AMD and Intel are in a heated battle for control of the CPU market. Intel has taken the lead as of late with the launch of their Core 2 platform which completely blew away the competition from AMD. The launch of the AM3 CPU has introduced some features into the AMD platform that have been missing like support for DDR3 memory and the transition into the 45nanometer process node.

ASUS manufactures a wide variety of computer related equipment including motherboards, video cards, and cell phones. They are a favorite of mine and Doc's who use ASUS computer equipment whenever possible in the main computers in the house. Today I'm reviewing the ASUS M4A79 Deluxe motherboard which supports the new AMD Phenom II processors and is based upon AMD's 790FX chipset.

•Phenom II processor support
•AMD 790FX chipset
•Native DDR2-1066 chipset
•ATI CrossFireX Technology
•8+2 Phase Power Design
•ASUS Anti-Surge Protection
•100% High-quality Japan-made Conductive Polymer Capacitors (VRM 5000 hours lifespan@105C 500,000@ 65C)
•TurboV
•Turbo Key
•Precision Tuner
•EPU
•Express Gate
•Onboard Power/Reset buttons

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•Q-Shield
•Q-Connectors
•Stack Cool 2
•Q-Fan 2
•GreenASUS
AMD recently launched the AM3 processors which are AMD's first 45 nanometer processors, following in the steps of Intel who have been using 45nm processors since the launch of the Core 2 series last year. AM3 CPUs are backwards compatible with AM2+ motherboards, meaning that you can install them into an AM2+ motherboard but the reverse is not true. Due to two missing pins you cannot install an AM2+ CPU into an AM3 motherboard.

The AMD 790FX chipset has been around for over a year. This chipset supports features like ATI's CrossFireX, HyperTransport 3.0, PCI Express 2.0, and more. AM3/AM2+ CPUs have up to 5200Million transfers/second The ASUS M479A Deluxe sports the AMD 790FX Northbridge along with the SB750 Southbridge, offering support for AMD's OverDrive utility and support for 4 PCI Express x16 slots.

One of the big pushes with the 790FX chipset was the ability of the chipset to have four video cards on it. The 790FX supports two x16 slots, one x 16 slots and two x8 slots or four x8 slot configurations. The chipset would require support for 64 PCI Express lanes to support four x16 slots at the same time but there isn't any video card that maxes out the bandwidth provided by a PCIE 2.0 x16 slot anyway, so it's a moot point.

The ASUS M4A79 Deluxe has a new 8+2 Phase Power design. This ensures high power efficiency and higher overclocking ability compared to 4 Phase Power designs. The board also features an extra 2 phase power for the integrated memory/HyperTransport controller. The M4A79 Deluxe has anti-surge protection to protect the motherboard from power surges from a switching PSU. The motherboard uses 100% high-quality Japan-made Conducive Polymer Capacitors which have longer lifespan and enhanced thermal capacity compared to non-solid capacitors.
TurboV is ASUS's overclocking tool. With a simple click of the slider you can overclock the CPU Frequency, the CPU Voltage, the DRAM Voltage, and the CPU/NB Voltage with the TurboV utility. There are also presets like the Rocket, Jet Plane and Race Car which set the overclocking of the CPU by ratio and frequency. More on that particular feature when I cover the BIOS and overclocking area of the board. Turbo Key turns the Power button into an overclocking button.