VPN: M3N78-VM
Product ReviewsASUS M3N78-VM Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
|
35%
61%
4%
0%
0%
|
With 23 User Reviews
|
 Rating: Review Date: 02/17/10  |
Cons: Lack of expansion slots
Pros: Very easy to configureGood priceHybrid SLI with VistaVery stableEasy BIOS updates |
|
Rating: Review Date: 11/16/09 |
Cons: no onboard firewire :(
Pros: Runs VMWare ESXi server perfectly. Excellent drop in for HP boards of the same chipset series. Rock solid Comment:
Another amazing board from Asus. I bought one for my ESXi whitebox server, been running for months, and is rock solid. Had a customer with an HP machine and the board failed. Ordered one of these for them and it was an excellent drop in replacement for the old board, no driver issues, or anything. Worth every penny |
|
Rating: Review Date: 10/01/09 |
Cons: -Onboard video eats up a lot of addressing space in 32bit Windows. This'll knock 4GB of RAM down to about 3GB, in 32bit XP or Vista.
Pros: -BIOS options.-Price-Stability-mATX-Decent IGP/GPU-VGA/DVI/HDMI outputs - perfect for an HTPC Comment:
Picked this up to replace someone else's dead motherboard. I'm very impressed by all the BIOS options. No complaints so far, so it's been running good.The IGP is beefy enough that it'll handle most video playback nicely, when paired with a cheap dual-core CPU. However, you might not want to bother with 4GB of RAM if you have a 32bit OS. 2GB should be plenty for an HTPC or email/web computer.I like all the outputs on the board. I had it hooked up to two monitors at once while testing. (VGA/DVI) Worked fine with cheap generic DDR2, but has RAM timings in the BIOS, so you can have fun if you have better memory.So far, seems like a solid and affordable board with all the desired features. Avoid Hybrid SLI, and you won't have any problems with it. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/26/09 |
Cons: may not very compatible with some memories
Pros: Business class motherboard, stable Comment:
It is a stable mobo, 4 ram slots; the chipset on the motherboard is not hot; On board card is GF 8200 512MB, but it is Hybrid SLI supported, I used GF8400 512MB to build Hybrid SLI. Support newest AM3 processors, like 620/630 etc. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/03/09 |
Cons: Chipset Heatsink desing
Pros: softwareonboard HDMI Comment:
When i buy a board for a client,i never buy the cheapest because i know he(I)will have Trouble with it...and with this one Especialy Asus,you can go wrong.the price was okay at 88$ and lot of feature for a mAtx.Plus it's upgradable(AM2+),even if the AM2+ line will start dying sooner of later.No problem for installation nor driver software.The heatsink stink...i doubt the cooling effectiveness of it.But recommended for Budget Computer |
|
Rating: Review Date: 08/11/09 |
Cons: none..atleast for the purpose i bought it
Pros: Cheap and it works. Comment:
bought it for a friend that doesn't game or use it as a htpc. stable and enough expansion for her. Its a nice budget mobo. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 06/11/09 |
Cons: GPU heatsink runs a little hot.
