ASUS M4A78LT-M LE review

The ASUS M4A78LT-M LE is a very small Micro-ATX Form Factor 24.4cm(L) x 20.8cm(W) motherboard. Allthough this board has a small form factor (SFF), using it as a HTPC will need an extra video card, because it lacks a HDMI connector. There's also no optical audio on the backpanel, using the SPDIF-out header will require an extra cable and this is the only way you can enjoy the 8-channel audio.

This board has no 'legacy' floppy connector, but still has an onboard printer (lpt) connector. The PCI Express (PCI-E 2.0) capabilities of the M4A78LT-M LE will be capable of using the full potential of most graphics cards. There's also an IDE connector so if you still have older hard drives, you'll still be able to use them. The are six SATA 2 - 3 GB/s connecters, usually we only see 4 connectors on these cheap boards. Hybrid CrossfireX is also supported. The official slogan for Hybrid CFX is : Boosted Performance with onboard GPU and discrete graphics card, it does not say that only ONE graphics card can be used, namely the AMD/ATI Radeon HD3450, this is the only card that can 'unleash' the Hybrid CFX on this board, so the Hybrid CrossfireX EXTRA is 'pretty useless'.

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ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Preview

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ASUS P8Z68-V PRO

tested by vr-zone

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The P8Z68-V PRO uses Intel's upcoming Z68 Express chipset, which primarily combines features present in the current P67 Express and H67 Express chipsets. In this short preview, we take a look at what this new board has to offer.

A USB 3.0 front panel header, linked to an ASMedia ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller, can be found to the right of the eight SATA ports. As ASMedia is a subsidary of ASUS, it comes as no surprise that there are quite a number of ASMedia components on the P8Z68-V PRO.

Other features not mentioned earlier include Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and LucidLogix Virtu.

LucidLogix Virtu is a software-based solution which dynamically assigns tasks to the appropriate graphics processors available. For example, when a game is detected, the discrete graphics will be called to take over fully. Upon returning to the desktop, the processor's integrated graphics will be used instead. The discrete graphics is put to idle mode to reduce heat and power consumption. When editing videos, Virtu makes it possible where supported formats will be handled by Intel's Quick Sync Video technology for unmatched encoding speeds.