ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 AMD 880G mATX Motherboard Review

Final Thoughts
I have been using an Intel setup for quite a while so it was a little different for me to move over to an AMD system, but all of the features and easy to use BIOS made the move quite simple.  I had really wanted to get a look at what the 6-core AMD processors could do and this review gave me that chance.

Being a mATX board the M4A88TD-M/USB3 is ideal for a home theater PC system.  The size makes it perfect for a small cube case.  You have the integrated Radeon HD 4250 that will play HD media so you do not have to purchase an extra graphics card.  The HDMI port allows you to easy connect your system to your TV and run video and audio all through 1 cable.  Having SATA 6GB/s ports means you can use SATA 6GB/s drives which are faster and the 2 USB 3.0 ports means you can transfer data to your system faster using a USB 3.0 device.

Now if you did not want to use this board for a home theater PC you can make it into an awesome LAN gaming box.  We of course installed an AMD Radeon 5970 video card and 8GB of Corsair Vengeance in it!  Once again will all of the features that this board offers and the CPU support you can really put together a cool gaming rig.

The BIOS is very easy to navigate and overclocking was made simple, even if you are not experienced at it.  The Ai Tweaker menu in the BIOS has all of your overclocking options on one single page.  If you do not like overclocking in the BIOS ASUS’s TurboV EVO overlcocking tool makes it easy for you to overclock right in Windows.

This is an ASUS board and with that you know you are getting a quality product with a ton of features.  Some of the other features we have not mentioned are the Turbo Unlocker, Core Unlocker and Express Gate.

Right now this motherboard sells at my favorite online retailer for around $99, which is a great deal considering all of the features.  Overall ThinkComputers gives the ASUS M4A88TD-M/USB3 mATX AMD 880G Motherboard a 9 out of 10 score.

rating9 10 small

Pros:
– Supports 6-core AMD processors
– SATA 6GB/s and USB 3.0 support
– Easy overclocking in BIOS and Windows
– Price

Cons:
– Those looking to use the integrated graphics for gaming will be disappointed