I have multiple rigs at home, as most of you know. Recently I hooked up everything to a network, and as it happened the machine that migrated to the center of the action was my browsing machine. I needed to upgrade that quickly, but the M2A-VM that was the heart of that machine, didn’t have all the features I needed. I was looking for a feature-rich board that would have all the connectivity I’d ever need, decent graphics performance, and a benign heat and power consumption profile.
So when I heard the M3A-78 EM was in stock, I jumped to the occasion. Having had the board for a few days in the system, I’m publishing a small preview of board. This preview contains no benchmarks, so those looking for performance statisics will be disappointed. There are enough on the web with this chipset battling it out with others, so I’m basically steering clear of the benchmark game. Plus, it’s a low power system most of the time, so the focus is on features, silence and power consumption.
Let’s get to it.
[Break=Heritage]
The board comes from Asus. Asus has been plagued by support issues centered around their main distributor, Rashi. To be totally honest, I’ve lost quite a few Asus boards to the silicon Gods, but I’ve also a few that have been here long and still going strong. In no case have I had to experience customer support issues, because I’ve never managed to use them - the boards usually died after warranty period, some almost the next week after expiry.
Anyway, the board carries the wonderfully memorable and evocative model number M3A78-EM. I can glean from the name that it’s meant for AMD processors, and has the 780G chipset. Beyond that, the naming remains a mystery to me. These are codes for channel partners so when they receive the boards they know what to roughly price it at. To me, that was 4650 + taxes. Slightly steep, but as we’ll see, well worth it.
[Break=Features]
The board has all the bells and whistles you’ll ever need. Here’s the manufacturer’s spec:
[LEFT]CPU
AMD Socket AM2+ / AM2 Processors
AMD Phenomâ„¢ FX / Phenom / Athlonâ„¢ / Sempronâ„¢
AMD Cool ‘n’ Quietâ„¢ Technology
Support CPU up to 140W
Chipset
AMD 780G/SB700
Up to 5200/MT/s HyperTransportâ„¢ 3.0 interface for AM2+ CPU
2000 / 1600 MT/s for AM2 CPU
Memory
4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ CPU only
Expansion Slots
1 x PCIe x16 (Support PCIe 2.0 / 1.0 Architecture )
1 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI 2.2
[I]VGA
[/I] Integrated ATI Radeonâ„¢ HD 3200 GPU
Supports DisplayPort* with max. resolution up to 2560 x 1600@60HZ
Supports HDMIâ„¢ Technology with max. resolution up to 1920 x 1200 (1080P)
Supports Dual-link DVI with max. resolution up to 2560 x 1600@60Hz
Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 2456 x 1536 @75Hz
Hybrid CrossFireXâ„¢ Support (For Windows Vista only) **
Supports Microsoft® DirectX 10, OpenGL 2.0, Pixel Shader 4.0
Maximum shared memory of 256MB
- Due to chipset limitation, DisplayPort on this motherboard only supports video signals
** Reter to ASUSTeK Computer for the discrete graphics GPU QVL list for Hybrid CFX technology support
CrossFire
Hybrid CrossFireXâ„¢ Support (For Windows Vista only)
Storage
1 xUltraDMA 133/100
5 x SATA 3.0Gb/s ports, Support RAID 0,1,10 1 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s ports, support RAID 0, 1 and 10
1 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s ports, Support RAID 0,1,10
LAN
Gigabit LAN
*Audio*
Realtek® ALC1200 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
USB
12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)
Overclocking Features
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz to 300MHz at 1MHz increment
Adjustable CPU Voltage at 0.05V increment
Overclocking Protection
-
ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features
Express Gate
ASUS Q-Fan
ASUS MyLogo2
ASUS CrashFreeBIOS3
ASUS EZ Flash2
ASUS Noise Filter
AI NAP
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical)
1 x HDMI
1 x DisplayPort
1 x D-Sub
1 x DVI
1 x 1394
1 x eSATA
1 x RJ45 port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1
8-Channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors
3 x USB connector (6 ports)
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
1 x COM connector
5 x SATA connectors
1 x 1394
1 x CPU Fan connector
1 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x S/PDIF Out Header
Chassis Intrusion connector
CD audio in
24-pin ATX Power connector
4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
System Panel
[I]BIOS
[/I] 8 Mb Flash ROM
DMI 2.0
AMI BIOS
PnP
WfM 2.0
SM BIOS 2.5
ACPI 2.0a
ASUS EZ Flash 2
Accessories
UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
FDD cable
SATA cables
SATA power cables
User’s manual
2 in 1 Q-connector
Support CD
Express Gate
Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS LiveUpdate Utility
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
[I]Form Factor
[/I] uATX Form Factor
9.6 inch x9.6 inch ( 24.4 cm x24.4 cm ) [/LEFT]
[Break=Packaging]
The box comes in a fancy green glittering package. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a brown box with recycled paper and a few extras in the box to compensate, but I guess bling is the new king.
