M3A78-T
M3A78-T Crash – Hard Lock – Instability – Time to Switch
Aug 24th
I have given up on the M3A78-T. I wish I could return it, but I’ve had it for several months now. Its simply is not a stable motherboard. Even with the newest bios the board would crash constantly under completely random conditions. There was nothing in the logs, which is because it wasn’t a software problem; something is seriously wrong with the design of that motherboard. I tried everything, but it would not operate stably. I switched to a M2N-SLI Deluxe. One word, STABLE. This motherboard is using the exact same software and is operating completely stable under the exact same circumstances that the M3A78-T would crap out. If you run Linux, and do anything remotely complicated, do not purchase the M3A78-T. I think the board is stable if you are not doing anything serious. For instance I run a virtual machine to host this website, compiz for the desktop, and a variety of applications on different viewports. This is a complicated software configuration that pushes the hard to the limit. The M2N-SLI Deluxe handles if fine!
Phenom 1 x4 9650 ASUS M3A78-T Overclocking
Jun 20th
The Phenom chips have frequency scaling properties. The only reason to use this feature is to manage temperatures, if the frequency is lower the processor will consume less power and therefore run cooler. My computer with Thermaltake water cooling would run at 28C – 32C with the frequency scaling option enabled in the BIOS (AMD Cool’n Quiet). I currently have the BIOS configured with this feature off. The FSB is scaled to 215 with the multiplyer at 11.5. The processor voltage range is 1.15 – 1.25 and I have gold series OCZ 1066 DDR2 ram. The voltage for these chips are 2.1, and the timing is 5-6-6-18. Enable 2T and ganged mode. I cannot get the chips to operate at 1066, the computer wont post. No worries ram speed is not a major player in the speed of application launching. The FSB play a greater role. Currently the RAM is operating at 900 Mhz, and the processor is operating at 2.54 Ghz. The temperature of the computer is consistently 30C – 32C even under load.