ASUS M4N78-Pro

[NotquiteanooB]

I'm considering buying a M4N78-Pro . Has onyone tried it yet? It seems to have a great choice of CPU's and RAM that it will support, and is not a bad price. Somewhere between $100 and $125 bucks.
I'd likely add the Phenom IIx4 at 3.2Ghz and 3gb ofOCZ or Gskill 1066 Ram. with XP Pro. It will be fluid cooled.
This is to replace/upgrade my A7N8X-E Dlx, which is now giving flakey problems; old age has caught up to it.

 

[s44]

Unless you need RAID 5, why not go AM3 with the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P?

 

[NotquiteanooB]

I use Raid 1 on all my PC's ... I think HDD's are the weak point in all systems. Even tho I do Backups .. it's nice to have the mirrored protection. I'll give the Gigabite a look. The link you gave has some positive reviews. I don't plan to use more than 3Gb of Ram as XP won't recognize more than 3Gb.
Thanx for the tip.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

While the Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 looks like a pretty decent MB; it comes up short in 2 areas for me.
I use a USB/DVI KVM switch and this MB doesn't support USB Keybd & Mouse; except for MS-DOS according to the manual.
I need onboard video; either VGA/DVI or Dual DVI.
I shall keep searching.

 

[nenforcer]

The latest BIOS for M4N78 will support AM3 CPU's so you can buy the latest AM3 Phenom ][ and run it with DDR2.

That's a good choice since the performance of DDR3 is not much greater if at all on AMD platform than DDR2 1066.

You will be buying a non upgradeable motherboard however unless you go with the AMD 790?X series for AM3 and DDR3.

nVidia still doesn't have any AMD DDR3 motherboards available yet.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=734

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Thank you 'nenforcer' for that article link.... makes me want to rethink the whole idea of upgrading to another AMD platform ! Seems like some of the boards don't support AM3; some do; but don't have DDR3; and maybe don't have a floppy connection. I may be living in the past, but I still want a floppy! M4N82 no floppy ? M4N78-Pro ? The cost factor makes me still want to try AMD again. The P6T Delux I put together last month was a very pricey addition to my PC Collection. I now need, or want, to upgrade 2 of the older (5+ year old) models that are showing their age; and a less expensive AMD option was in mind. Onboard video is okay for my needs on the upgrade PC's. The P6T has dual GTX285's and handles the video, video editing and photoshopping nicely. The A7N8X-E Delux and A7N8X-Delux are the ones I want to upgrade. Although I see you are still running with an A7N8X Delux !
Thanks again for the link and opinions.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

UPDATE: Finding more reviews of the M4N78-Pro, that users have had trouble getting the Onboard LAN/NIC to connect. Seems most have either the LAN complaint or Audio complaint. I'm now considering the M4A78-Pro; basically the same board but with ATI onboard video rather than the Nvidea 8300. Looking for any reviews of this M4A78-Pro. UPDATE: Just read about 100 reviews of the M4A78-Pro. About 90% are very positive. Very few RMA problems reported. Some had trouble when loading Linux or Vista OS's. I think I will go for this M4A78-Pro.
I'll come back to this thread after I get it installed and tested; give it about 2 weeks !

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Update: The M4A78Pro arrived with a AMD PhenomII x4 955 and a LianLi 850w PS; and 4 gigs of Corsair DDR2 800 RAM.
Installed in my Antec P160 case and no power up. Checked the leads, and still the same. Reset CMOS. Got momentary CPU fan spin. Then died. Reset CMOS again. Still no Joy. Changed to an older but working PS 500w. Powered up. Posted. Got into Bios (0508) reset Bios for Defaults. Bios is very old, many revisions up to 1203 now. Wish I had updated Bios while I had the chance; because after setting defaults, it now doesn't Post, only get black screen. It's a revision 1.02g board and reading the ASUS forums ... it seems many have a problem with this board not being compatible with x4 Phenoms. ASUS says they are compatible; but I'm sure they LIE ! Went thru the troubleshooting procedure from ASUS. Filed a tech report; Reply was; do the NO Post trouble shooting procedure, which I had already done. Most of the forum complainers were RMA'ing; some as many as 3 and 4 times ! ASUS seems to have dropped the ball as far as quality control goes.
Mine gets RMA'd on Monday. I doubt that I will get another ASUS product; although of the 2 dozen ASUS mobo's that I have purchased; this is the first one that goes back! Now to search for another mobo that has all the qualities that I want. Sata Raid; a Floppy; DDR2; X4 955 Phenom II; at least 8 USB ports; simple OC'g procedure; etc.

 

[nenforcer]

Glad to see you follow up on this thread as I'm still following it.

I haven't been sold on AMD motherboards even after they supposedely fixed the SB600 problems in the SB700/SB750.

I just don't like their .NET drivers for hardware.

However, I don't know if the M4N78Pro would have been any better.

I'd like to know your opinion once you get this up and running.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Hello again 'nenforcer';

I contacted my supplier (Anitec) and have an RMA #. Rather than ship back; I will be travelling to Vancouver at the end of this month and will take the mobo, PS, RAM and CPU with me. They will test them all. Their tech dept. suspects it's nothing more than the BIOS needs to be updated to at least 0903 to support x4's. They will update BIOS by using a compatible CPU; then test all my components. If it's more than a BIOS problem they will replace the board and test again with my components. What a deal!
I live in Canada and deal with Anitec in Vancouver BC. They are very helpful and a very reasonably priced computer parts supplier. When they ship they really pack as if it had to survive a blast off to the moon! Unfortunately, they don't ship to the USA. Probably because Canada has lower import duties on Computer parts coming from the Orient, than the USA does; and that would create a hassle and add costs for US customers.
That's a free plug for ANITEC....
More later ... about Aug. 7 or 8.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Hi 'nenforcer' & all;

Currently using the M4A78 Pro to type this update. Had the nice tech (John) at Anitec, update the Bios to 1203; test the AMD x4 955; RAM and PS. All work just fine after the Bios update. Onboard VGA is adequate.
One glitch while reloading XP-Pro; but another download of the Raid drivers and remembering to hit F6; solved the problem.
Currently running BOINC/Seti@Home and eMule downloads and no hiccups so far.
Using a fluid cooling of the CPU by "Coolit" and a small fan sitting on the Northbridge heatsink. CPU temp @ 36*C and Mobo @ 27*C.
Pleased with the setup so far!

 

[Lucky Stripes 99]

Can anyone who owns this board comment on how hot the Northbridge chip gets? I used to have an ATI 740G board, and one of my biggest issues was that the Northbridge was so hot, it was painful to the touch. I eventually dumped the 740G because of driver issues with X11 under Unix, and am now looking at 8200 and 8300 boards.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Lucky Stripes 99

Before I added the small fan to the Northbridge... it was warm to the touch, but not hot. Previous experience with NB chipsets has shown me they can get very hot .. up to 105*C before there is damage. That is enough to burn your skin!! But when that hot, you get lots of BSOD's. I added the ASUS fan from a P6T. This was designed to clip on the VRM heatsink; and the NB Heatsink is barely warm. Temp sensor for the mobo is attached to the NB heatsink and currently shows 30*C

 

[Lucky Stripes 99]

Cool, thanks for the info.

 

[kaiser02]

However, I don't know if the M4N78Pro would have been any better.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Might have been a headache. Many negative comments and multi RMA's reported on some forums.... including the ASUS forums.