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Asus M3A79-T Deluxe Review & Overclocking - PAGE 1
William Henning - Saturday, November 15th, 2008

Today we are taking a look at the Asus M3A79-T Deluxe -- an AMD socket AM2+ motherboard using the AMD 790FX chipset with the AMD SB750 southbridge.

Unlike some previous AM2+ motherboards, this board is designed to work with the 140W TDP Phenom processors. Asus makes sure we know this, not only by labeling the box, but also with a huge sticker right on the motherboard itself!

Among the many features of this board are the four GPU slots that can be used in the following modes:

  • Dual card - PCIe 16x 2.0 (two slots unused)
  • Triple card - one PCIe 16x 2.0 slot, two PCIe 16x 2.0 8x slots
  • Quad card - four PCIe 16x 2.0 8x slots

Now that's a lot of potential GPU power... and let's not forget that a PCIe 2.0 8x slot has the same bandwidth as the previous PCIe 16x slots had.

Here are the specifications of the board:

PU
AMD Socket AM2+ / AM2 Processors
for AMD® Phenom™ FX / Phenom™ / Athlon™ / Sempron™ processors
AMD Cool 'n' Quiet™ Technology
Supports CPU up to 140W
Chipset
AMD 790FX/SB750
System Bus
Up to 5200 MT/s HyperTransport™ 3.0 interface for AM2+ CPU
2000 / 1600 MT/s for AM2 CPU
Memory
4 x240-pin DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1066/800/667 Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only. Refer to www.asus.com for the memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
**Due to OS limitation, when installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows® 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.
Expansion Slots
4 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots with ATI CrossFireX™ support (@ dual x16, triple x16 / x8 / x8, or quad x8 modes)
2 x PCI 2.2
CrossFire
Supports ATI CrossFireX™ graphics cards; up to Quad CrossFireX™
Storage
Southbridge
1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66
6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports Support RAID 0,1,5,10
Marvell® 88SE6111 SATA controller
1 x External SATA 3Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
LAN
Marvell® 88E8056 Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET 2
Audio
ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-Streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking
- Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF Out ports at back I/O
- ASUS AI Audio 2
- ASUS Noise Filtering
IEEE 1394
LSI® L-FW3227 controller supports 2 x 1394a ports (1 at mid-board; 1 at back panel)
USB
12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)
ASUS Unique Features
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solutions:
- ASUS 8+2 Phase Power Design
- ASUS Fanless Design: Heat pipe solution
- ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
- ASUS Q-Fan 2
ASUS Express Gate:
- Access the Internet in 5-second* boot time without entering Windows
- Friendly picture manager interface
*Actual boot time subject to hardware configuration.
ASUS Power Saving Solutions:
- ASUS AI Gear 2
- ASUS AI Nap
ASUS Crystal Sound:
- ASUS AI Audio 2
- ASUS Noise Filtering
ASUS EZ DIY:
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS Q-Connector
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- Onboard Switch
Overclocking Features
Intelligent overclocking tools:
- AI Overclocking (Intelligent CPU Frequency Tuner)
- AI Booster Utility
Precision Tweaker 2:
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125V increment
- vDIMM: 36-step DRAM voltage control
- vChipset (NB): 16-step Chipset voltage control
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 600MHz at 1MHz increment
- PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
Overclocking Protection:
- ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features
ASUS MyLogo 2™
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard / Mouse combo port
1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out ports
1 x External SATA port
1 x IEEE1394a port
1 x LAN (RJ45) port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
8-channel Audio I/O ports
Internal I/O Connectors
3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
1 x COM connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x CPU Fan connector
2 x Chassis Fan connectors
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x IEEE1394a connector
Front panel audio connector
1 x S/PDIF Out header
Chassis Intrusion connector
CD audio in
24-pin ATX Power connector
System Panel (Q-Connector)
8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
Power on Switch
Reset Switch
BIOS
8 Mb Flash ROM
AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0a, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2
Manageability
WOL by PME, WOR by PME, WOR by Ring, Chasis Intrusion, PXE
Accessories
2 x ASUS CrossFire bridge cables
1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
6 x Serial ATA cables
1 x 2-port Serial ATA power cable
1 x Q-Shield
1 x User's manual
1 x Multi-functional module (1-port IEEE 1394a + 2-port USB2.0)
1 x Q-connector Kit (USB, 1394, system panel; Retail version only)
*The floppy disk drive cable is purchased separately
Support Disc
Drivers
ASUS Express Gate
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS Update
ASUS AI Suite
AMD OverDrive Utility (AOD)
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12 x 9.6 ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

 

next: The Board »

Article Index

1.Introduction
2.The Board
3.The BIOS
4.More BIOS
5.Test Setup & Benchmarks Used
6.Business Winstone & Content Creation
7.WinRAR & HDTach
8.LAME MP3 & TMPGEnc
9.Call of Duty & Commanche 4
10.Doom 3 & Quake 4
11.Halo, Jedi Knight & UT4K
12.Sandra
13.RightMark Read & Write
14.RightMark Latency & Bandwidth
15.Overclocking, Power Consumption & Conclusion

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