VPN: M3A78-EM
Product ReviewsASUS M3A78-EM Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
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51%
45%
4%
0%
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 Rating: Review Date: 02/23/10  |
Cons: Small if you've got a big video card (I've got a HD 5770). But that's mATX for yah...
Pros: Lots of interfaces like HDMI, DisplayPort, eSATA, ect. Supports AM2, AM2+ AND some AM3 (check Asus website for info). |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/04/10 |
Cons: Documentation and advertising indicates it only supports AM2 & AM2+ CPUS.
Pros: Loads of extras, great for HTPC Comment:
Great motherboard for the price. Comes with loads of extra features: HDMI-out, fire-wire, dvi and VGA out. SPDIF, audio. Great for a cheap home theatre pc. Only supports AM2 & AM2+ CPU. Documentation and adveristing state this. ASUS website though does list supported AM3 cpus. I haven't tired any to know if it supports them. |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/09/10 |
Cons: None for me
Pros: Versatile board supporting a variety of older to new cpu'sQ Connector is a excellent addition ( I hope this becomes a standard ) Connector / headers for almost everything Comment:
I couldn't be more pleased with this board, easy install, 0 issues. Very stable. Asus has completely impressed me on this board. |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/30/09 |
Cons: No VRM coolingTiny southbridge heatsink
Pros: Lots of features (eSATA, HDMI, DisplayPort, FireWire)Very affordableDecent onboard videoA lot of solid state caps Comment:
For a budget mATX AM2/AM3 board with DDR2 support, this thing packs a sick amount of value. I got it for seventy bones with an another ten back via mail-in rebate and that got me 5 SATA ports, eSATA, HDMI, DisplayPort, FireWire, S/PDIF, and support for all the latest AM3 processors.I'm using it to drive my file server/home theater PC and it's pretty much perfect for what I'm using it for. The onboard video is a bit old, but good enough for high def. videos, Blu-ray, etc. Also, If you're using Windows 7, the AHCI drivers are integrated so you don't need to go with the floppy or slipstream method to get them loaded.The only thing I don't like is the board's cooling. The VRMs are bare - I would put some ramsinks or something on them if you're going to use a 125W+ CPU on it, or they'll definitely cook. The southbridge heatsink also gets blistering hot. Given the price I paid, I don't think I can complain much about that though - only high-end boards have decent cooling.And FYI, using SpeedFan you can control two fans. Limited range on the CPU fan header (PWM fan only) and full control on the Chassis fan header. Oh and most of the capacitors are solid state - nice touch. This review was modfied by poster @ 11-30-09 12:55 AM |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/24/09 |
Cons: Express gate won't work
Pros: Asus Reliability Comment:
I wish I went with the 790g chipset board as it would be more in line with the "dragon" amd system but overall this is a great board. No problems except that I can't seem to get the express gate to run even after an upgrade and setting the bios to load. Could be my config. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/31/09 |
Cons: No external LPT portSlow on-board video (expected)
Pros: Good budget 780G based boardOnboard everything (network, video, sound)Asus quality Comment:
The Asus M3A78-EM is a well put together package with almost everything needed to build a budget PC for general usage or to upgrade an aging system (in my case). Add a CPU, 2-4GB of DDR2 RAM, a HD and you're set!Couple of issues encountered so far:The only LPT printer port available is internal, so it is not possible to connect a legacy printer that requires parallel connection without getting the connector. However, this was easily solved with a cheap USB -> parallel port adapter cable.At least in Windows 7, the on-board GPU is skipping frames while playing back certain 1080i videos with DXVA enabled in mixer mode. Not a serious problem but the hardware accelerated mpeg decoding could be better implemented by ATI... |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/04/09 |
Cons: - Needs a few more USB ports. :)
Pros: - mATX- AM3 Capable Comment:
I upgraded to this from my M2N and once again Asus gave me an awesome board. This one is even better because I can grab AM3 chips and use it on this. Congrats to Asus again. Been a fan since CUSL2. Cheers! |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/06/09 |
Cons: no 1T timing in bios.
