ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+ AMD 780G DDR2-1066 ATX Motherboard

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 10.6 x 2.8 inches ; 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001BSC0PI
• Item model number: M3A78-EM
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Motherboards

• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 1, 2008

Product Description

Product Description

Catering to users who are looking for a powerful device to create an excellent home entertainment environment, ASUS, worldwide leader in motherboard production, has released the new ASUS M3A78 series. The new ASUS M3A78 series utilizes the AMD platform, and is equipped with exceptional support for analog/digital outputs - enabling the PC to be utilized as a home theater in the living room, and not just a computing tool in the study or bedroom. The M3A78-EM also comes with DisplayPort, a cutting-edge digital output ready for users to upgrade their monitors in the near future. Moreover, the M3A78 Series adopts an advanced new power design to support 140W powered CPUs - providing users with more flexible choices on CPU upgrades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for a Media Center PC, April 6, 2009

By	B. Little (Hamden CT, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just spent a weekend building a XP Media Center 2005 PC using this mini-ATX board. It has everything: HDMI output, optical digital audio output, and built-in ATI HD3200 video with Avivo.

Just run HDMI to your TV/monitor for video and the optical digital to your receiver for Dolby Digital...no need to buy an add-on sound or video card. If you want coaxial digital audio you can fabricate a RCA jack with two wires directly to the SPDIF jack on the board. That's what I did, works great.

HDMI tip: do not install a separate video card before first startup. Otherwise the Asus driver CD will not 'show' the ATI video drivers on the CD. If you pull the video board, the ATI and HDMI drivers magically appear on the CD as a choice to select. Puzzled me at first.

The only flaw I've seen is that it uses "auto-configure" rear panel jacks to sense what's connected. This means I have to have my plasma TV on and set to the HDMI input before I turn on the PC...otherwise the motherboard thinks the TV is off and disables its HDMI output. Kind if a pain as I then have to reboot the PC. Easy for me but not so easy for my wife and kids. Asus needs to allow this feature to be shut off in the bios.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good motherboard, March 10, 2009

By	Wirerunnernyc "Benny" (Bronx, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Just finished installing this board w/ Thermaltake 575W power supply, AMD Phenom Quad 2.3GHZ 9600-Black Edition CPU, Q.Skill DDR2-800 2X2Gig RAM (Total 4Gigs RAM). I am a computer professional so installing and configuring this motherboard was very easy. For a regular mortal, I would suggest being careful and thorough. The saying 'measure twice and cut once' may apply to setting up the CPU. Be extremely careful. I heard someone tried removing the CPU heatsink after it was installed and wound up pulling off the processor's metal cover damaging the CPU. Anyway.[...]. I went thru and installed the motherboard and noticed no screws or board metal mounts were included. No problem for me because I had spares but it might put others in a bind if they don't have any. You can get these at a computer store like Radio Shack for a couple of dollars. This board include a DVI and VGA video card. I scrimped and used this to save on purchasing a new video card. It works just fine for me. I'm not a game player but I like decent quality pictures in high definition. This board suites me fine. Just a caution about RAM. Asus has a QVL list(Qualified Vendors List)of RAM models that they have tested and support. Also, if you buy DDR2-1066 RAM, you will need to have specific size to work(Not all sizes fit). According to one hardware site "the Phenom's memory controller has the limitation that it can only support *one* DDR2 1066 MHz per channel. If you have 8 GB, 4 x 2 GB, so all four DIMM slots occupied, ganged mode, you are lucky if you can run at 1066 MHz. Officially, see also the BIOS design guide, it's max. 800 MHz for 4 DIMMs". The talker had 64-Bit Vista which allows you to go past 3.2-3.5 RAM limit on normal 32-Bit Windows. Some users have 16Gigs of RAM and can open 40 active windows easily. Many people don't realize normal Windows has this limit and throwing more memory at it is useless and wasteful. Anyway. Just wanted to let you know. A neat feature called Embedded Gateway allows you to do a quick boot into a web browser, Skype, Instant Messenger, etc...without having to fully bootup Windows. Just 5 seconds and you select from on-screen menu. Very slick. It installs from the Asus DVD, under Utilities tab, so you won't find the instructions on the manual. Yeah. The manual isn't very thorough. Oh well. Overall, I would recommend this motherboard. I can't wait till I get some money and purchase Phenom II series processor. Maybe when they economy gets better.

God bless you all,

Benny

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor information in the manual, February 2, 2009

By	J.Grau (MIAMI, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Because this type of motherboard is new (DVI,HDMI,RGB) the is no information about how use the HDMI output. I had to try differents ways at the bios and at least I could get video through the HDMI, but still not sound, no matter what changes I made in the board, and there is no information about "audio through HDMI" in the manual.