The Asus K8V arrived in a cool looking box with a picture of a stainless steel robotic Saber-Toothed Lion on the top. This is the non-wireless version of the board meaning that the Wi-Fi internal adapter is not included with the package. The PCB on the Asus K8V is black, but it almost looks brown since there are so many traces running along the board. I like the fact that the RAM slots have been moved slightly closer to the top of the board so that there is no interference with longer AGP cards or any problems hooking power to the cards. One thing I can't understand is why the ATX power connector is located on one side of the board, but the +12V connector is clear on the other side. I would have preferred to see the ATX power connector on the top of the board near the +12V to assist with wire management.

As you can see, Asus includes quite a bit of stuff with their board. Unfortunately, the software selection is weak. Besides the drivers on CD and Asus' own controller and monitoring programs, the only other software included is Trend-Micro PC-Cillin 2002 and WinDVD Suite. Since the board isn't what you would call a budget board and given Asus' reputation, I would have at least expected NAV, Ghost, or a couple games. Not a huge issue, but would have been nice. The manual is well written and has extensive documentation of the BIOS and other board features. There is a sticker included that you can slap on the inside of your case door that details the various jumpers and connectors, a keyboard template to use with the Instant Music feature (more on that later), a backplate, and the obligatory case badge.