes a full version of 3DMark 06), retail copy of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and a Vista Driver CD.