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

A Closer Look at the M4A785TD-M EVO

Now that we’ve had a chance to take a look at the full-size M4A785TD-V, let’s have a look at the mATX M4A785TD-M.


At first glance, the layout appears good. There are a few oddities, like the lower than usual ATX power plug and the SATA port locations at the bottom of the board. Although odd, these two observations shouldn’t cause any significant issues. The CPU power connector is at our preferred north-west corner of the board, and the USB/case header connections at the bottom. Unlike the full sized M4A785TD-V, the IDE port is in a perfect location on the mATX model.

As expected, ASUS didn’t include a floppy header on the M4A785TD-M either. An LPT and serial port header can be found at the north east corner of the board, which was a wise move. Some older front panel displays on HTPC cases utilize serial connections, and this location would be ideal for that scenario.

We should also mention that there are only two fan headers on the M4A785TD-M. This is probably sufficient given the compact nature of the board, although both are located at the top of the board, which isn’t really ideal. The 4-pin CPU fan header is actually located in a better location than on the full-size model. It can be found nice and close to the CPU socket so that you don’t have to route fan cabling around the memory modules.


As expected, ASUS used a standard 4-pin CPU power connector for the M4A785TD-M. That is about the only thing in common it has with it’s big brother in the realm of CPU power delivery. Those interested in the micro model will have to trade in their beefy 8+2 phase power for a more “standard” 4+1 phase design. This was likely done to reduce cost and to conserve space. As you saw with the M4A785TD-V, all of those coils and caps took up a fair bit of real-estate. We should also note that ASUS didn’t include a MOSFET heatsink like they did with the full-sized model. In cramped mATX cases, cooling of the power delivery components is even more important, so we’re not quite sure why this seems to be the general trend among mATX AM3 boards today.

Although the M4A785TD-V is undoubtedly superior in this regard, we should reassure you that the 4+1 phase power system found on the micro model is a solid design that many higher end boards use – even the MSI 790FX-GD70. ASUS rates the board for 140W CPUs like the Phenom II 965, and we have no doubts that it’ll handle overclocked Phenom IIs with little difficulty.

On a positive note, ASUS continued the theme of 100% solid capacitors on the “M”. Not just in the CPU power section of the board, but everywhere. Solid capacitors are much more reliable and should last longer than traditional capacitors.


Like the “V”, the “M” also utilizes a standard single power phase for the memory modules and utilizes color-coded non-alternating slots.


The Sydney Opera House is back! - Albeit in a slightly smaller form. For those wondering why the heatsink appears chopped off a bit on the bottom, this is so that longer 1x PCI-E cards can fully clear the heatsink.


Like the “V”, the “M” model also employs 128MB of sideport DDR3. This buffer helps to boost the performance on the onboard Radeon 4200 graphics controller. As mentioned earlier, this is a very positive feature that the ASUS EVO boards have, as quite a few entry level 785G boards do not have onboard side-port memory modules.


As expected, the theme of down-sized heatsinks continues on the SB710. Although the “M” model’s heatsink appears very small, it should be plenty for the very low-power SB710 southbridge.


From an expansion port perspective, we have a little bit of everything. A single PCI-E 1X slot, a single PCI-E 16X slot and a pair of legacy PCI slots can be found on the lower half of the board. We’d consider this a good mix for a mATX board. Those interested in Crossfire support will have to look to the full-sized model, but this is a pretty non issue as the vast majority of mATX buyers won’t care about multiple video card configurations.

The SATA ports are located at the very bottom of the board near the case headers. This may be a pro or a con depending on the case the “M” is installed in. At any rate, you’ll be pleased to know that expansion cards won’t obstruct the ports.


We won’t go too much into the various ICs present on the “M” model as they are almost all the same as those found on the “V”. The only exception is the 1394 controller, which was swapped out for a JMicron JMB381 controller. With space at a premium, we suppose this was done due to the much smaller size of JMB model. It is literally one third the size of the VIA controller. Aside from that, the board utilizes the same VIA Vinyl audio CODEC, Realtek LAN PHY and ITE I/O controller.


The rear I/O panel is also stacked, just like the “V”. We were very pleased to see the inclusion of both digital audio output, HDMI, 1394 and eSATA.