>>Not sure how you can have adjustable shelves in particle board- (is that a possibility?) Not only do I have 19 yr old particleboard kitchen cabs in perfect shape (Kraftmaid frameless Euro6 line), I've owned painted particleboard bookcases for over 30 years, lugging them around from place to place. And yes, the KM cabs are completely adjustable with pins, no problem. There IS a difference in quality to look for. 3/4" is not as good as 1" (you can see some of the thinner particleboard cubes below show some bowing, although at 19 yrs in the same configuration they have yet to fall apart). And high-density is a lot better than low-density. Here's a photo of a mix of 3/4" and 1" bookcases and cubes. Notice the 2-shelf unit on the bottom LH, of 1" board? One of the oldest ones I have, it has been loaded with those extraordinarily heavy art and coffeetable books for thirty years. If you stacked up all the books that are on one shelf there, it's 30" high and I'll bet no person here would be able to lift them all at once. BTW, ignore the tilt in some of the vertical stacked cubes - we used L-brackets to bolt each individual piece to the wall for earthquake proofing, so it tilted some of the cubes forward as we worked upwards. Also, these are only half of the bookcases; we have 8 full-height teak-veneered particleboard bookcases in other rooms, also heavily loaded, and all over 20 yrs old. I can assure you, having moved these books and bookcases around several intracity relocations, each one of those bookshelves is holding much more weight than is being held on my fully-loaded, 75-lb capacity rollout KM pantry shelves in the kitchen. Lousy quality particleboard will bend under the weight of a few folded sweaters - I can attest to that, I've owned some of it (and had to throw it out). OTOH, lousy quality plywood is just as bad. We also own the "solid wood" Home Depot Masterbath bathroom cabs - what crappy plywood it is! 1/2" ply so flimsy, I was surprised it managed to support the weight of the double sink countertop without crashing to the floor. You'd better believe I'd never stand on the Masterbath cabs - but I have stood on the KM cabs without any problems, and at 230 lbs. I'm not exactly lightweight. The point made about the quality of interior veneers is an excellent one, and far too often overlooked. The interior veneer used by KM in 1989 is far superior to what they use now. I put dishes away wet and even had a six-month slow leak in our sink cab that did no damage outside of a quarter-sized bubble raised in the veneer, no substrate damage. There is an additional cost to using particleboard that should be noted - you should never go over 30" wide without a - I don't know the right woodworking term - front vertical support slat? - to help prevent the shelves from bowing. Plywood can go 36-48" in width, depending upon board thickness and weight capacity desired. Therefore, you should use more, slightly narrow cabs in particleboard, than you can use in plywood. That is the ONLY advantage of plywood, IMHO, coming from someone who has put frameless particleboard boxes through a lot more heavy use than most people ever manage. Being able to use fewer, larger cabs can sometimes save enough $$ to be worth the upgrade cost, for those who prefer plywood anyway. Plywood cabs are lighter and easier to DIY. Installers hate particleboard because it takes 2-3 people to do the install and it's a lot more heavy work. But either material IF of good quality, will be able to last so long you'll get tired of it before you'll see it disintegrate.

You probably should determine what this manufacturer means by "furniture board". If it is MDF is is probably ok. If it is a lesser grade of particle board then maybe not. That is from a structural perspective. Esthetics are something else. You should be sure to see an example of what they want to sell you and decide if it is a look that is acceptable to you. It also depends on what is laminated to the side panel - wood veneer or a plastic reproduction of wood, which won't look as good. Veneer will look the same whether laminated to MDF or plywood. The upgrade that will have the most effect on how the end looks is to put a door panel on it. IMO the toekicks don't matter much. They take a fair amount of abuse, and don't show that much. I didn't want mine to match the cabinets - I wanted black. My contractor just fabricated them out of MDF and painted them black.

There are several recent threads on this (google search works way better than the site search engeine, just add "site=ths.gardenweb" to get results from only here). Might get more detailed info there. It seems that opinion is split, but my recollection is the pros here use both but don't necessarily recommend paying to upgrade automatically. I don't want to speak for any of them, but in case more of them don't stop by that was the impression I got from past discussions. This also assumes the plywood is good quality (that's a whole other set of threads if you are interested) and the particleboard option is good as both products come in a variety of grades/quality. I'm getting frameless, so consensus is high quality particleboard has an advantage for frameless. I saved the cost of the "upgrade", which even the cabinet guy recommended against.

Doesn't really matter which product is used as long as it's used properly in a well constructed box. You could have a 1/2" plywood box that was put together with a little glue and staples and that would satisfy the "plywood" crowd. If you compare it to a box that is made from 3/4" furniture board well glued and fastened with dowels or special screws then I'd say there is no comparison. The "plywood" crowd would stick there noses up though. Another thing to pa attention to is details like hinges and drawer slides. You can get a 59 cent hinge or one that costs $3, a full ext. slide can range from about $9 up to $25. These can make as much a difference as what kind of sides your cabinet box has.