Asus M4a785td-m Evo

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Very impressed with Asus!

I Purchased a ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO for my little and only brother, for Christmas, he's been using an ECS mobo with a Athlon 2100+ for the last 6 years, and his Xbox RROD'd and his PS3 YLOD'd all in the course of 2 weeks. So he is without any gaming of any sort! That's just not acceptable for anyone in my family. I thought about giving him my LAN rig, but I really do not feel like building another one. So I set on a mission to spend about 400'ish dollars for a PC he could upgrade and keep and get 4 or so years and get a lot of mileage out of, and play games till he's blue on. So I bought the following :

ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131406 * got a better price as combo with CPU

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680 * got better price as combo with mobo

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251

COOLER MASTER Elite 460 RS-460-PSAR-J3 460W : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171046

COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119161 ( Bought it from Frys 3 days ago for 21 dollars + Tax )

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433 ( Bought this from Frys for 62.49 + Tax )

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X ... : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175 ( Bought like 6 of them, about 3 months or so ago when they were on New Egg "Shell Shocker" for $15 USD a piece )

Put it all together this afternoon, in about an hour an a half, and it worked straight away! Used a copy of Vista I own, he's going to have to buy a copy of Windows in 30 days and a vid card ( I wanted to get him a XFX 5770, but he's 20 and has a okay job so I decided against it, if a 5650 was available I would have bought it no questions asked ) he works for Frys ( http://www.frys.com/ ) so he will be able to get them for about 10 % + off.

But I am very impressed with the mobo for a $86 USD, this board is amazingly well constructed and well equipped! I took the proc out of the box to 3.9 GHZ with the stock cooler, and I've run futermark, and Super PI, and BurnIn and it seems to be rock solid. Also the Bios is very full featured.

But anyone with a budget of about 400 - 500 dollars USD I recommend this setup!

I may see if I can put together some used/ new WC parts for his system when he gets his video card. I may post a work log if I feel frisky.


I can't speak Highly enough of this Mobo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kei]

I totally agree with the quality of this motherboard. I built a system for someone recently using the exact same motherboard and cpu as you did. I was floored that it was so good for such an amazingly low price! Everything runs nice and cool, the board doesn't look bad at all, the bios is nice, good feature set, and great onboard video with sound!

I paired that combo with Vista 32Bit (didn't have a copy of W7 onhand as they weren't released until 7 days after the build) and 2Gb of 1800Mhz DDR3 that I set to 1333Mhz and knocked the voltage down. Later on we'll turn the system up when the owner feels that they need some more power in a few...well for him in a number of years lol.

When I put that thing together, and started taking it through it's paces and setup...I was actually jealous at how amazingly snappy it was! Funny because my personal setup at the time was a 4Gb (DDR2) Windows 7 64Bit Phenom II 920 with an ATi 4850. My setup overall was faster than his, but man if his didn't feel a bit snappier than mine (I'm assuming it was the DDR3 and slightly higher clock speeds).

I wasn't really planning to go AM3 anytime soon, but after using that system for a few days before delivery and picking up a Phenom II 955...I'm salivating at the thought of a full AM3 setup. Depending on what's in stock at CompUSA, and what I hear about the board I'm thinking about...I may end up with a system tomorrow.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but man that EVO and Phenom II 550 were MADE for each other!

Kei

 

[Jstn7477]

I totally agree with the quality of this motherboard. I built a system for someone recently using the exact same motherboard and cpu as you did. I was floored that it was so good for such an amazingly low price! Everything runs nice and cool, the board doesn't look bad at all, the bios is nice, good feature set, and great onboard video with sound!

I paired that combo with Vista 32Bit (didn't have a copy of W7 onhand as they weren't released until 7 days after the build) and 2Gb of 1800Mhz DDR3 that I set to 1333Mhz and knocked the voltage down. Later on we'll turn the system up when the owner feels that they need some more power in a few...well for him in a number of years lol.

When I put that thing together, and started taking it through it's paces and setup...I was actually jealous at how amazingly snappy it was! Funny because my personal setup at the time was a 4Gb (DDR2) Windows 7 64Bit Phenom II 920 with an ATi 4850. My setup overall was faster than his, but man if his didn't feel a bit snappier than mine (I'm assuming it was the DDR3 and slightly higher clock speeds).

I wasn't really planning to go AM3 anytime soon, but after using that system for a few days before delivery and picking up a Phenom II 955...I'm salivating at the thought of a full AM3 setup. Depending on what's in stock at CompUSA, and what I hear about the board I'm thinking about...I may end up with a system tomorrow.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but man that EVO and Phenom II 550 were MADE for each other!

