ASUS M4A78-E AM3/AM2+ AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: This board is what I have come to expect from ASUS: high quality motherboards with all the bells and whistles in between. Installation is typical and rather easy (if you know what you are doing), and the board fit nice and snuggly into my standard ATX case. The board boots up quickly, the BIOS is very well written and understandable, and the Express Gate is a great feature to have when you find yourself debating whether you really want to go to all the trouble to boot your computer all the way up when you just need to check a website for something. In addition, this thing overclocks like a dream, giving you all the tools you'd ever need to do it correctly and easily. Also, Newegg shipping was fast and reliable as always, and the board came in perfect condition without a scratch on it.

Cons: Minor issue: I have a double-slot Nvidia 8800GTS 512MB, and if you follow the instructions in the manual for single-card GPU (which is put into the bottom blue PCIe slot), it will block off the white PCI slot below it. There are no major issues where things are blocked by other components, but I would highly recommend you plug in the USB and Floppy disk wires BEFORE you install a large video card or something else into the PCIe or PCI slot down there. Also, when I first booted up my motherboard, it refused to recognize my USB keyboard and PS/2 mouse initially. Only after a few reboots and the exchanging of the PS/2 mouse for the USB one temporarily was I finally able to make it past my login screen and install the Drivers Disk that came with the motherboard. Just a warning to potential buyers in case this should come up. Also, the board dropped in price by $20 dollars the day AFTER I sent in my order, and then Newegg threw in free shipping. Darn their inconveniently good pri

Overall Review: When I bought this board, I bought it out of faith. It had zero reviews on it at the time, and so I suppose I had to go with my gut feeling. I am very happy I was not disappointed with this magnificent mobo. Not only has it increased my 3DMark06 score by 3000 points, but it has made my system much more stable, allows it to overclock much better with the awesome SB 750, and it has neat little gizmos and programs that come with it that complete the ASUS experience. Also, in case you were wondering, this board ships with BIOS version 0505 as of early March '09. The current BIOS is 0701 as I am writing this review, but it's likely to be further along by the time you get this board because ASUS is updating its BIOS quite frequently. All in all, this is yet another fine board by ASUS. I'm glad my faith paid off! My Computer: CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 (Works with the earliest BIOS) GPU: Nvidia 8800 GTS 512 MB RAM: 2 GB of 1066 DDR2 Sound: Integrated Sound (It's not that bad, act

Pros: Motherboard does everything I need it to. Haven't had any real issues. Be sure to update the bios or you wont get the Sata to work properly on install.

Cons: Could stand to have a couple more pci slots. All in all, great board.

Overall Review: mobo: ASUS M4A78-E cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz ram: Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) vga: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 hd: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB case: Thermaltake Armor+MX psu: ZALMAN ZM750-HP 750W Continuous

Pros: Been running about a week and a half now, have had absolutely no problems. Came up on first boot, recognized all my memory and everything installed, all the case functions worked. Currently using on board video until I go to a new graphics card, but the on board is nice and works for now AM2+ very handy, handles my Phenom II X4 920 with no difficulties. Great board. The case cord adapter made hooking up the power button/external USB/1394 hook up way too easy. Very well marked.

Cons: The back plate was a little annoying to fit on, but that's about it. Hah.

Overall Review: Perfect build for anyone who is looking to run AMD processors, plenty of ram space, and dual PCI-e slots. Awesome.

Pros: Straightforward build, placed in a aspire discovery case easily, haven't oc'd or pushed the board, still bone stock settings without a hitch. Layout is not complicated and the bios is easy to use. Benifits I feel are the cpu location (side fan is nearly overhead, case design) and the sata plugs are in one location. Thankfully the flop is history. 6 usb's are a plus and the 8 ch sound is great for the home system. Haven't used the d-sub since setup, Always throw a 512 or 1gb vid card in. Don't use 4 monitors so no need for the extra pcie, just insert the extra chip in the slot (don't forget or discard it, you'll regret it!) and load you card's drivers. 2 pci slots for an extra usb or whatever card helps (running a workstation sucks without plugging a lot of junk in. Running winblows xp64 with a few hiccups now and then, but otherwise very stable, few restarts (only because gates wants to know whats in my computer). Buying one more for a 2nd workstation and file bank.

