ASUS AM1M-A Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

As we mentioned before, on the AM1 platform, the chipset is embbeded in the processor, and therefore there is no chipset on the motherboard. AMD AM1 processors support two SATA-600 ports (no RAID support).

The AM1M-A offers only those two SATA-600 ports, as shown in Figure 4.

Figura 4: SATA-600 ports

The existing AM1 processors supports eight USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. Four of the USB 2.0 ports are soldered on the rear panel, and the other four are available through two headers located on the motherboard. The ASUS AM1M-A supports four USB 3.0 ports, two on the motherboard’s rear panel (controlled by an ASMedia ASM1042 chip) and two available on a connector on the motherboard (controlled by the processor).

The ASUS AM1M-A does not support FireWire or Thurnderbolt ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1 audio format using a Realtek ALC887 codec. This codec has the same specifications as the Realtek ALC892, except that the ALC892 has two extra channels for audio streaming. The main specifications of this codec include 97 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. These specs are good for the mainstream user, but if you are looking into working professionally with audio editing, you should look for a motherboard that provides an SNR of at least 97 dB for the analog inputs.

The analog outputs are shared, meaning that if you want to use a 5.1 analog speaker set (7.1 audio is only available if you install a front panel HD audio module), you will have to use the “Line In” and “Mic In” jacks, and they won’t be available for their original uses. The motherboard doesn’t have optical or coaxial SPDIF outputs. Those drawbacks disqualify the AM1M-A for HTPC applications.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by a Realtek RTL8111GR chip.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel, with a shared PS/2 connector for keyboard or mouse, four USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI output, one VGA output, one DVI-D output, two USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 5: motherboard rear panel

Figure 6 shows the accessories that come with the motherboard.

Figure 6: accessories