The blue PCI Express x16 slot supports videocards at x16 with full x16 lanes of PCI Express bandwidth. The black and white PCI Express x16 slots run with x4 and x8 lanes respectively. In Crossfire the blue and white PCI Express x16 slots will operate at x8/x8, if the black slot is included CrossfireX runs at x8/x4/x8.

In the lower left corner of the ASUS M3A78-T motherboard are three USB2.0 headers and front panel I/O connectors. AMD's SB750 Southbridge not only allows for RAID 5 capability, but also gives Advanced Clock Calibration, which can be used to achieve greater overclocks on AMD Phenom processors. SATAII jacks are set at 90 degrees and parallel to the PCB so the cables remain out of the way of long videocards.

The ASUS M3A78-T supports four DDR2 memory slots which can be installed with up to 8GB of DDR2-1066/800/667MHz Memory. 1066MHz memory speeds can only work in single-DIMM per channel mode with Socket AM2+ processors.

There is a fair amount of space around the AMD Socket AM2+ CPU socket, which is good for large quietly cooled processor heatsinks. The socket is compatible with socket AM2 and socket AM2+ processors. The heatsink that cools the AMD 790GX chipset is compact, and does the job well.

The heart of the ASUS M3A78-T motherboard is the 790GX chipset. Let's take a closer look at what makes this chipset so popular with folks building High Definition HTPCs...