Cons: Not many, small gripes like some others. IDE plug mounted horizontal to the board (mainly difficult to plug in and/or don't want to change the norm if still using the archaic IDE cd/dvd, funny I still do). Need one more sata for the cd/dvd if all 4 extra are used for raid and one for the sys drive. Wish Ram prices would come even farther down on the 16gb packs (ram's come down a long way but wouldn't mind coupling this board with it's max). Like I wrote, only small gripes, great workstation.

Overall Review: Run this board in a photography studio w/ xp64, 2nd gen build inside an Apevia/Aspire Discovery case, AMD phenom II x4 955 black deneb 3.2ghz quad which is a major jump from a amd 3700xp 754 chip! Stock cooler thats NOISEY! Might as well be a vantec mounted in there, but I have a new zalman waiting to go in. 8 gb Gskill ram, stone age cd/dvd rw, 512gb sapphire card w/2 19" hannsG widescreens, older raptor 37.2 10,000rpm sys dr and 4 wd 1tb drives on software sync. Bought all from newegg for around $1700, Retail this thing from someone else and you could get 2 for 1 here. But of course, you're the tech support. Why go anywhere else, cause Newegg rocks like no other!

Pros: Great features. HD out the wazoo. Install no problem. Booted up right away.

Cons: Some mentioned the odd design...None of my PCI slots were blocked, but if my video card was a mm bigger it would be in the way. Could've used more design thought and another pci slot. My M4A78-E was delivered with a DVI slot that was not operable, missing some pin connectors. Sending it back RMA style.

Overall Review: Overall a nice design, decided to stick with it and ordered another one.

Pros: Awesome, this thing flies through anything you throw at it. Pair this bad boy with a Phenom II x4 and you'll be all set. No problems, no DOA or anything. First Asus mobo and I dont think it'll be the last.

Cons: No DDR3 support, but not really a con because as of now DDR3 is only about 2% better than DDR2. Also larger video cards take up one PCI slot, but if you don't mind x8 w/o the switch card then it doesn't matter.

Overall Review: This Motherboard AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition 4gb G.Skill 1066 EVGA GTX 260 Creative X-fi Zalman 9900

Pros: fired up right out of the box.running vista 64.pleanty of overclocking options.this board has plenty of room for any size heat sink.

Cons: express gate ,i disabled it.and as far as pcie being the bottom slot,i like it,but could be problems for some with atx mid tower.

Overall Review: it will run any processor out there.im running a 6000+x2 ,corsair xms pc6400,wd black 500 gig hd,corsair 850 psu,and xfx 4890.this board has alot of features.my opinion a great buy

Pros: Good mid-range board. I bought this to accompany my Phenom II X4 920. It was stable, booted up right away and the layout is solid. I wish I had more to say about this board. It's got good spacing between the PCIe slots.

Cons: This isn't really a con but if you choose this board, remember, it supports CrossFire only. I bought this with the intention of using my Geforce 8800GTS, but a day later decided to buy another card to go SLI. That meant that I had to RMA this board. The documentation didn't list Patriot Viper RAM as being supported, so when I tried to get mine to work at 4-4-4-12 timings at 2.1V (for which it is rated), it failed to boot. Only at 2.2V would the system boot with those memory timings. Incidentally I think ASUS is aware of this. Read "Other thoughts"

Overall Review: I used this board for a few days while I awaited the ASUS M4N82 Deluxe I purchased from NewEgg (great SLI board by the way). It's a good solid board and would have been perfect for me if it supported SLI. Oh well. In the documentation for the other board I bought, it listed Patriot Viper RAM as being supported and had the proper 2.2 V listing.