Customer Reviews

ASUS M2A-VM AM2 AMD 690G DDR2-1066 AMD X1250 IGP ATX Motherboard

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Good board.

1. Not a first choice for overclocking but you can squeeze a little something out of it if you need it ;-)

2. Only ONE IDE controller, so if you want to re-use older drives, make sure that you understand that you will only be able to use TWO drives! In my case I was using SATA drives so it didn't matter.

3. Layout is good, even though it is a small board, you'll be able to use extra long video cards without bumping anything on else the mainboard.

4. Drives are pretty good, I installed Windows XP on this system, didn't need to go hunting for updates or anything like that.

5. Performance is good with the AMD 4400+, 1GB Kingston RAM, an Nvidia 7600GT (256MB) and a Seagate 160 GB SATA hard drive. Very stable. Plays Warcraft III at 1024x768 with all options set to HIGH ;-)

6. Doesn't come with a bunch of extras, just drivers Molex to SATA power cable and SATA data cable, floppy cable and IDE cable.

Inexpensive "all-in-one" motherboards typically do not deliver great performance. But, I've found this one to be an exception. I'm using it in a media center PC with an AMD X2 3.0 Ghz processor and 2GB of RAM and running 64 bit Vista Premium Edition.
-It is 100% compatible with Vista and delivers quick, flawless performance.
-The onboard graphics capabilities are very good.
-Performance is good even with tasks that are very demanding of system resources such as watching/recording Blu-ray DVD and editing video.
-Very good, modern bios. PC started up without a hitch right out of the box without having to adjust anything.
-Bios supports S3 sleep mode so the PC can be woken up very quickly. This is a particulary important feature on a media center PC that you turn on with a IR remote control.

I bought this elsewhere. The price was about the same as Amazon. It worked fine right out of the box and I am happy with it. The reason for my comment is just a word of warning. The default video setting is DVI. So if you don't have a DVI-D connector on your monitor, it will look like the board is defective.
BTW, you don't need the $79.00 gold plated DVI cable that Circutit City sells (grrrr). My $20 cable works just fine.

my statement above are based on bitter experience with this company, for some time in terms of unfair costumer service attitude and support.

It was exactly as described and a excellent fix for the case I have. However it didn't have a manual with it or the I/O backplate for it (had to order seperately).

I purchased a barebone kit from another site and built my first "new" computer last Christmas. That motherboard's rear USB buses worked for a few days off and on and then quit. Instead of pulling it back out I decided to do a work around and install a PCI USB card because I needed all four USB buses. Then the two front USB buses quit working and I had to return that board. I checked Amazon and found this motherboard. The Asus brand was highly recommended by one of my schools IT insturctors so I purchased it and I am yet pleased! Great board and I got it at a great price. I highly recommend it now.

I bought this motherboard in 2007 to act as a base for a media center PC. It was one of the cheapest boards at the time that came with an HDMI out connection (w/o having to buy extra video hardware), so this board was a no brainer for me. Almost 3 years later, I decided to turn my media center PC into a hardcore gaming machine that would be able to play games like COD4, Crysis: Warhead, and Aion at max settings. As the computer currently stands, all I have to say is wow!

All I had to do was upgrade the BIOS, which was very easy to do by downloading the new BIOS and putting it on a thumbdrive. Upgrading the BIOS was necessary in order for the board to work with the newer ATI drivers for the video card I had installed. I installed an XFX Radeon HD 4850 video card (removed the HDMI x16 PCIe card). It was a tight squeeze but it fit in there. I also upgraded my power supply and upgraded the RAM to 4GB's (processor was good enough so I didn't have to upgrade it, an AMD Phenom dual-core 2.33ghz processor). My computer is now able to play Aion and COD4 at max settings, without so much as a hiccup. Definitely a good all around board to have, which can also be turned into a hardcore machine with the proper upgrades and modifications.

I've had this motherboard installed for about two months, and it has so far been great. It's not a high-end board, but if the features match what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.

Some key things to keep in mind:

1) There is only 1 IDE channel, so you can only use 2 older IDE devices.

2) There are 4 SATA ports on this motherboard, and RAID support is limited.

3) There are only 2 PCI slots, 1 PCI Express x16, and 1 PCI Express x1

4) There are is a shortage of 3-pin fan plug-ins on this motherboard. There is one for the CPU, 1 for the PSU, and only one for case fans. This wasn't a problem for me because I was able to run one of my case fans off of the PSU directly, but you should be aware of these limits when planning out your system.

5) The location of the PCI Express x16 slot is right next to one of the two PCI slots. If you are planning to use a separate video card with this motherboard, and you plan to use both of the PCI slots, it's going to be a tight fit.

However, the integrated graphics on this board are wonderful. I'm very happy with the ATI Radeon X1250. If you are into high-end gaming, your performance might suffer somewhat, but I haven't had any problems. I do a lot of video editing using this integrated card, and I have no complaints. The integrated sound is also very good.

There is also another model of this motherboard that offers HDMI output. I haven't used it, but I'm told it works well. I give this board five stars because of it's excellent driver support, integrated graphics, and stellar performance. It will not meet the needs of every user, but it met mine.

Nothing bad to say... drivers loaded great...board has everything included other than wireless adapter. GB lan... Cheap and good... I am ordering a second one.

DOA out of the Box. I must say that it's probably the worst type of MOBO to come DOA, ever try installing a Micro-ATX MOBO?
Everything powers up,all LED's on MOBO are green, yet no video out....
Disappointing.