ASUS M3N78-VM AM2+, Easy to get started,..
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Easy to get started, difficult to get perfect
I bought this Asus board to replace a MSI board that had gone bad. I installed it, hooked it up, turned it on, and it booted up the very first time. It had no problem with my old memory which is slower than 1066 (800 I think). I had to re-do my network settings which is par for the course with a new mobo.
Now for the fancy stuff. Despite the fact that this board has THREE video hookups (VGA, HDMI, DVI), only ONE of them will work at a time because of the limitation of the Nvidia 8200. So for dual monitors you need to add a graphics card. Luckily I had one ready.
Then I tried the digital audio. The manual said coaxial SPDIF but it was actually optical TOSLINK on the board. I could not get it to work, even with the latest development version of Ubuntu 10.04. From what I could find on the support forums, you need to use the built-in HDMI (and perhaps *only* that) for video in order for digital audio to work, and nobody outside the Windows universe has ever done it successfully.
Analog audio worked with no fuss when I tried it.
Update (2/6/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.
The featured review for this product, ASUS M3N78-VM AM2+ Nvidia 8200 DDR2-1066 Nvidia Geforce 8200 IGP mATX Motherboard Electronics, was written by Keith A. Lewis.
The average rating for this item is out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.
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Tags: am2, asus, ddr2, excelent main board, hdmi, hybrid sly, integrated graphics, m3n78-vm, msi, nvidia
Posted on: May 3, 2010
Filed under: Reviews
Reviews (2)
Keith A. Lewis
March 31st, 2010 at 2:53 am
Easy to get started, difficult to get perfect
Rated 4 stars.
D. Maxon
April 20th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Good Motherboard-Hybrid SLI disappointing
I purchased this motherboard as part of a system build. The installation went pretty standard. The RAM, processor and PCIE all went in smooth enough. The board includes 2 extra fan slots aside from the processor fan. For some reason BIOS was unable to control the speed of my processor fan, its a standard Athlon x2 heatsink fan, stuck running on high after initial installation, I had to rig a couple wires to my power supply to force speed control as a temporary fix.
The BIOS has some decent features, the OC capabilities are ok, the ASUS Express Gate feature seems handy, when setup the computer initially starts at a screen that allows you to access a web brower, instant messaging, pictures, DVD contents and more.
The one problem I had was the Hybrid SLI. I purchased this motherboard initially not caring much about it. After installation I thought I would give it a try. My graphics card is a 9800GT so the only advantage would be a power reduction. When following the instructions, I plugged the monitor into the motherboard and after BIOS setup the drivers they ask you to install are not on the disk, at least not the same name, the disc does include “Hybrid SLI Drivers” that I of course assume is what the book should have said. I installed them and BIOS loaded, then the Microsoft name appeared, then I lost video, but the monitor still detected it and did not auto off. I figured out that after the Microsoft logo the video went to my S-Video cord on my graphics card that was plugged into my TV. From my TV I Was able to see that my computer was recognizing both the 9800GT and on board 8200 at the same time. When attempting to access my monitor controls only the TV would be recognized. I attempted to plug the monitor back into the graphics card contrary to what the book said and my monitor went to auto off. I checked online and double checked all my changes and was unable to fix the problem after a couple hours. But I was able to undo all the changes and go to my previous non hybrid SLI setup.
In all the motherboard is decent, I didn’t buy it for the hybrid SLI but it is disappointing that I have not been able to get it to work yet and the online support is lacking.
Built with:Athlon x2 5600+, Geforce 9800GT, 4 GB DDR2 800MHz, Windows Ultimate 64-bit, Cooler Master Centurion 690 case, Antec EarthWatts 500W power supply, one hard drive and one DVD Burner.
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