ASUS M2N motherboard: review, specs, types and reviews

Motherboards ASUS M2N are available in different trim levels, they have different equipment on board and are ideal for middle class computers. At the same time, a set of slots allows you to collect computers of quite a different purpose. Medium office or computers for designers (designers), machines for programmers or home use. As usual equipment bearing the Asus logo, they are quite versatile and work stably. Not for nothing until now you can sometimes hear: "Asus is Asus".

History

During the release of M2N boards, the company repeatedly processed the specifications, changed the set of additional chips and bus frequencies, but in general the layout of the components on the board remained unchanged. For example, here is the ASUS M2N-SLI.

The board allows you to install 4 lines of memory (the lower right corner), while the memory can work in two-channel mode, which is evident from the color of the connectors, and 3 expansion cards with a PCI slot (upper left corner, white slots).

But for comparison, the ASUS M2N-MX. This board, while being cheaper, has fewer possibilities - only 2 lines for memory and two PCI. But the presence of built-in sound and built-in video, a slot for an external video card allows you to use it in serious enough machines.

A distinctive feature of the company

Those who are familiar with the products of the company, not by hearsay, will agree that this brand cares even for small things. So, in the ASUS M2N-SLI, about which we'll talk just below, the bundle includes 6 cables for connecting internal hard drives - according to the number of plugs on the board itself. That is, the buyer pays not only for the brand. Bringing home such a fee, it can be used immediately, rather than looking for additional cables, adapters or connectors in the stores.

Clones or counterparts

Some perplexity among the testers was caused by the external similarity of the SLI version and the ASUS M2N-E card. The same 4 lines of memory, the same arrangement of chips. It seems to be nothing special, there are only a lot of empty nests where SLIs have chips. It seems that version E was developed by the company from those chips that were with some flaw and could not work well in their older sister. And the fact that M2N-SLI is the eldest sister for the E-map is also visible when looking at the BIOS. It is not much stripped down, but, for example, for the Advanced Voltage Control section, almost all the settings have been removed. There is only one possibility left - the option of adding voltage to the processor socket. For the average user, these similarities may not be noticeable, but comparing two cards - the appearance, the outputs on the back wall, the lack of chips and, by the way, the sticker with the name of the card, incidentally, you come to the unambiguous conclusion - ASUS M2N-E Is the sister card of ASUS SLI Deluxe, but younger. And the decision to use the same boards, but with fewer parameters, allowed the company to produce two instead of one product. Only one is best, and the second is not the best, but not the worst.

The Deluxe version is higher on the first photo, but this is what the younger sister looks like - there are clearly visible empty places in the block of connectors facing the back of the computer.

M2N-SLI Features

And once we started talking about the connectors, let's compare the rear connectors of both cards. The first thing that catches your eye is two network jacks, one above the USB blocks (the younger sister has one). There is no port for connecting old printers, scanners, etc. If you recall that the card supports as many as 10 USB connectors, there will be no connection problems. And here there is one more feature - the younger sister also does not have this port, but instead of it the open space is for dust? This is how the findings of the ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe older sister look.

From left to right, in blocks: PS / 2 (mouse and keyboard); 2 SP-DIF (above them com-port); SATA and Firewire; 2 USB blocks (above each by the network output) and 6-channel audio. In addition to those already listed, the younger sister lacks 1 SP-DIF, as well as sATA and Firewire. It is worth mentioning that only 4 USB are removed to the rear panel, only in the kit of the older one there is a special lath on the back panel. In addition to the traditional pair in front, 4 ports are mounted using this bar. On the board in the bottom corner of the textolite there is a connector for its connection.

MX and derivatives

The motherboard ASUS M2N-E, being essentially a truncated version of Deluxe, does not differ much. But MX and the further derivatives of this card, having all the same processor and chipset capabilities, were assigned to a completely different class. The card has only 2 ATA connectors and a reduced number of expansion cards. In addition to the external video card, it is possible to put only 2 expansion cards, and although in the specifications of some varieties there is mention of additional USB, like SLI, there is simply no place to put them. At the same time, the specification of this card indicates the support of up to 4 GB of RAM, which makes it possible to build computers based on 64bit. At the same time there are no special frills here - a clean office version. The picture in the previous block shows the rear outputs of the top versions.

And here are the connectors on the back of the ASUS M2N-MX (from left to right): 1 and 11 - mouse and keyboard connection ports respectively, 2 and 10 - parallel / serial port, 9 - Vga (this card has a built-in video chip, Take part of the operational), 7, 8 - USB, 3 - network module (100 Mbps)? And the remaining 3 - sound card. Typically, Realtek is used for sound.

The main features are listed in the table above, but in the general case of some unusual abilities the boards of this class did not receive, everything is sparingly and minimally. However, you can not expect any special opportunities from such a payment.

Chipset card

ASUS M2N and all the derivative models, both the top-end ones and the budget ones, were calculated on the support of the systems? Assembled on the basis of AMD, so all models get an AM2 socket.

Also on the board is a set of chips from nVIDIA, which is not surprising, since, despite the fact that AMD bought with the guts the ATI brand - one of the graphics solutions manufacturers, the development of its own line of chipsets is still in the plans for the company. Not the "Intel" chipset, of course, works a little worse than it could, but the company compensated for this with its own developments, which eventually became a worthy competitor to Intel's solutions.

The basis

The review would be incomplete, do not touch one more card, which can be called the basis. Though it is considered to be budgetary, ASUS M2N served as a prototype, on the basis of which there appeared Deluxe and MX, about which it was mentioned above. And with the appearance of the MX variety, the main map became the average in the ranks. It is enough to recall the form factors of the maps examined. SLI, like E, are ATX cards. ATX also includes ASUS M2N, and only MX-based cards and its derivatives receive mATX. At the same time, this card, though budgetary, has 4 sATA connectors, 6 audio channels, and dual-channel memory capabilities. Total memory slots are 4 pieces, as in the top model of today's review. What is most interesting - this model in the end of the main became transitional. 6 audio channels are provided by 3, not 6 connectors, a parallel port is present, but there is no serial port (SLI has the opposite, the MX has both). The board has small overclocking possibilities - increasing the voltage on the processor and memory, as well as the possibility of changing the frequency of the system bus. In general, this is more than the E-version, but it is useless to disperse it - the limiting values are quite low.

User Reviews

As you know, manufacturers believe one thing, but sometimes it's completely different. Let's see what users say about ASUS M2N class cards. The reviews, like the classes of maps, were divided. Those who tried to overclock, soon face cooling problems - a weak cooler is not enough, but a strong roar, like an airplane. At the same time, there are opinions that, despite the minimum parameters for budget cards, you can play almost all toys, which speaks volumes, considering that the cards are not considered gamers. The map, of course, is not new, but if you flash the BIOS, it will pull all the newfangled components. The complete set on the disks has all the necessary software, and firmware can be found on the Internet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you can see that for fans of the brand AMD there is a good solution. At the same time a solution for every taste, class and purse. In the ASUS M2N lineup, you can meet top-end options, both budget and ultra budget. Having created M2N, Asus did not stop there. Having the same processor socket and a set of base microcircuits, the boards of this class and brand are able to satisfy a variety of requirements.