ASRock M3A780GXH/128M
Examination:
The layout of the components on the ASRock M3A780GXH/128M motherboard is pretty traditional with nothing really standing out about its design. Beginning in the upper right hand corner of the PCB there are four DDR3 DIMM slots that support up to a maximum memory capacity of 16GB and speeds of DDR3-1600/1333/1066/800MHz. The DDR3-1600MHz frequency is only supported when the system is running in an overclocked mode. Next to the DDR3 memory slots is a 24-pin ATX power connector.
Moving our way down the motherboard, there is a single ATA IDE connector that is positioned perpendicular to the motherboard's PCB and positioned right next to the AMD SB710 Southbridge. The SB710 adds Super I/O support and Advanced Clock Calibration (for enhanced overclocking support) on top of the SB700 feature set. The AMD SB710 is cooled by a small passive heatsink that is secured to the motherboard via pushpins in two opposing corners. In the bottom corner of the motherboard are six Serial ATA 2.0 ports with four of them being rotated and positioned along the edge of the PCB while the remaining two are along the bottom edge but sitting perpendicular to the PCB. Also in this area are three USB 2.0 headers and one IEEE-1394 Firewire header.
The expansion slots on the M3A780GXH/128M include three PCI Express x16, one PCI Express x1, and two PCI slots. The third PCI Express x16 slot is limited to PCI-E x4 bandwidth while the two main PCI Express slots are limited to PCI-E x8 bandwidth, or all x16 lanes can be redirected to the top PCI Express slot by adjusting the paddle on the motherboard. This PCI Express paddle sits between the two main PCI Express x16 slots to allow room for larger graphics cards to be installed without impairing other expansion slots. For those that care, below the bottom PCI slot is the FDD connector. For those that are not using an ATX power supply with an 8-pin and 24-pin connector, above the top PCI Express x1 slot is a 4-pin molex connector that must then be connected for additional power.
The main chipset on this ASRock motherboard is the AMD 780G, which we have previously looked at its Linux performance. The 780G offers integrated graphics that are a step below the AMD 790GX / Radeon HD 3300. Besides offering Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics, the 780G also supports HyperTransport 3.0, PCI Express 2.0, and AMD OverDrive. With the M3A780GXH/128M, ASRock has provided 128MB of DDR3 side-port memory for the integrated graphics while up to 512MB of the system memory can also be shared for graphics purposes. The video outputs on this motherboard include VGA D-Sub, dual-link DVI, and HDMI. A small, passively cooled heatsink cools the 780G on this AM3 motherboard. Immediately above the AMD 780G Chipset is the AM3 Socket and in front of that is the DDR3 memory slots and behind that is a great deal of circuitry along with the 8-pin power connector. This motherboard supports Socket AM3 processors such as the AMD Phenom II X4, and Phenom II X3, Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2.
The ports at the rear of this low-cost motherboard include one PS/2, six USB 2.0, one VGA D-Sub, one DVI-D, one HDMI, S/PDIF, one Firewire, one eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, and six analog audio jacks.