Asus M3a78

Melios · Nov 27, 2008

I was wondering, how is the ASUS M3A78 AMD 770 motherboard? As a budget motherboard.

KBD · Nov 27, 2008

looks good to me and it has AM3 support so you can upgrade. You should, of course, read reviews for this board (or any other you are consisering) both at newegg and online tech sites. That will give you insight into its strenghts and weaknesses.

But you should really tell us what is the system being used for. If you are not gaming go with m-ATX 780G boards or Geforce 8000 or nforce 720 since they all have onboard video and are cheaper. And even if you are gaming those boards are still very budget concious and worth taking a look at at.

Melios · Nov 27, 2008

Well, I was looking at Phenom x3 8750 and Radeon 4830 card.

KBD · Nov 27, 2008

are you planning to overclock at all? Do u already have the other components you are upgrading from or you are building from scratch? If so, what are they? Im just asking to make sure you have a good PSU to handle everything.

DrunkenMafia · Nov 27, 2008

Melios said:
Well, I was looking at Phenom x3 8750 and Radeon 4830 card.

That will make a good little gamer on a 22in and below monitor.

Cheap too

KBD · Nov 27, 2008

DrunkenMafia said:
That will make a good little gamer on a 22in and below monitor.

Cheap too

yea, the 4830 is an awesome card for those on a budget.

Melios · Nov 28, 2008

KBD said:
are you planning to overclock at all? Do u already have the other components you are upgrading from or you are building from scratch? If so, what are they? Im just asking to make sure you have a good PSU to handle everything.

I don't usually mess with stuff like overcloaking.

I was planning to try to use an X-Fi card as well as reuse my disk drives and wireless LAN . My PSU is a Rosewill 550W power supply, this one specifically.

suraswami · Nov 28, 2008

That board doesn't have much Over volting features for cpu. If you don't care about those then yes its a good board.

LittleLizard · Nov 28, 2008

the board cant support 2 videocards, so the 550w should be fine

KBD · Nov 28, 2008

that PSU is quite mediocre, most likely its actually 400-450W so it should be enough.

however, if you have a bit extra cash, get this instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703015

$59 after rebate + free shipping.

Melios · Nov 28, 2008

I'm wondering one thing: Do these motherboards usually ship with latest BIOS (at the time)?

KBD · Nov 28, 2008

Melios said:
I'm wondering one thing: Do these motherboards usually ship with latest BIOS (at the time)?

yes, they are shipped with the latest version available at the time of leaving the factory. But it doesnt mean you'll have the latest BIOS by the time u buy it because newer versions may be out. So you may need to update depending on what the situation is and what fixes does the BIOS offer. As a general rule, its always good to have the latest but since you are not overclocking and if there are no major fixes then you dont have to update.

Melios · Nov 28, 2008

KBD said:
yes, they are shipped with the latest version available at the time of leaving the factory. But it doesnt mean you'll have the latest BIOS by the time u buy it because newer versions may be out. So you may need to update depending on what the situation is and what fixes does the BIOS offer. As a general rule, its always good to have the latest but since you are not overclocking and if there are no major fixes then you dont have to update.

I only ask because its CPU Support page mentions the Phenom x3 8750 is supported as of BIOS 0602 (not the initial release 0401).

KBD · Nov 28, 2008

if you happen to get a board that has the BIOS that doesnt support your CPU what you can do is this: Ask a friend who has a supported CPU to borrow it for a flash or take it to local PC shop and ask them to borrow a supported CPU. Or if all else fails, you can order a cheap single core Athlon that is supported, flash the BIOS and then return it.

