ASUS M4A78-HTPC/RC Pro Reviews

While ASUS has some interesting features on this motherboard it still feels a bit hard to recommend it over a regular 780G-motherboard like the Asus M4A78-EM. We do like the fact that it has two 1x PCI-E slots instead of 2 PCI-slots as well as both optical and coax S/PDIF. It does seem like the separate power connector for the sound does help a bit. It is also nice to get a remote and an IR-receiver for the remote. Last but not least the inclusion of 2 RCA-connectors is a very nice touch. We are not necessarily as impressed with the execution though of all the new features. The ASUS Home Theater Gate software is a joke. We cannot see anyone seriously using it. We also are not completely convinced with DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC as it felt it changed the sound a bit more than we would like it to. Last but not least we were disappointed that ASUS could not include some better documentation so we could figure out why we could not get the VIA HDMI and S/PDIF “audio devices” working with DTS Surround Sensation. We could not find a price in the US for this motherboard, but in Sweden it is about $40 more expensive than a Asus M4A78-EM which would mean a expected price in the US would be around $140.

An ideal choice if you want to build a media centre PC, thanks to HD video decoding and a remote control.