ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO and M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 Motherboards Review

Test Setup and Methodologies

AMD Testing Configuration:

• AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition (3.1GHz) – 0922APMW Stepping
• Noctua NH-U12P Heatsink with 1300RPM Noctua NF-P12 (200CFM Delta for overclocking tests)
• ASUS M4A785TD-V and ASUS M4A785TD-M Motherboards
• 2x2048 OCZ Platinum “Low Voltage” DDR3, 1600MHz @ 7-7-7 rated
• Western Digital 320GB SATA2 Hard Drive (WD3200AAKS, 7200RPM)
• Integrated Radeon 4200 Series Graphics
• Corsair TX750 Power Supply
• Pioneer Optical Drive

OS/Driver Configuration:

For our testing today, we’ll be using Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Edition. Although Vista brings some interesting performance enhancing features to the table – like SuperFetch for example – these features can cause inconsistencies in benchmark results. Some reviewers prefer to 'train' their systems to make the most of these features, but we have disabled them to ensure a higher degree of predictability. Other 'scheduled' or unnecessary background tasks have also been disabled (as listed below).

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit), Service Pack 2

ATI Drivers: Catalyst 9.11

OS Disabled Features: “SuperFetch”, “Windows Search” service, Windows Defender, Windows Sidebar, Scheduled Defragmentation, System Restore Services and UAC.

OS Performance Features Enabled: “High Performance” power management profile is enabled. This prevents the system from reducing CPU frequency at the operating system level and also prevents HDD spin-down and other events that may impact benchmark results.


Without further ado, let’s see how these boards overclock!