Processor	Intel e8600 @ 4.9 Ghz
Motherboard	DFI Lanparty DK X48-T2RSB Plus
Cooling	Water
Memory	2GB (2 x 1GB) of Buffalo Firestix DDR2-1066
Video Card(s)	MSI Radeon HD 4870 1GB OC (820/950) & tweaking
Storage	2x 74GB Velociraptors in RAID 0; 320 GB Barracuda 7200.10
Display(s)	22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB
Case	Silverstone TJ09-BW
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Profesional
Power Supply	Ultra X3 800W
Software	Windows XP Pro w/ SP3

Processor	Intel e8600 @ 4.9 Ghz
Motherboard	DFI Lanparty DK X48-T2RSB Plus
Cooling	Water
Memory	2GB (2 x 1GB) of Buffalo Firestix DDR2-1066
Video Card(s)	MSI Radeon HD 4870 1GB OC (820/950) & tweaking
Storage	2x 74GB Velociraptors in RAID 0; 320 GB Barracuda 7200.10
Display(s)	22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB
Case	Silverstone TJ09-BW
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Profesional
Power Supply	Ultra X3 800W
Software	Windows XP Pro w/ SP3

System Name	GaMEr / HTPC
Processor	FX8320 4.5ghz so far NB- 2815mhz / X2 255 @ 3.2ghz (Temp till BD)
Motherboard	990FX-UD5 / GA-MA785GPMT-US2H
Cooling	XSPC - 240rad 480rad 5 x 120mm out, 6 x 80mm in / H220-edge 1/2" & 2 x 120mm Magma
Memory	4gb PI 6,8,6,18 1T 1706mhz / 4gb Crucial D9's 1400 @ 6,6,6,18,1T
Video Card(s)	3gb HD7950 / Onboard
Storage	2 x 120gb Sandisk ultra plus 2tb WD / 60gb vertex 2 + 2 x 2tb WD Greens
Display(s)	3x24in Dell Ultra (portrait) / NEC 32" FullHD LCD
Case	LL PC71A Full tower / Antec fusion black with Imon remote Modded for WC
Audio Device(s)	OB / Auzentech cinema 7.1
Power Supply	TT 700w TR2 / TT 600w Litepower modded with Noctua S12 fan.
Software	7 Ult / 7 premium x64

Processor	Intel e8600 @ 4.9 Ghz
Motherboard	DFI Lanparty DK X48-T2RSB Plus
Cooling	Water
Memory	2GB (2 x 1GB) of Buffalo Firestix DDR2-1066
Video Card(s)	MSI Radeon HD 4870 1GB OC (820/950) & tweaking
Storage	2x 74GB Velociraptors in RAID 0; 320 GB Barracuda 7200.10
Display(s)	22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB
Case	Silverstone TJ09-BW
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Profesional
Power Supply	Ultra X3 800W
Software	Windows XP Pro w/ SP3

System Name	---
Processor	FX 8350 @ 4.00 Ghz with 1.28v
Motherboard	Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 v4.0, Hacked Bios F4.x
Cooling	Silenx 4 pipe Tower cooler + 2 x Cougar 120mm fan, 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200 mm Red LED fan
Memory	Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 16GB + Patriot Memory DDR3 1866 16GB
Video Card(s)	Asus R9 290 OC @ GPU - 1050, MEM - 1300
Storage	Inland 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD for OS, WDC Black - 2TB + 1TB Storage, Inland 480GB SSD - Games
Display(s)	3 x 1080P LCDs - Acer 25" + Acer 23" + HP 23"
Case	AeroCool XPredator X3
Audio Device(s)	Built-in Realtek
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000 Modular
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Asus M3a78

Melios

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KBD

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Melios

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DrunkenMafia

KBD

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Melios

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suraswami

LittleLizard

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System Name	The Lizard v2.4
Processor	Intel Celeron G1840 (for the time being
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-H81-S2PH
Cooling	Intel Stock Fan
Memory	16GB Kingston HyperX 1600
Video Card(s)	MSI Gaming GTX 750Ti (For the time being)
Storage	500GB Samsung F1, 160GB Maxtor "Older than god"
Display(s)	AOC 28' LCD
Case	Coolermaster N200
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Antec VP500P
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Benchmark Scores	No crashes in the last 24 minutes.