Asus M2A-VM HDMI Desktop Motherboard - AMD Chipset - Socket AM2 PGA-940

ASUS M2A-VM AM2 Motherboard

Strengths: Micro ATX Form - DVI, VGA & HDMI Display Out - Four DDR2 Memory Slots - Firewire 1394a

Weakness: HDMI Riser Card Uses Available PCI-E Motherboard Slot - Limited BIOS

I bought this mobo for an HTPC computer and have been very pleased with it. I installed an AMD X2 4400 cpu along with a Cooler Master Hyper TX2 heat-sink-fan in a Antec mid tower case with a single 120mm exhaust fan, and temps are in the low 30's (C). I used 2 GB (1GB x 2) of 800 MHz Crucial Ballistix (the older Double sided type) with the voltage at 2.0, no problems. I've read other people...
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I bought this mobo for an HTPC computer and have been very pleased with it. I installed an AMD X2 4400 cpu along with a Cooler Master Hyper TX2 heat-sink-fan in a Antec mid tower case with a single 120mm exhaust fan, and temps are in the low 30's (C). I used 2 GB (1GB x 2) of 800 MHz Crucial Ballistix (the older Double sided type) with the voltage at 2.0, no problems.
I've read other people getting nice overclocks on this board, not so for me. Ran the FSB up to 225MHz stable, nothing more. Then again as a basic HTPC the X2 4400 is more then enough.
This mobo uses the ATI integrated 1250 Video chip, which is fine for basic video but not for gaming. While this mobo has a PCI-E x16 slot, the HDMI riser card uses it. The board also has a PCI-E x1 slot, and it's nice to see a manufacture put this slot at the bottom of the mobo instead of right under the PCI-E x16 slot. I am one of those people that uses the PCI-E x1 slot for a wireless Ethernet adapter, and if I decide to install a daul slot video card in the future, I won't have to lose the use of the PCI-E x1 slot.
The built in Lan port supports 1000Mbps, which is a nice touch for wired networking. The mobo also has Firewire, which is nice for those that have video cameras that use it.
This board can also use the new AMD Phenom chip with a BIOS update, although not at the faster Hyper Transport of 3600MHz.
All in all a very solid HTPC board, rates an 8 of 10.

By woodbutcher1 - Jun 5, 2008

the worst motherboard I've ever seen

Strengths: simple installation, good doc's

Weakness: flicking problems with integrated video card, ASUS Customer Service,

I bought this motherboard ~3 weeks ago for my Home Theater PC. With installed WindowsXP 64 Pro, 4Gb memory, 400Gb SATA hard drive, connected Philips 47" full HD LCD TV it was supposed to be a great HTPC. Instead, because of some "bug" in integrated ATI X1250 video card I have to use 800x600 resolution. With higher resolution it starts flicking. I've tested all available updates and the problem is...
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I bought this motherboard ~3 weeks ago for my Home Theater PC. With installed WindowsXP 64 Pro, 4Gb memory, 400Gb SATA hard drive, connected Philips 47" full HD LCD TV it was supposed to be a great HTPC. Instead, because of some "bug" in integrated ATI X1250 video card I have to use 800x600 resolution. With higher resolution it starts flicking. I've tested all available updates and the problem is still there.
It seems I should buy a separate video card.

By alex_from_boston - Jan 11, 2008

Very good feature set

Strengths: Video out, memory capacity, firewire, on board video, spdif audio

Weakness: more PCI-e slots would have been nice

I bought this motherboard with intent of putting it into a small HTPC. It has not let me down at all. The plethora of video out options and the SPDIF coax audio lets a machine built with this board find a home right in any home theater system. The fact that Asus makes this product assures the user that they are getting a quality product with excellent support. This board has impressed me so much...
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I bought this motherboard with intent of putting it into a small HTPC. It has not let me down at all. The plethora of video out options and the SPDIF coax audio lets a machine built with this board find a home right in any home theater system. The fact that Asus makes this product assures the user that they are getting a quality product with excellent support.

This board has impressed me so much that I plan to use it as the basis for the HTPCs I sell to clients going forward.

By jeremypetz - Aug 23, 2007

Great MB for the $$$$

Strengths: Has everything you need for a great HTPC. The onboard video works well for those not too picky.

Weakness: The included HDMI card uses the only PCI-E slot.

This was my first major HTPC build, and this MB was a perfect fit. Onboard video and audio do the job well. Plenty of onboard connections for USB and 1394. The included manual provided plenty of info. For the price this is a winner!!!!!

By stevens322 - Jul 14, 2007

low cost yet fairly good,

Strengths: driver installation is simple. (just run 1 program will install all drivers.) good price for features,e.g, the integrated graphic card has both DVI & VGA port, 4 banks memory, hdmi, 4 SATA hd total.

Weakness: overclocking cpu causes it to die, but its claimed CPR feature does not work out of box. only SATA & UDMA, but no EIDE so your cdrom/dvdrom has to use UDMA or buy a new SATA one.

1st, i don't play much video game so i did not care about ultra fast video card. so for cost purpose, i don't need to buy a seperate graphic card, and this MB has a pretty good graphic built in so i can power 2 monitor easily. nice! i have OCZ 800 DDR2 memory w/ 2 gb. install them and the MB has no problem just ran with the ddr2, which is nice b/c u heard that those memory supposed to need more...
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1st, i don't play much video game so i did not care about ultra fast video card. so for cost purpose, i don't need to buy a seperate graphic card, and this MB has a pretty good graphic built in so i can power 2 monitor easily. nice!

i have OCZ 800 DDR2 memory w/ 2 gb. install them and the MB has no problem just ran with the ddr2, which is nice b/c u heard that those memory supposed to need more detailed configuration. the HDMI and TV output will use your only PCI express 16x so don't expect that you will install another graphic card.

the lack of EIDE was disappointing since i want to run some older udma HDs but i can only run 1 b/c lack of EIDE means I have to use at least the udma for 1 cdrom. other than that, this MB is not bad at all.

By sfeng - Jul 20, 2007