Pros: Good Value, lots of room for RAM, lots of USB ports. Comment:
I installed Vista x64 with this board and it worked perfect first time. I tried XP x64 and it was constantly glitchy and the video driver wouldn't work. I don't really like Vista but XP x64 was just useless with this board. If I had to put XP on I'd probably opt for 32 bit.This board consumes very little power without any add-in cards running stock.Getting RAM to run at 1066 is a little tricky, and you can only do it with 1 or 2 slots. For 4 800 is the limit.No complaints though, I got what I paid for. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 05/31/09 |
Cons: Backplate hard to install
Pros: Easy to work with Comment:
Overall I was very pleased with the motherboard. It is a reasonably priced, efficient component. All ports were easily accessible but the backplate was hard to install and I could have used the EZ adaptor for the front connections. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 05/10/09 |
Cons: Non noted
Pros: Works good, so far everything is fine. Comment:
This motherboard works great with my needs so far its working good but I did only have it for a month. I like that it supports 8gb of ram for 64 bit or 4 gb ram for 32 bit. It got 4 slots of ram which is convenient. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 04/19/09 |
Cons: Onboard IGP is weakOverclocking support is a bit low in cpu voltage adjustment and ramBad, Bad, Bad, Vista Support
Pros: MATXAM2+Lots of FeaturesFour, not Two, bays for ram Comment:
Bought this board for an HTPC being made from an old workstation. I threw a Kuma 7750 Black Edition into it, two ide drives and two sata drives. Was originally going to run Vista X64, but Vista hated the board, did not recognize drives, did not install basic drivers for peripherals on its own and kept asking me for cds that came with my hdds to install them. Went back to XP Pro 32bit and have had no issues.System ran for about two days until the power supply went out due to no fault at all from the motherboard. This HTPC has been cursed from the start with a previous issue as soon as I got the board, my case's power switch fell apart dont let these things discourage you from buying a great board though.Build:AMD Kuma 7750 BE n 3ghz4gb Gskill PC28000 n 800mhz (no 1000mhz option on this board)2x 40gb Sata II2x 120 gb IDE-ATAEVGA 9800GTX+Runs cool and quiet, and fits into an HTPC case, what more could you want? |
|
Rating: Review Date: 03/12/09 |
Cons: Could have better overclocking BIOS support.
Pros: Good value, stable. Comment:
Amazing value for the money. I wanted a simple board for an HTPC with onboard video and audio, and this is perfect. Runs my overclocked AM3 Phenom II x3 720 without any problems, lots of headroom since it support up to 140W CPUs. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/24/09 |
Cons: Can run a little hot
Pros: Good onboard videoNice lookingCheap when on special Comment:
I've bought it for my roommate because he wanted to upgrade his PC without paying a fortune. Now he has a 5200+ cpu with this board and it's working fine. The only thing missing is a very good video card, but the Geforce 8200 onboard video is quite decent and can play more-or-less recent games at decent quality so the new video card can wait. It's a good board with a decent onboard video. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/15/09 |
Cons: No on-board video chip cooler.
Pros: Excellent on board add-ons Comment:
Good overclocking abilities. Express gate is an awesome feature.Good overclocking abilities. I have a +4800 chip and 2Gig of OCZ platinum dual channel installed on it. Runs great on both XP Pro and Vista Ultimate. I would recommend it. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/10/09 |
Cons: none so far
Pros: Nice looking motherboardrelatively cheapsupports DXVA hardware accelerationHDMI and SPDIFGood budget HTPC mobo Comment:
I've heard other had issues getting the HDMI audio or SPDIF working with this board. I haven't got to try the SPDIF out yet, but HDMI works just fine. I don't see why the SPDIF wouldn't work either, you just have to switch it in the audio and devices in the control panel (XP).I used the Gigabyte M78SM 8200 for a few HTPC builds, but it appears to be discontinued. It was quite a bit cheaper than this, but this is the next cheapest 8200 I could find. Good budget HTPC board. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/03/09 |
Cons: none for its intended use
Pros: Low cost, asus reliability,decent onboard graphics and audio Comment:
Great little board on a budget, hybrid sli,decent onboard graphics if you dont use a discrete solution ,audio is decent for onboard also, matched this with a 2.5 ghz Tri core, 2gigs of Pc8500, and a 9800 GTX.Great budget gamer for my son.But no Q connect with this board ? come on ASUS its what all of 20 cents lol. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 01/18/09 |
Cons: Runs a bit hot. Two of the five internal SATA ports don't work if not configured for RAID. Chassis and power fan plugs are controlled by Asus Q-Fan feature. Connectors on the board's periphery are hard to reach when more than one hard drive is installed. Can't simultaneously drive the DVI output and the HDMI output. Recipe to enable HDMI Audio is not explained in the manual or Asus web site.