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It is awash with labels touting the highlights of the board. The main feature is support for 140watt CPUs, so even the 9950 is supported spec wise (I’m waiting on the CPU price corrections after my conversation with AMD honchos).
Apart from that minor detail, the board also pronounces its support for Displayport, HDMI and Hybrid CrossfireX. The only standout feature here is Displayport, which is a new connector for high-resolution displays. The only monitors in India to carry it are the 2408WFP and the 3008WFP.
The biggest highlight of the box is the new sticker with a toll-free number for Rashi. Looks like they’re concerned about their support image, and this is a pretty solid step. I haven’t dialed in yet, so I don’t know how solid the support itself is.
And Express Gate - the little OS that can basically be all you need if you don’t want to boot into Windows. Watch this space for a detailed experience on Express Gate later.
[Break=Bundle]
In a break from the usual, I’ll talk about the bundle first. The bundle basically, isn’t.
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You get a support DVD, a couple of cables for your SATA drives (one is right-angled, kids) and the corresponding power adapters from Molex if you don’t have a SATA enabled power supply. Two Q-connect dongles for the main panel and USB, two thin little manuals, The IO shield and that’s it. Not much to talk about and no software suite either.
I would have liked the newer IO shield to be included with this board, or a Coax SPDIF connector, or a firewire dongle, but no dice. I think they ran out of budget when they got the printer’s bill.
[Break=The board]
Finally, the star of the show. Here’s a top shot.
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The board is a regular micro-ATX board. In a departure from many Asus board, there are finally fastener holes in slot 7 and 8 for the Micro-ATX factor. For too long Asus had just filled these board areas in, so the last 4 inches of the board were always without support. The power connectors, disk connectors, IO panel are usually located in that space so whereas I understand the scarcity of space it’s important that boards not get subjected to potential damage by mechanical stress of cables in that area.
It’s also black, yay. The mud-brown epoxy boards were functional, but looked depressing. The screen printing is easier to read against black, and componenents are easily visible.
[Break=Layout]
Nothing surprising, not very innovative, but reasonably intelligent layout.
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The Sata connectors are out of the way of large graphics cards, and so are the memory slots. The IDE connector is placed at a right angle, so it’s a little difficult to connect, but manageable.
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The fan headers require you to run long cables from front fans, but are well-placed for rear fans and the CPU fan.
Power supply connectors are in their usual place.
The bottom of edge of the board has a swath of connectors, as Asus didn’t put some of the legacy ports on the back panel. Personally that’s not a problem for me, but if you still have that dot matrix printer from 1996, you’re not going to be able to connect it without a dongle.
Overall, no nasty surprises. Oh wait, you want to reset the CMOS? You can do that if you have not either or both a floppy connected or a large video card in the slot. The floppy cable blocks the jumper headers, and the second blocks the CMOS battery.
[Break=Power regulation]
Here’s the star of the show. The board claims it can support a 140 watt CPU. I’m not so sure. Though it does have a 5-phase regulator, The regs aren’t cooled by any kind of heat dissipation devices. Even assuming 90% efficiency, those things are going to get very hot. 140 watt will be at the limit of the circuitry’s heat profile, so 125-watt CPUs will be a better bet, or like my plan, underclocking and undervolting a 140 watt processor.
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The regulators are well designed, with each primary power device supported by a secondary regulator. I would imagine that at very low loads, the bigger transistors would remain idle and the load would be taken by the smaller primary regulators. This keeps overall power consumption down, and is a technique used in a lot of power amplifiers in the audio world as well.
Each phase has 1,642 uF of capacitance and a single choke for EMI suppression. Though it’s not much capacitance, the capacitors are the newer solid capacitors, though they’r not either Nippon or Panasonic. I don’t know what brand they are, but let’s hope they don’t give up quickly. Some sources point towards them being Fujitsu capacitors.
Here’s a quick comparison - the P5Q DEluxe has 16 phases for the CPU, and the most power hungry Quads are pushing 160 watts at high clocks. When you compare this circuitry to that, 140 watts in 5 phases seems a little steep. It may break down into PMPO vs. RMS kind of debate here.
Here’s the memory regulator. Standard fare.
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[Break=Connectivity]
The board really shines here. No excuses. 6 USB ports, PS/2, Displayport, HDMI, optical, E-Sata, Firewire, DVI, VGA, and 8 connectors for 7.1 audio.
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The misses are Coax digital, Parallel and serial, and analog video (composite/s-video/component).
