The ASUS M5A78L motherboard is an ideal solution for assembling high-performance computers based on the AM3 +

The motherboard based on the AM3 + platform from the company AMD, medium level, with a good functional set and very modest cost - this ASUS M5A78L. Its characteristics, specifications and other important information related to the configuration and operation of this solution will be considered in the proposed material.

Equipment

The motherboard considered in this material can be proud of the usual list of equipment. In this list, the manufacturer included the following:

• Motherboard M5A78L.
• Plug from the metal plate for the back side of the PC case.
• A complete guide to installation, switching and configuration in multilingual design.
• Disk with diagnostic software and drivers. Also on it you can find the electronic version of the documentation on the M5A78L.
• A set of interface cords for connecting drives.
• Warranty card.

A similar list of components can boast and the younger modification of the motherboard ASUS M5A78L - LX3, which also belongs to this model range. The key difference in size: the solution without the LX3 comes with the dimensions of ATX, and the younger card - in the format of microATX.

A connector for installing a processor device. Chipset

This motherboard is aimed at installing processors of the AM3 + family. This is the first and second generation of FX processors from the AMD company. But also this motherboard can quite successfully work with the processors of the previous generation, which belong to the computing platform AM3. The chipset in the ASUS M5A78L-M consists of two components: the north bridge is 760G and the south bridge is 710SB.

Processors

As it was mentioned before, two generations of processors supports ASUSM5A78L. The first generation is solutions based on AM3. It includes such models of central processors:

• The least productive chips belonged to the Septron family. They had a low speed and were excellent for solving office tasks. Basically, on their semiconductor substrate there was only one computational nucleus, more rarely two.
• Above the hierarchy there were Athlon processors. In this case, the number of computational modules was 2, 3 or 4. Also the clock speeds increased, and the size of the cache increased. This allowed them to be used even in the gaming systems of the primary class.
• Flagship chips in this case were the CPU series Phenom. A higher level of performance was achieved by integrating the third level of the cache into a semiconductor chip of the CPU.

Also, this motherboard supported the processors of the AM3 + family. This chips FX series with 4-8 cores and higher speed.

RAM and its features

The motherboard ASUS M5A78L allowed to install up to 32 GB of DDR3 memory. The maximum clock frequency of RAM chips could reach, according to the manufacturer, 2000 MHz. In reality, in nominal mode, this value could not exceed 1866 MHz because AMD processors could not interact with RAM at a higher frequency. The number of slots on the motherboard was 4. In this case, in the maximum configuration, you could install 4 8 GB slats.

Separately, it should be noted that the controller, which is part of the north bridge of the set of system logic, is two-channel. Therefore, it is more correct to install in the personal computer two modules of smaller size than one large. For example, the performance of the computing system will increase by 10-15 percent in the event that instead of 1 module on 8 GB install 2 modules of 4 GB.

Slots for installing internal controllers

The following expansion slots for installing internal controllers can be found on the M5A78L motherboard:

• 1 PCI-Express 16X connector for installing a discrete graphics system. Accordingly, it was not necessary to count on the installation of the second adapter and it was necessary to immediately buy one high-performance accelerator.
• 3 PCI slots allowed to install various internal controllers. It could be a sound card, a network adapter, and even a TV tuner.
• It was also possible to install an internal controller in the new version in such a board. For this purpose, one PCI-Express slot of revision 1X was provided.

A similar set of expansion slots could boast of the younger model - ASUS M5A78L-LX3. Only it went in the microATX format, and due to the reduction in its size, instead of three PCI slots there was only one.

Overclocking Features

The impressive overclocking capabilities of the processors are implemented in the ASUS M5A78L. This board supports almost all chips for AM3 +. This list does not include only processors with a thermal package of more than 125 W, and this is the flagship CPU of the FX-9XXX series. In the rest it should be noted that all processors of the AM3 + computing platform have an unlocked clock multiplier. Therefore, they can be dispersed easily and simply by raising the value of the multiplier.

At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the fact that an advanced cooling system and a power supply with a large margin of safety must be installed in the computer. As practice shows, on air cooling such processors can be overclocked to 4.8-5 GHz. If we replace the air system of the heat sink with a liquid one, we can fully expect to achieve 5.5 GHz.

Results

Indeed, the universal solution within the AM3 and AM3 + platforms was the ASUS M5A78L. It could be used in the entry-level personal computers. And advanced specifications and specifications, in turn, could be used to create a high-performance computing system. Similarly, the younger model ASUS M5A78L-M LX3 could also be used.