Pros: Full-featured chipset. NVidia drivers still the best to scale non-native resolutions. All-copper passive cooler for chipset. High-quality sound from the onboard VIA 1708B chip. 140W processor capability is reassuring as to build quality. Updating BIOS is a cinch. Comment:
I got this motherboard after a forced upgrade when my MSI Socket 939 mATX board died prematurely. I paired the M3N78-VM with an Athlon 64 X2 5400+ processor, which I have also reviewed.Getting an NVidia graphics chipset was a priority, as NVidia drivers are the easiest to configure for scaling non-native resolution. It's important for someone who can't work comfortably with the minuscule fonts and icons of a 1920x1200 24-inch monitor. Scaling has to be done in the videocard, as it's never satisfactory when done through the O/S. Please note that the board is Hybrid SLI (basically worthless - search about it), not true SLI. There is only one PCI-E slot available. SLI is only worth it for top-end gaming anyway.The PC this mobo is mounted in is mostly used for listening to music (connected to a good stereo system) and watching movies. My previous MSI board had the Realtek AL880 chip/codec. The VIA VT1708B chip/codec included with the M3N78-VM sounds noticeably better than the AL880. The sound is crisper and more musical details can be heard.This Asus board looks well-built and is distinguished from other brands by an all-copper heatsink over the chipset. When first installed, in a well-vented mini-tower case (Scythe 1200 RPM exhaust fan), it was running at around 54°C on the desktop (idle), according to GPU-Z and SpeedFan. I then proceeded to modify the airflow in my case by creative use of duct tape. After removing the plastic front fascia, I taped shut the unused speaker and diskette drive openings. I also removed the lower front floppy drive standoff cover, which is in line with the chipset heatsink. This redirects and speeds up intake air flow around hard drives and over the chipset heatsink.After this modification, idle chipset temp is now around 50°C. This is still a bit hotter than I'd like, but not as bad as what I have seen in online reviews of other GeForce 8100/8200/8300 boards using aluminium chipset heatsinks. A fully satisfying solution would be to install a radial CPU cooler that would blow air on the nearby chipset heatsink.As the board I received had an early BIOS, I downloaded the latest version from the Asus web site and flashed it using the EZ Flash 2 utility from within the BIOS itself. It can be done from a CD-RW or a USB key. No need to start in DOS, enter command-line jargon and play with diskettes to update the BIOS.The manual says that only the processor fan plug is controlled by the Asus Q-Fan feature, which is the Asus trademark for implementing Cool'n'Quiet. However, this is not true. When enabling Q-Fan in the BIOS the other 2 fan plugs on the mobo (Chassis Fan and Power Fan) are also sent reduced voltage, thus lowering fan speed. This is not desirable for the rear exhaust case fan as it leaves too much hot air accumulating in the case. This is certainly a bug and I wonder if it can be fixed through a BIOS update . I went aound this by plugging the rear exhaust fan directly into the PSU with a 3-pin to 4-pin adapter that came with my Scythe fan.The manual also says that SATA 4 and SATA 5 don't work in IDE mode. This chipset limitation means that if you don't have RAID/AHCI drivers installed, you are only left with 3 functional SATA ports. I tested this and it's true. I don't have RAID/AHCI drivers installed and my system doesn't see a drive connected into the SATA 4 or SATA 5. I'm not interested in RAID, so that's too bad. The board however has an external E-SATA connector.This motherboard also has the same problem as many others based on the GeForce 8200 chipset. There is initially and inexplicably no audio when connected through HDMI. After much fruitless research, I contacted Asus Technical Support and a technician explained the solution on the phone: The heart of the matter is that the HDMI cable has to be the only active audio/video connection during audio driver installation. I have explained this in details on the Asus Support Forum:http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20090119003445846&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=M3N78-VM&page=1The only significant downside of this board is that, because of another GeForce 8200 chipset limitation, it can't drive the DVI output and the HDMI output at the same time. It doesn't have dual-link digital outout. No problem for those who have the computer next to the TV set, but a hassle in my situation, as the widescreen TV is in the next room. The computer has to be restarted to detect the TV set after connecting the HDMI cable, and then the main monitor remains inactive. It's not very practical to have someone calling mouse movements from another room to be able to launch a movie.... The solution to this is to get a discrete videocard with dual-link DVI/HDMI output. Asus makes nice 9500GT cards that meet this requirement.Reviews often tend to focus on the negatives, as no comments are warranted on what is working like it should. However, I am quite satisfied overall with the M3N78-VM. The low price I paid for the board, a decent dual-core processor and 2 GB of RAM have given me an upgrade that will hopefully provide about 3 year of good service. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 12/28/08 |
Cons: No E-sata
Pros: ASUS is good stuffGood Onboard Graphic chipset Comment:
Buy it to build a friend's system. Work great so far (couple mounths). Express gate feature is a good thing for web related use.If I had to redo it, I would take it again but ASUS M3A78-EM should be a better choise for Esata port. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 12/02/08 |
Cons: none
Pros: ASUS QUALITY 3 year warranty SLI overclockability Good onboard video backup Comment:
This is a great lil overclocking board with Sli Capability Asus quality great sound geforce 8200 graphics for back up. Once again asus delivers i love this paired with the 9800gtx+ and 3.1 dual core. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 10/26/08 |
Cons: hmmm... no firewire... But who uses that?
