colinmaharaj commented on
colinmaharaj delete_comment: OK, unfortunately the ASUS M3A78-EMH HDMI did not suite my gaming needs
for one, it will not take the 125Watt Phenoms or Athlon X2 such as the
9700, 9850 phenoms and the AMD 6400+.
It will take the 6000+ and lower.
The situation is bad in that an invalid combination will cause the
board to blow up so do not make that mistake.
In terms of the graphics performance, I can't say because I did not get it working the way I wanted to. (but got it working after a few trials and errors).
I ended up using my old 7600 GT. Gaming is not what it was on my CrossHair.
I do C++ programming on this system - gaming is secondary so it is suiting that part of my needs.
Finally the RAM at 1066 will not work unless it was designed for the board and CPU.
And the graphics will take away from your RAM.
However,
1. It is stable - no lockup or reboot issues since I installed it (1 week now). (XP SP2/AMD 6000+/3x1 Gigs 800 Mhz RAM)
2. It has a built in serial port for legacy applications like cash register / external modem / PABX interfaces. (However you will need to buy the cable to bring it out of the Motherboard
3. Has no parallel port externally - need to get a cable to bring it out externally.
4. Can do low power stand by (use this all the time)
5. Remember this is Micro ATX form factor i.e. smaller motherboard - so be careful of the case you get for it.
6. The built in VGA is good, probably for business so no need to buy a graphics card (gaming however is another story).
7. Has enough SATA ports and can do RAID1 so maybe you can make a cheap file server/NAS or something.
8. Giggy LAN, 8 port audio built in, plenty USB ports. Also, I had an external USB Hard Disk that did not want to work with my CrossHair (which I crashed - permanently!!!)
but the ones on this MOBO works with my external USB H.D fine. The problem was the power in my old system was not enough to power the ext U.S.B. H.D. There is a jumper for this...
Erik, this is not a high performing MOBO, it is ok for the office but not for general home/gaming use.
I am just really sad that I flashed my CrossHair MOBO and disabled it permanently (*sob, *sob)
glad if I was any help......
Colin B Maharaj
Trinidad, WI
