ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard review and test

Unfortunately, motherboard reviews don't appear on our site very often. However, I simply couldn't resist writing about the new test platform for AMD AM3 processors.

The old ASUS M2N68-AM SE2 no longer met the demands of our growing website, so it has left our test lab. Still, given its contribution to the site's development, we'd like to thank ASUS for such an excellent ultra-budget motherboard.

The last review featuring our old board will appear on the site within the month. So, what can the new ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO test board offer? It's time to dive into our review. Let's start by taking a look:

The box

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The board comes in a green box, and as many may have noticed, this is an outdated design. ASUS currently uses completely different packaging. Thanks to numerous stickers, even without buying the board, you can tell it belongs to the mid-range budget product class. The front of the box also indicates that this product supports ASUS Express Gate, a software shell that allows you to access the internet in seconds.

Finally, the box informs potential buyers that the integrated AMD Radeon HD4200 graphics processor can be further overclocked using the GPU NOS software.

Package contents:

• 3 SATA cables;

• 1 IDE cable;

• I/O shield;

• User manual and quick installation guide;

• Case stickers;

• Software and driver DVD;

• Set of proprietary Q-Connectors.

The package includes everything you might need for a smooth system startup. The only thing worth noting is the inclusion of two SATA cables with metal latches.

Board specifications:

For a mid-range solution, the specifications look simply amazing. The only drawbacks, if you can call them that, are the absence of FDD and COM connectors.

Appearance

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The board looks quite impressive. The massive heatsink on the power converter is particularly striking. However, practical experience has shown that it doesn't make firm contact with the power transistors and can actually have a negative effect instead of a positive one.

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The power converter itself looks arguably even more impressive than its heatsink. It features 10 power phases: 8 for the CPU cores and 2 for the integrated memory controller.

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The AMD785 northbridge and integrated graphics core appear to use a 2-phase power scheme. Subjectively, this seems sufficient, but it might not be enough for aggressive integrated graphics overclocking.

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The northbridge itself is cooled by a massive blue-gray aluminum heatsink. As you can see from the photo, it has a fairly large heat dissipation surface. However, if your case has poor airflow, this heatsink won't save the chipset from overheating.

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As you might have noticed, the board appears to have two PCI Express x16 slots, but that's only at first glance. The upper, blue slot indeed operates in x16 mode, while the lower, white one only uses 4 lanes.

For graphics cards like the Radeon HD5750/5770, this should be enough to build a CrossFire setup. But if you plan to use more powerful cards, such as the HD58xx/68xx/69xx, it's better to get a board with an AMD790/890FX chipset. You can also install an inexpensive NVIDIA graphics card in the x4 slot to handle physics effects.

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The rear panel features the following connectors:

• PS/2 keyboard/mouse port;

• D-Sub;

• DVI-D;

• HDMI v1.3a;

• S/PDIF;

• IEEE1394a;

• LAN port;

• eSATA;

• 6 x USB 2.0/1.1;

• 8-channel audio port.

Test bench:

• Motherboard - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO (BIOS v2103)

• Processor - Athlon II X4 620

• CPU cooling - Cooler Master Susurro (RR-KCT-T9E1)

• RAM - Corsair XMS3 PC10700 (9-9-9-34)

• Graphics card - ASUS GeForce 9800GT

• PSU - FSP 400W

• Hard drives - Samsung SP160GB

BIOS

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The BIOS of the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard is based on AMI microcode.

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The board's fine-tuning capabilities:

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The integrated graphics core's video memory settings are very flexible. For maximum performance, I recommend setting the UMA+SIDEPORT option. This allows the graphics core to access not only the memory chip soldered on the board but also the RAM installed in the slots. However, there's a catch: the RAM frequency must match the SidePort DDR3 memory frequency!

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The BIOS can monitor the current CPU and system temperatures, four voltages, and the speeds of all three fans.

Overclocking

It's finally time to unleash this product's full potential. Time to overclock. With the current firmware, I managed to reach 330MHz HTT:

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This base clock headroom should be enough to overclock any processor, even those with low multipliers. The maximum stable CPU overclock hit a wall with the CPU itself, topping out at just 3549MHz:

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AMD's C2 revision proved to be quite weak. Processors based on this stepping rarely exceed 3600MHz, unlike C3-based chips which can easily hit over 4GHz.

I also want to share a particular quirk of this board. When increasing the CPU voltage to 1.550V, it failed the 'valley test' in S&M, reporting a 'thermal protection triggered' error. This issue can be resolved by adding airflow to the power converter. Perhaps the problem lies in poor contact between the heatsink and the power transistors, but I suspect the older C2 stepping of the Athlon II X4 620 processor simply drew too much power, overwhelming the power converter.

But as they say, everything happens for a reason. The power delivery system of this motherboard is virtually indestructible.

Conclusion

ASUS has released a well-balanced solution for overclockers. In CIS countries, that word has a slightly different meaning than in the West: minimum investment, maximum performance. The ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO fully embodies this philosophy.

Pros:

Good overclocking options, an excellent foundation for overclocking both unlocked and locked processors, the ability to run two graphics cards in tandem. Rock-solid stability. eSATA on the rear panel, 6 USB ports. Price.

Cons:

Slightly inconvenient SATA port placement. Overly sensitive overheating protection. CPU power delivery heatsink doesn't make firm contact with the power transistors.

Author: UmTale