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ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe

ASUS’ latest offering for the AMD camp holds much promise, designed around their latest 790FX chipset with full support for socket AM2 and AM2+ processors. Is it strong enough to stand up to its Intel counterparts though?

Introduction

ASUS is one of the most respected tier one component vendors on the planet, with their products spanning over the full range of computer components. They have perfected the art of delivering high performance parts without sacrificing quality in the least. They also continue to push the technological envelope with their innovative motherboard component cooling and BIOS tool designs.

Their latest AMD board exemplifies this very well.

The M3A32-MVP Deluxe is the latest AMD based ASUS motherboard, designed around the newly minted AMD 790FX chipset. The chipset itself fully supports all AM2 and AM2+ type AMD processors, DDR2 DRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to 1066MHz officially, and both dual card and quad card ATI CrossFire operation with matching ATI graphics cards installed. The board is a feature complete solution, necessitating only the addition of an AMD AM2 or AM2+ processor, DDR2 memory, a video card, drives, and a PSU for a working system. The following components have been integrated in to the M3A32-MVP Deluxe’ design: 4 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) and 1 ATA-133 IDE port on the AMD SB600 controller; 2 SATA II ports (RAID 0 and 1 capable) and 1 eSATA port on the Marvell controller; 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (6 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header); a Marvell Yukon GigE Ethernet port in the rear panel; ASUS 802.11g wireless Ethernet port in the rear panel; ADI 8-channel HD audio codec featuring an S/PDIF RCA component and optical output ports; and PS/2 keyboard port support in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

As is standard with their AI Lifestyle board line, ASUS used a simple black box for housing the M3A32-MVP Deluxe, adorned with their AI Lifestyle logo on the board front as well as supported chipset and CPU technologies listed in the lower left corner. The M3A32-MVP Deluxe ships standard with the following accessories: ATA-133 and floppy ribbon cables; SATA driver and dual ended power cables; the rear panel shield; rear brackets for USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 ports; 1 clip-on cooling fan for use with the integrated heat pipe cooling solution; 1 WiFi antennas; 2 ATI CrossFire video card connectors; the Q-Connector modules; the ASUS Cool Mempipe add-on unit; and the normal complement of manuals and drivers disks. Note that the included driver disk is a DVD-ROM disk, not a CD-ROM disk. The Q-Connector modules allow for an easy interface for connecting in to the motherboard headers. You simply plug in your front panel jumpers in to the white connector and the USB 2.0 jumpers in to the blue connector block, and then plug both blocks in to the motherboard headers. It makes for a much easier install for those typically hard to reach header areas. The ASUS Cool Mempipe cooling modules integrates directly in to the onboard heat pipe cooling solution, attaching on top of the Northbridge heat sink. This module can be used to cool system memory modules by dissipating heat directly in to the existing heat pipe network.

Board Layout

Yet again, ASUS has a very well designed product in the M3A32-MVP Deluxe. The board layout is without issue, with no real tight areas anywhere on the board, including around the CPU socket. The heat pipe cooling system is laid out in an unobtrusive manner, but does not suffer in it cooling capabilities for it. The board name and revision are silk screened on the board’s surface just above the DIMM slots, with the board serial number on a sticker in the same vicinity. The board used for testing was a revision 1.02G model. ASUS chose to use all metal solid-state capacitors in designing the M3A32-MVP Deluxe.

The CPU socket area is laid out in such a way that you should have no CPU cooler related seating issues whatsoever. The CPU cooler itself is held down via the standard 4 hole based AMD cooler cage. The AMD 790FX Northbridge chipset is located to the left of the CPU socket. The Northbridge cooler is a low profile copper cooler, which acts as the middle leg of the onboard heat pipe cooling solution. The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is located on the inside edge of the rear panel WiFi card, to the upper right of the CPU socket. The 4-pin CPU_FAN header is located to the lower left of the CPU socket area.

The dual colored DDR2 memory ports are located directly below the CPU socket, arranged in a 2-by-2 configuration. Dual Channel memory mode is activated by placing modules in like colored slots across sets. The 24-pin ATX power connector is to the lower left of the DIMM slots.

The onboard SB600 Southbridge chipset is located directly below the black colored secondary PCI-Express x16 slot. The chipset is covered by a finned, low profile copper heat sink which acts as a termination point for the onboard heat pipe cooling solution. The ATA-133 IDE port, as well as all 6 SATA II ports, are located directly below the chipset. Note that the 4 SATA II port closest to the IDE port are controlled by the SB600 chipset, while the outer 2 belong to the Marvell chipset. Notice that ASUS placed the IDE and SATA II ports in a horizontal fashion on the board, which makes cable engagement a much easier process. The CMOS battery is located to the upper left of the chipset. The chassis intrusion header, CMOS reset jumper, and front panel header are located to the left of the SATA II ports. the PWR_FAN and CHA_FAN1 headers, as well as the standby power LED, are located just above the SATA II ports. Note that this LED illuminates with an active power source connected to the board. The onboard USB 2.0 and IEEE1394 headers are just above the front panel header, along the board’s edge.

The M3A32-MVP Deluxe contains a total of 4 PCI-Express x16 slots, and 2 PCI slots. The front panel audio, SPDIF_OUT, floppy port and COM1 headers are located along the outer edge of the forth PCI-Express x16 slot, with the CD_IN header directly above the third PCI-Express x16 slot.

The following ports make up the M3A32-MVP Deluxe’ rear panel: PS/2 keyboard port; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 6 USB 2.0 ports; 1 e-SATA port; 1 Marvell Yukon GigE Ethernet port; ASUS 802.11g wireless Ethernet ports; 6 analogue, S/PDIF RCA component and optical output audio ports.