Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

You know; very few chipsets within the AMD 800 series have not been tested by us, and from top to bottom they just offer rock solid performance and stability. One fact remains, baseline performance on all these chipsets is roughly the same give or take a few percent here and there. While we really like the 890FX series we just can't ignore the fact that for 100 EUR / USD you can pick up this brilliant little M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 motherboard.

The amount of value for money here is just grand. If you like to build a good and decent mid-range PC, then buy a motherboard like this and pop on a nice processor. If you want to game add a dedicated graphics cards and bam .. you are good to go. This motherboard oozes value.

Now don't get me wrong, it is limited here and there, but for Joe average the features are beyond what he or she will ever need. Though mentioned on the box and advertised we'd not recommend Crossfire on this motherboard as one adapter will be kicked back to a x4 lane configuration.

We checked this with AMD's Toronto based chipset team and there is no official Crossfire support for this chipset (only 1 x full 16 PCIe). But really that's about all I can think of that can be considered somewhat of a let down. 95% of you guys don't even opt multi-GPU gaming anyway, so it is a non-issue for the majority of you guys.

The chipset itself is already strong at mere baseline settings, then the sheer tweak-ability, the embedded gigabit NIC and sure, the integration of the SATA 6G controller. Speaking of which, we are still under whelmed by the AHCI performance with small sized files (4KB)  of that controller when we peeked at the low file-size performance. The flip coin side of things however is that regular SATA/IDE mode performance really is fast, so just leave it at that for now, until AMD releases a driver that will improve AHCI mode.

Anyhow, the M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 is a good looking motherboard and it is affordable. It might be worth your while if you crave the need for something valuable yet tweakable. Remember we overclocked the processor to 4124 MHz on a simple heatpipe cooler.

If you hate overclocking yourself then in the BIOS you can use the CPU level up function, or you could also use the Turbo Key II switch, we tried it out. When the PC is powered off, you flick it and merely seconds later the system posts with the processors overclocked stable at 3712 MHz. Memory unfortunately was down clocked to 928 MHz.

So yeah, that's not bad on a 100 EUR motherboard you guys. So you get the extra features like overclock options, components usage, gigabit NIC, two USB 3.0 ports and even little extra's like core unlock functions and that lovely MemOk feature.

Value for money wise the little sister of the 890GX chipset is very hard to beat, the baseline performance is at the same level as any 890FX/GX motherboard, as well as the reach in overclock.

It is a good looking motherboard and next to all the regular features you'll have the additional benefits of USB 3.0, SATA 6G, a Gbit NIC and a serious amount of PCI ports. We enjoyed testing this board very much and it deserves our recommended award for sure.

Okay, let me wrap it up. If you are a gamer, pop on a nice processor and a dedicated graphics card and you are good to go, you'll frag away as fast as any other AMD 800 series platform. Overclocking on this mobo is good and in fact it even surprised me, the BIOS is good and the features are alright. Heck even for a HTPC this board would rock, the IGP has plenty of shader processors for post processing, the UVD 2.0 engine and it's passively cooled, pop on a 50 EUR processor, hook it up over HDMI and alternatively plug that optical TOSLINK onto your AV received for unprecedented sound. Yeah yeah I'll stop - I'll stop .. but we certainly like this little gem of a motherboard alright, true value.

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