In terms of connectivity the Displayport will disable any card in the X16 slot, but you can run dual displays in a number of configurations - Displayport and HDMI orDVI or VGA, or DVI with VGA or HDMI, and HDMI with VGA. In short, all combinations are possible so you should be able to connect any two displays to the board.
The theme is carried over to the expansion slots. Even with a dual-slot video card, you still can access one PCI slot and one PCIE (x1) slot. and plenty of offboard headers - SPDIF, Front audio, Firewire, 6 USB, Parallel and Serial.
[Break=Build quality]
The board is reasonably built. The components look decently chosen. All critical caps are those red caps (fujitsu?) and there are some other caps that look like solid caps. It’s critical to understand is that the can of the cap does not dictate its contrusction. There are lots of cap which look like the polymer caps, but are regular wet electrolytics. The real test is in the bottom of the cap, but we can’t see that after soldering anyway. Anyway, there are also solid electrolyte caps like Panasonic FC that look like ‘normal’ caps because they have the jacket, in fact they are somewhere betwen regular cap and polymer cap.
Moving on, we see some funny chips. The firewire controller is a Jmicron, and the NIC is a regular Realtek 8-series GB LAN. The audio chip is the biggest surprise.
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It’s ALC1200, a custom chip for Asus. No specifications are available. A very kind tester has made some RMAA results available. I was quite thrilled at seeing the first set of numbers, but the sound quality was only just passable. When I saw the later graphs it became clear what the problems are. Though the 1200 is more competent than a lot of onboard cards, it still has a terrible distortion profile specially at the higher harmonics. Basically, it may do OK for undemanding listeners. Audiophiles still have to look the other way. On the positive side, it seems well-implemented for an onboard solution, with a nice voltage regulator dedicated to it.
Here’s the link for RMAA testing. Try a translator, but most audio buffs should get it. RightMark Audio Analyzer: ASUS M3A-H HDMI (HDA- Realtek ALC1200)
The heatsink for the southbridge is really, really tiny. Should be enough though. And though it looks like it, made of not copper but aluminum. the Northbridge heatsink is a little more substantial. It’s a lot more beefy than the one on the 690G chipsets.
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The chips under the heatsinks are obviously the 780G Northbridge and the SB700 Southbridge. The SB700 brought in a lot of improvements over the SB600, in terms of both actual connectivity and performance, specially in USB and SATA performance, which was the achilees’ heel of 690G performance.
[Break=Closing thoughts]
The board installed with only one hitch, it just refused to boot up. I tried resetting the CMOS, reseating the RAM, everything I could think of, but no dice. So I pulled out both sticks of memory and the board started squealing like a pig. On installing the RAM again, the board booted and had been running without a hiccup since then. Weird.
Anyway, it’s a pretty well-thought out board. The back panel can get real crowded if you want to use all features, but apart from that the only drawback I can see is the lack of sideport memory. The chipset still can’t handle high-resolution gaming, but it’d not be a smart thing to buy. Deus Ex gives me a playable experience at 1920x1200, if a little jerky. And that’s a seven-year old game, so you can see how far behind the discrete cards curve we are when it comes to IGPs.
On the bright side, the board runs really cool. There is no temperature sensor for the Northbridge, it would have been good to build it in. On the other hand, the Chassis fan header is now speed-controlled, whereas most Asus boards at this price point allowed you to only control the CPU fan speed. Helps to keep noise levels down. Compared to my older setup with a Powersafe 400 and M2A-VM, the Pc is nearly silent. Temperatures have increased marginally, but with the lower noise profile, it’s very acceptable. The Northbridge heatsink is quite efficient, temperatures don’t go beyond 45 degrees even under heavy GPU load. The southbridge runs a little warmer, but doesn’t cross 50 degrees.
The support for high-end parts is noteworthy, but Asus is Asus and wouldn’t really be if they aren’t goofing up on at least one thing. So here it is. You can’t install a cooler which requires a custom backplate. Ever.
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When you are adding in support for the highest quality parts, it would seem you might want to accomodate a custom heatsink. Well, you can’t.
The Core-Contact Freezer will fit as it was specifically built for the AM2 mounting system, and so will anything that can latch on to those clips. But for most backplates, you’re out of luck. The pressure from the heatsink will crush those capacitors on the back, if it doesn’t short them out and destroy the board first.
Overall, I’d recommend this board for someone who needs a feature-laden board with support for high-end CPUs, but doesn’t want to pay the earth for it. At Rs. 4650 before taxes and a three-year warranty, it seems like a solid buy. I do hope that the Rashi service has improved, but also that I never have the opportunity to find out.
Enjoy, and ask any questions you might want to. I’ll follow this up with some impressions on Express Gate once I have it running later this weekend.
a 400D at that 