Pros: Stable and can be overclock to a point...it's still a matx. Does support am3 Comment:
Did a couple of builds with this one and had no problems. I actually built my wifes comp with this one and updated the bios and now it runs a phenom 2 quad core am3 overclocked to 3.8. This on a micto atx board. Very stable board. |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/28/09 |
Cons: NB could use better cooling
Pros: Lots of HTPC options with this board Comment:
Good board for a HTPC. Works great with my 1.9Ghz 45Watt AM2 CPU. No need for add in cards either. Now I just need a case that fits in the small space I have for this. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/30/09 |
Cons: needed updating
Pros: very nice bois setup Comment:
over all a very nice mother board, the only problem is the hdmi would not connect with sound to my reciever, after updating online it works like a charm |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/18/09 |
Cons: Audio output noticeably quieter than previous motherboards. BIOS fan control is rather limited, few fan headers. Propriatary and tall chipset HS.
Pros: Cheap, stable, good layout, great featurelist. Comment:
A great board for budget users, nothing really wrong with this board at all.My only real problem is that the audio output is so much lower than any other board I have used, that I will probably end up getting a different board. It's like having a volume control that only goes to 7. It's a small thing, but it didnt need to be that way, so it only gets 3 stars. If you dont use speakers, then I guess it would be a 4.5 star board. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/11/09 |
Cons: None to speak of.
Pros: Stability, lots of features. Fanless nortbridge heatsink. Comment:
I used this motherboard for my sister's computer, upgrading it from a defective K7M. Windows booted up and installed the necessary drivers without complaining, and it has been working ever since. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/06/09 |
Cons: Expansion slots if you need them
Pros: value, effectiveness Comment:
A great motherboard if you want a ddr2 based system that is compatible with am3 cpus. I have this board running with onboard graphics and a x3 710 cpu. Worked fine with the included bios and the processor was correctly recognized. (ordered in June 2009 and the included bios, for those who want to know, was 1502). I had no need for a bunch of expansion slots when everything is included on the board. Only slot I may end up using is the pcie 16x 2.0 slot for a graphics card down the road (if needed). For the the onboard HD 3200 does the job fine. Highly recommended. |
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Rating: Review Date: 07/03/09 |
Cons: -Could not produce an image on my TV's 1080p resolution at 60Hz refresh rate (it could do 30Hz refresh rate with 1080p on a 52" LCD)
Pros: -Good price-Good performance for HTPC-Has HDMI output Comment:
Great motherboard for the price. Definately recommended for HTPC use as it includes an HDMI output. It has no problems running an AMD athlon x2 7750 without any bios update. Overall, a great budget motherboard. |
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Rating: Review Date: 06/29/09 |
Cons: if you set it up so it can pxe boot, you get an extra screen to stare at during startup even if pxe is set to the last possible boot device.
Pros: great motherboardactually good integrated graphics (I know its a paradox) Comment:
I just picked up a second one of these. I bought myself one last summer. I love these motherboards. The integrated graphics is actually not bad at all. And when you need the extra power throw in a graphics card and you have support for 4 monitors(which I take full advantage of). |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/07/09 |
Cons: None So Far
Pros: HDMIQuality ComponentsSo Much For So Little Comment:
Picked this for a low-cost HTPC. Very happy, as usual with Asus. For under $100 on sale it does everything needed to run a fine home theater with on-board simplicity and just one HDMI cable from the box to the TV. Less parts=less heat=less noise. With an Athlon 5050e this thing runs great and was so cheap to build. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/04/09 |
Cons: None
Pros: Price, performance, features Comment:
It is truly amazing what this motherboard offers for the price. I bought one to use as an HTPC with a modest Athlon X2 4850e and 4GB of RAM. It plays everything beautifully: Blu-Ray at 1080p to 720p mkv files, DVDs, etc.Everything you need is included on board unless you want a wireless NIC or must use both a PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard.I was so pleased with it I bought a second one for a value build with the 7750 processor for my desktop. With zero effort it is completely stable at 3.0GHz. I have not tried to get any higher because it is fast enough and I don't want things to get noisy. |
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Rating: Review Date: 05/01/09 |
Cons: Had to manually set ram speed to get 1066.
