ASUS M2V-TVM - motherboard - micro ATX - K8M890

Advantages: Cheap and up to date, Takes new gfx card
Disadvantages: built in graphics are basic

...FOXCONN MOTHERBOARD The Foxconn K8M890M2MA-R2SH is a really cheap and cheerfull Socket AM2 motherboard. There's only one way that a manufacturer can come up with a motherboard that sells for such a low price, and that's by using every feature that the chipset has to offer without bolting on any extra gadgets. The chipset in on this board is the VIA K8M890 which includes VIA/S3G DeltaChrome graphics (cheap and nasty) and a VT8237R Plus Southbridge. There are two DDR2 memory slots so you get dual channel memory support, and if your a gamer and the integrated graphics aren't sufficient you can plug a proper graphics card into the PCI-E x16 slot provided. There is also a PCI-E x1 slot and two PCI slots. The Southbridge supports RAID 0 or 1 for the pair of SATA connectors and there are four USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panel... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: small, cheap AMD64 sollution
Disadvantages: integrated graphics will eventually crash on you

...Generally i love ASUS motherboards. Cosmetically the A8V-VM SE is nice mobo but having to convert 20pin to 24pin power was annoying for a microATX. Furthermore, the integrated graphics chip crashed after 4 weeks and caused the whole motherboard to crash. It won't even post the BIOS anymore. It would have been okay if just the VIA K8M890 graphics stopped working but since it has caused the whole motherboard to fail there isn't much to do except to use it as a beer coaster. I would suggest to people to get a mobo without integrated graphics. They tend to fail a lot. A number of my friends have had the same problem with integrated graphics chips failing and causing the whole motherboard to fail. It's really poor design on the manufacturer's part.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Small, easy to work with, good brand name, on board VGA
Disadvantages: Needed to buy a 20 to 24 pin convertor

...Well for the price this motherboard is great. I was hunting around for a mothebroard that supported dual core AMD's but aslo DDR memory, then i relaised i needed a socket 939 instaed of socket AM2 motherboard. This is because i wanted to us emy old gig of ram. So i found this on ebuyer at £30 - it is very small, which is good in some ways, makes wokring inside a bit of a hassle. Has 2 sata conections, but not full speed only 1.5, but i can live with this because i only have a PATA at the moment, on board VGA LAN and AUDIO plus USB ports al working great. Druiver disc included is good plus bundled software. Recived lots of extras like cables manuals druiver disc etc... One downside is that i had to buy a 20 to 24 pin ower supply converter, however the mothebroard can run with the 20 pin onnection, but i dont advise it. over all... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful