Our Take

We really expected the faster 6150/430 chipset to clean up in all our performance benchmarks. What we found was not so clear. The 6150 is faster in some key benchmarks, but performance is the same or a bit slower in other benchmarks compared to the 6100/410. Overall, the 6150 is a little faster, but we really doubt that you will notice the performance improvement. Of course, people buy Integrated Graphics today for convenience and flexibility - not for performance. The performance is adequate for how most will use this board, and that is probably enough for most users.

The features of the 6150/430 chipset are another story, however. You will definitely notice the advantages of the 6150/430 if you are building a Multimedia or HTPC. For starters, there are two video ports that can drive a digital panel or HDTV and an RGB display simultaneously. High Definition Audio is a standard feature, which was not seen on the 6100/410 boards. However, SPDIF and TV out require optional brackets, which will make many buyers very unhappy.

Asus goes further, adding the Firewire ports that this target audience will also likely appreciate. You also get four rather than two SATA2 ports and the additional option of Raid 5 support. All in all, the A8N-VM has the features that many are looking for in a new board for a HTPC or Media Center PC, but you will need optional brackets to fully support some features. If searching for optional brackets is not your cup of tea, you need to look for a board that includes the feature support in the original package.

There are also enough slots and ports for users to upgrade in the future. You can add a more powerful video card to the x16 PCIe port if you choose. There is also a spare PCIe x1 and 2 PCI slots for a more powerful sound card if that is in your future. Asus also created a very nice layout with the A8N-VM. Everything is generally where it works best and there is little to complain about that would interfere with using or expanding this motherboard.

However, we have to add the disclaimer that the Asus is particularly lacking in any kind of adjustments in the very basic BIOS. There are no CPU multipliers, nor will you find any voltage adjustments. There are decent memory adjustments, but that becomes a moot point without any means to adjust memory voltage or CPU multipliers. Asus also sets Command Rate to a default of 2T for maximum memory compatibility. If your memory supports it, you can gain a bit more performance with 2 DIMMs by using a 1T Command Rate, but you will have to set this manually in the Asus BIOS.

There is an excellent Auto overclock feature that is turned on by default - for those who want the board to do it all, including overclocking. But those looking for manual adjustments won't find what they are looking for. Perhaps Asus can add some of these options in future BIOS upgrades, but for now, the BIOS options are disappointing.

These missing adjustments won't matter at all to most users, who will only run the A8N-VM CSM at stock speeds. However, if these adjustments and options are important to you, you can find them in competing boards. The Biostar Tforce 6100 that we reviewed offered an excellent selection of BIOS adjustments, and we would fully expect the 6150 version of the Biostar to offer a similarly complete range of adjustments.

The Asus was a solid performer during our tests. It was basically trouble-free, which is important with any board that might be used to drive an "appliance". However, we really want to see some other 6150/430 boards before we reach any conclusions about the comparative performance of the Asus A8N-VM CSM. We do know that if you want a board that can be coaxed to run at more than stock speeds, you will find better choices available from competitors.

The Asus A8N-VM CSM did not turn out to be the ringer that we hoped for, but it is still a solid choice for many looking for a full-featured Integrated Graphics motherboard. Time will tell if it is a competitive performer compared to other 6150/430 choices.

Audio and Ethernet Performance
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  • highlandsun - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    Yes, Googer is missing the point that this is supposed to be a complete *Media Center*, that means audio too. I need SPDIF in/out for my minidiscs and other audio devices. I have a multichannel amplifier but I'd prefer to feed it with a pure digital signal. And yes, the PCI slots are already spoken for (Fusion HDTV tuner).
  • BigLan - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    Actually, spdif and HD audio are pretty much mutually exclusive. The main benefit of spdif is to pass a dolby digital or dts audio stream untouched to a receiver from the dvd disk (or .avi file.) HD audio allows the motherboard to do 7.1 sound on the motherboard, which is then sent out of the analogue outputs - the 7.1 sound in games etc doesn't use spdif unless you have a soundstorm2 board or certain soundcards which do dolby digital encoding.

    For most HTPCs, HD audio doesn't actually do anything.
  • Googer - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    If i am not mistaken, ATI's chipset allows for 32 or 64MB of dedicated video RAM to be soldered in to the motherboard. This prevents it from having to resort to system memory.
  • USAF1 - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    Hmm... I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that the Marvell 88E1111 "Alaska" chip is just functioning as the PHY for the GbE resident in the nForce 430 southbridge chip. I don't see anything in the 88E1111 tech docs that indicate that it's a fully functional PCIe GbE controller - for that you'd need something like the Marvell's 88E8050 "Yukon" chip. Here are some links:

    http://www.marvell.com/products/transceivers/singl...">http://www.marvell.com/products/transceivers/singl...
    http://www.marvell.com/products/transceivers/singl...">http://www.marvell.com/products/transce.../Alaska_...'marvell%2088e1111'
    http://www.marvell.com/products/pcconn/yukon/index...">http://www.marvell.com/products/pcconn/yukon/index...
  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    The Marvell is a Gigabit PHY, just as in other nForce4 chipsets. As our benchmarks show, it is definitely operating at PCIe speeds.
  • USAF1 - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    The fact that a certain PHY (Marvell 88E1111, Vitesse VSC8201RX, etc) and nForce4 MAC combo runs at speeds similar to a dedicated PCIe controller, doesn't make it a PCIe-based solution. Your article would lead one to believe that the Marvell 88E1111 is a PCIe-enabled GbE controller, which in fact it is not.
  • Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    We stated clearly in the Features Chart that the Marvel is a PHY (Physical Layer) chip. This is what we have been seeing in nF4 chipsets for quite a while.
  • USAF1 - Thursday, December 1, 2005 - link

    Sorry Wesley, but I still think that your article is misleading. The quote "Asus used the PCIe Gigabit hooks in the 430 Southbridge to provide PCIe Gigabit LAN on the A8N-VM." is just not factual. Neither are the "PCIe" labels next to "Marvell 88E1111" on your graphs. The fact of the matter is that there is no PCIe GbE on this board, yet it's plastered all over the "ethernet performance" section of your article. Why don't you just fix the mistake? Where is Anandtech's vaunted journalistic integrity???
  • Wesley Fink - Friday, December 2, 2005 - link

    Upon further research, it does look like the 88E1111 does use a different approach to Gigabit LAN than the PCIe solutions. Marvell refers to the chip as a "Single Port Transceiver". From a users perspective, the performance was found to be the same as PCIe Ethernet, but we have made a few changes in the wording and graphs to more accurately describe the Gigabit LAN used on this board.
  • USAF1 - Friday, December 2, 2005 - link

    Thank you very much, Wesley. Now I can stop talking bad about you and your extended family. ;)

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