Pros: HDMIDual on board video outputsPlenty of sata, raidDecent soundVery good price 4 what u get. Comment:
We plugged this into an HTPC and I have to say its been good so far. There is an identical asus with a different chipset, firewire and a rear esata port which I wanted to do instead, but mybuddy was on a fixed budget. (but if you got an extra $10, do that!)But this has plenty of goodies too. You can plug front audio jacks into it, plus its capable of doing 6 extra usb outputs to the front panel. I've got 4gb ram in it right now, and he can still move to eight which is awesome. The bootup is a bit slow if you have the easygate (or whatever) enabled. And he's not going to use it so we flipped it off in the BIOS and its much quicker starting up. The driver install is a snap too. You just throw in the ASUS disk and it scans and installs on its own. It reboots on its own too, so be sure to have the hd set to your first boot device, because if its set on cd its going to try to boot to the raid config utility on the asus disc every time, which is annoying. All in all, quite pleased. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 10/04/08 |
Cons: * can pick only one between DVI and HDMI at a time
Pros: * rock solid* 140W cpu support* DVI, VGA and HDMI Comment:
All in all, a great board for a NAS box. I have this put together with an Athlon X2 4850 EE (45W cpu) and an Antec 300 for a cheap NAS box build running Ubuntu. Works great and I would recommend it to others. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 09/19/08 |
Cons: asus support isn't the best, ami bios (award tends to be better imo), no firewire included
Pros: Reasonable price 8200 chipset w/passive cooling, spdif out on back panel Comment:
Makes for a nice htpc board with a be-2350 etc cpu.. plays back x264 mkv's nicely. Good copper heatsink for the chipset.. runs warm for sure but works like a charm. Support for 140W cpu's is a nice bonus as well though I'd say such would be overkill for the average htpc. Expressgate is nice as well but strangely is not installed by default from the factory. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 08/07/08 |
Cons: No firewire header
Pros: On-board Nvidia graphics, great sound card, mATX form factor Comment:
This motherboard is a great choice for nearly any task, as it will fit in almost any case. I'm using it in a server box (running Ubuntu) and a desktop (running Windows XP) and when paired with an X2 4600+, it really flies. Pair it with a decent Nvidia graphics card, and make use of the SLI boost with the built-in 8200. Just check to make sure its compatible first! |
|
Rating: Review Date: 07/24/08 |
Cons: Only 2 ATA devices can be connected. WD hard drive was not recognised. No on-board video chip cooler.
Pros: Excellent on board add-ons,good bios features, Hybrid SLI, expandability is great. Comment:
I bought this board by mistake. I was actually going to buy M3A series. I am plesantly surprised with it. Good overclocking abilities. Express gate is an awesome feature. I have a +4800 chip and 2Gig of OCZ platinum dual channel installed on it. Runs great on both XP Pro and Vista Ultimate. I would recommend it. |
This my second experience with an Asus motherboard. I must admit that they are a breeze to work with. Everything always work smooth.