Kei

It has always seemed that whenever I build someone else a PC of similar specifications, it always seems snappier than my own PC. Speaking of which, I need to reinstall Windows 7 on my rig because after a failed OC I hit F2 to load defaults or something like that, and it turned off my RAID, I ran Windows for a while before I noticed and now Windows is somewhat corrupt, but still working after a few rounds of chkdsk.

Anyway, that board seems to be of high quality, like ASUS is supposed to be.

 

[Kei]

It has always seemed that whenever I build someone else a PC of similar specifications, it always seems snappier than my own PC.

lol, this one was actually real though . All the other systems I built recently didn't feel as snappy as this thing was to me. That machine just felt like a bolt of lightning and TOTALLY blew my expectations of the 'cheap/decent' 785G out of the water. I was totally unprepared for how fast it really ended up being.

The owner is still having jet lag from using his new system...and it's been about 2 months now lol.

I won't lie, I've thought many times about picking up one of these boards just to see what it can do with my Phenom II 955 and then decide where to go from there. I thought it would be fun to see how well it can perform until I either got a 790GX/FX or 890FX AM3 board for my 955. Heck, the idea is still in my head to this day and I'm headed to CompUSA tomorrow just to scope out what they have in stock. This could be dangerous, I had the ASUS 790GX AM3 board in my hands the other day, but the store was closing so I didn't have time to check out what ram they had. Tomorrow is regular store hours

Kei

 

[HossHuge]

You guys are helping me make my decision between the Asus M4A79XTD EVO over the Asus M4A78T-E.

Cheers on the new build!

 

[Kei]

What is the purpose of your system? If you're looking to save a little money, and don't mind possibly giving up some headroom for overclocking then I think the 785G will do fine. If however you would normally be wanting a 790FX board (the most advanced set), and will be looking to overclock as an important goal then go with the safe bet in the 790GX (the M4A78T-E).

For an overclocking purpose system I think the M4A78T-E is still the best choice that can be made, unless of course you want/need 4 PCI-E slots then you have to step up one more notch with the 790FX boards.

If you're not really worried about overclocking though and just want a stable board with good features, low price, and some overclocking headroom the 785G is excellent.

EVO Review

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1747&pageID=8115

Kei

(I don't know if it supports 140W cpus though I doubt it does)

 

[HossHuge]

I would use the 785G but I am X-firing 2 - 4850's.

 

[Jstn7477]

lol, this one was actually real though . All the other systems I built recently didn't feel as snappy as this thing was to me. That machine just felt like a bolt of lightning and TOTALLY blew my expectations of the 'cheap/decent' 785G out of the water. I was totally unprepared for how fast it really ended up being.

The owner is still having jet lag from using his new system...and it's been about 2 months now lol.

I won't lie, I've thought many times about picking up one of these boards just to see what it can do with my Phenom II 955 and then decide where to go from there. I thought it would be fun to see how well it can perform until I either got a 790GX/FX or 890FX AM3 board for my 955. Heck, the idea is still in my head to this day and I'm headed to CompUSA tomorrow just to scope out what they have in stock. This could be dangerous, I had the ASUS 790GX AM3 board in my hands the other day, but the store was closing so I didn't have time to check out what ram they had. Tomorrow is regular store hours

Kei

Reminds me of one of my first systems (my dad passed it on to me since I was young and wasn't building PCs back then.) It was, if I recall, an Athlon XP (maybe a 1900+ Palomino 1600MHz) on a Soyo Dragon (a quick googling makes me think it was a K7V Dragon/VIA KT266a) with 2 60GB Maxtor IDE drives in RAID 0, 512MB Kingston HyperX DDR and an ATI Radeon 9500PRO 128MB. That thing somehow blew both our minds, as it installed XP so fast and was just so snappy. Too bad the caps blew after a few years, and the board got tossed. My favorite feature packed board back in the day would be the Gigabyte GA-7NNXP (with extra 3 phase VRM riser card.) Boy, was that board nice (until the caps blew.)

This seems like a nice board even for a secondary rig or something (OC that little IGP to the max)

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

that EVO and Phenom II 550 were MADE for each other!

Kei

QFTW!

