Micro ATX Motherboard Lineup Expanded by ASUS's 760G Products

The motherboards introduced by ASUS for the micro ATX line are the M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M and M4A78LT-M LE. These products' different features make each of them especially suited for certain arrays of tasks, although all three have common features that give them a certain level of versatility in any domain. All use the AMD 760G + SB710 chipset.

These products employ AMD-developed chipsets and can support AM3 and AM2 (+) central processing units. Specifically, the M4A78L-M LE and M4A78L-M use the AM2+ socket and support DDR2 memory, while the M4A78LT-M LE uses an AM3 socket, thus being able to handle newer AM3 processors and DDR3 memory units.

Although each differs from the other two through having or lacking certain resources and features, they all possess two DIMM slots for dual channel memory setups, an ATI Radeon HD 3000-class IGP, one PCI-Express x16 (which supports CrossFireX), a Pci Express x1 and two normal PCI slots.

The M4A78L-M LE and M4A78LT-M LE have more similar features with each other than with the M4A78L-M in the way that both are better suited for office or business setups. They have more reduced display connectivity options compared with the latter, but still have a D-sub or DVI port and all the legacy and parallel ports. They also boast 6-channel audio, a 4-phase CPU VRM and all the required southbridge connectivity capabilities, represented by six SATA 3 Gbps ports, and one IDE connector.

What the M4A78L-M has that make it more suited for home users are more display capabilities, including an HDMI port besides the D-Sub and DVI, which its siblings also possess. The latter also has 8-channel audio instead of 6 and its VRM is slightly more powerful, being a 4+1 phase type.

In addition to their performance capabilities, all motherboards use ASUS EPUs (energy processing units) and come with the Express Gate instant-on OS and the Turbo key function, which can turn the PC power-on button into an overclock button. The respective prices of the M4A78L-M LE, M4A78L-M and M4A78LT-M LE are £42.42, £47.87 and $51.68.