Pros: Worked great with Linux Ubuntu 9.04 64 Bit, have not tried HDMI port though. Great board for the price. Comment:
Kuma 7750, Antec Sonata III, 1TB WD Caviar Black, 4 gigs PC8500 Kingston Hyper X T1, LG DVD Burner. Assembled, crossed fingers, turned on, set ram speeds, inserted Ubuntu disc, mem test, install, awesome. NCIX price match kept me from shopping elsewhere, Great service and fast shipping. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/24/09 |
Cons: -none
Pros: -Overclocking Ability (AM3 X3 720 v 3.6gghz v 1.36voltage-Sata ports are in the right spot unlike Gigabytes/DFI cuz Vid card wont block them-Perfect Layout-HDMI works flawlessly v 1080P-Tons of inputs-Nice board to fit into a Antec Mini p180-Recieved 2 Days ago and Packaged in 2009. Comment:
Specs of my Build:- Asus M3A78-EM- AM3 X3 720 Black Edition Overclocked e 3.6gghz- G.Skill 2x2 1066 Ram- 750W PC Power and Cooling PSU- Antec Mini P180- DVD Drive- 500G hard drive- (Getting a discrete video card soon: Ati 4870 or 4890)Initially when you first get your board and hook everything up. You should install the OS first then update the BIOS right away. Certain fixes for the AM3 processor and onboard video card. BIOS 1508 Latest. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/18/09 |
Cons: could space the pci-e slot away from the others a bit.
Pros: Easy installworkslooks nice Comment:
For the few days I have used this so far I must say its pretty slick. Easy bios updating, easy install (antec 1200), and it wasnt to hard to update the bios.I stuck a phenom II 720 in this board right out of the box and it would lock up afew times here and there before I did a bios update . Once it was update d it runs smooth with no issues at all. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/16/09 |
Cons: none
Pros: price,ports,Very Fast Onboard GPU,hdmi Comment:
Very good motherboard for the price, above average for a limited budget PC.Perfect mb, every connection that people needed is on board. And support lots of CPU. Also an not bad integrated display chip on it. Perfect AMD motherboard. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/13/09 |
Cons: On-boot mini-OS requires flash memory installation, does not work out of box. IDE connector cable attaches horizontally, which was a problem with my Silverstone SG-01 mATX case.
Pros: Multiple display connectivity options, rock solid performance, excellent onboard video. Comment:
I bought this motherboard over a year ago, paired with 4850e X2 processor. After a few missteps with ASRock and ECS, I tried out the ASUS after reading good reviews of the then new 780G chipset. I was not disappointed. I have had no issues, the system is very quiet, and although everyone scoffs at onboard video, it's quite good. I've been out of gaming for a while but I was able to get into the Orange Box at high resolution, not bad! The onboard firewire is a nice touch, I use it without issue with a Presonus Firebox for audio recording. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/09/09 |
Cons: None
Pros: PricePorts Comment:
Very good motherboard for the price, above average for a limited budget PC. Absolutely no complaints and somewhat better than I had expected for the price. |
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Rating: Review Date: 04/02/09 |
Cons: nothing major at this point
Pros: Good all in one motherboard for HTPC and light duty computing.Has esata. Reasonably good power consumption. Good value at under 100 dollars. Comment:
I bought this motherboard for a htpc and light duty computing and surfing the web. Paired with 4850e and 4GB corsair DDR2.It has excellent connectivity.ASUSgate is interesting, boots to it quickly. I have used it for surfing a few times and it seems to work well. Will try the skype soon and report if any problems.It hasn't had any problems with Vista or playing any media including HD files I have. I have not tried blu-ray with it yet but from online reviews should have no problems with that when drives get cheaper again. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/09/09 |
Cons: IDE slot, i don't even want it on my board....
Pros: Slot placement, price, features Comment:
There are so many ports on this thing...too bad I bought a 4850 so I won't be using most of them. I bought this board for a LAN build and it works great with my Phenom II 710. I have it clocked at 3.2 GHZ right now. I could make it go higher but I don't feel like raising voltage. The small case doesn't allow me to use a crazy HSF and I wanted my temps to be average.The placement of the slots are perfect for my uses and the features are great. The board looks great as well, typical Asus colours.Fantastic board and all in mATX. |
Great motherboard with tons of options and abilities right out of the box. Great price too! Hybrid Crossfire is useless if you've got a higher-end card (as it does not work). Not sure how well it works otherwise, but I hear decent things.