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Reminds me of one of my first systems (my dad passed it on to me since I was young and wasn't building PCs back then.) It was, if I recall, an Athlon XP (maybe a 1900+ Palomino 1600MHz) on a Soyo Dragon (a quick googling makes me think it was a K7V Dragon/VIA KT266a) with 2 60GB Maxtor IDE drives in RAID 0, 512MB Kingston HyperX DDR and an ATI Radeon 9500PRO 128MB. That thing somehow blew both our minds, as it installed XP so fast and was just so snappy. Too bad the caps blew after a few years, and the board got tossed. My favorite feature packed board back in the day would be the Gigabyte GA-7NNXP (with extra 3 phase VRM riser card.) Boy, was that board nice (until the caps blew.)

This seems like a nice board even for a secondary rig or something (OC that little IGP to the max)

I would be a great board for HTPC, or a downlaod rig (which I will be making as I was soo impressed with it, also I'm running out of space, yes 24 TB is not enough!!!), or a PC for someone who uses just the Inet and flash games.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I Highly recommend this board for a budget build with 1 vid card.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Playing with it some more today, and well, I think I went a little overboard. I got it to 4.1 GHZ kinda stable and was pushing for 4.2, then it BSOD'd and WnB, so i reset the CMOS, andit works now. Well 4.1 GHZ with a stock cooler and a tiny bit of voltage is pretty good, but not good enough for me <_<'.

So we just got back from Frys, I purchased the following for him ( yeah I went over board ) :

CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010 ( got it for 65 )

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251 ( yes he now has 8 GB, got it for a whopping 72 )

SilenX IXP-54-14B 80mm Blue LED Case Fan : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835226003 ( I like SilenX there good reliable fans )

2 SILVERSTONE FM123 120mm Case Fan : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220022

Yeah I just blew nearly 250 dollars <_<"

He then bought :

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

XFX HD-585A-ZNBC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB Black Edition : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150454

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758 ( got it for 98 USD )

So were now putting it all together. I think I now have to put my upgrade of my storgae box on hold, but I will be using this mobo for sure! Will post an update, and maybe a future mark score if we have a chance to run it before we go out for family dinner.

 

[HossHuge]

[H]@RD5TUFF I am eagerly waiting for your results.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

[H]@RD5TUFF I am eagerly waiting for your results.

We just got it done, and Windows 7 is installing off of a USB key, it's not much of a looker but it's gunna fly. All go and no show!

Might have a chance to bring it back up to 3.9, before dinner, more than likely were just gunna have to set it to just update windows, while were @ dinner.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Quick update while on the way to dinner (no I'm not driving! ) K so for some reason it won't allow me to manually set over 3.8 GHZ so I'm gunna update the bios, after reseting the cmos. Also we have something special in mind for the H50, lets just say it involves a an extra 120 mm fan, and a USB device from cool it systems ( http://www.coolitsystems.com/ ) which they no longer make ( http://www.legitreviews.com/article/444/1/ ).

So just valeted the car, we'll be back home around 10'ish PST ( San Diego, CA ) , were gunna pull an all nighter in an effort to get some CO-OP zombie killing going See ya'll with an update later, maybe 11'ish PST

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

What is the purpose of your system? If you're looking to save a little money, and don't mind possibly giving up some headroom for overclocking then I think the 785G will do fine. If however you would normally be wanting a 790FX board (the most advanced set), and will be looking to overclock as an important goal then go with the safe bet in the 790GX (the M4A78T-E).

For an overclocking purpose system I think the M4A78T-E is still the best choice that can be made, unless of course you want/need 4 PCI-E slots then you have to step up one more notch with the 790FX boards.

If you're not really worried about overclocking though and just want a stable board with good features, low price, and some overclocking headroom the 785G is excellent.

EVO Review

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1747&pageID=8115

Kei

(I don't know if it supports 140W cpus though I doubt it does)

" (I don't know if it supports 140W cpus though I doubt it does)"

It does : http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=QHbvGVB1mXmmD8qQ&templete=2

" M4A785TD-M EVO
# 140w CPU support
# 128MB SidePort Memory
# GPU NOS
# ASUS EPU
# Turbo Key"

K now for realz into Mortons for dinner LOLZ!

 

[Kei]

GO EAT!!!!!

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

GO EAT!!!!!

LOL surry my atetnion span getz shoter thwe drunker I get LOL<_+"

 

[HossHuge]

As it is my little one's B-day today and almost 11:00am Taiwan time. I will drink with you my friend.

Good luck with the building/overclocking

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Dinner is raping up, will be on our way home as soon as the last 2 bottles of wone are gone, and my scotch is empty.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

K Just got back, starting up the "Mr. Coffee" will up date after I finshi updating the Bios

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Okay now at what I believe to be a rock solid 4.1 GHZ, will fiddle more with it, and talk about my plans for that USB device.