EggXpert

I bought an ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail  and it arrived DOA. I am just making sure that it is compatible with my processor which is a AMD Phenom 8450 Toliman 2.1GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HD8450WCGHBOX - Retail. This is my first build, so I am not 100% sure what I am doing, but since both are AM2+ wouldn't that make them compatible with each other?

It should support it. But it might need a BIOS update before it can use it.

I would try some DDR2 800 RAM because your CPU does not support DDR2 1066 RAM. (pretty sure)

 

According to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324it says the memory standard is 1066 Pin. I made sure to investigate before I purchased them. I really was just looking for some reassurance on the processor. It also says "Unleash 140W Phenom Power" which would imply (in my mind) that the phenom 3x processor would be supported.

Native DDR2 1066
This motherboard supports native DDR2 1066. It provides faster data transfer rate and more bandwidth to increase memory data transfer rate and computing efficiency, enhancing system performance in 3D graphics and other memory demanding applications.
*DDR2 1066 is supported by some of the AM2+ CPUs only. Refer to www.asus.com for the supported CPU models.

 

 

It is the CPU that matters, not the main board as much. AMD has on "on die" RAM controller so it is dependent on the CPU as well as the board its in. (I can't find anywhere on weather or not your CPU supports 1066 RAM)

Also I saw some BIOS updates concerning that CPU, you might wanna make sure yours is up to date.

All the new Phenoms support ddr2 1066, but with a lot of these microatx boards, they only support one 1066 chip per channel. I haven't actually gotten my M3N78-VM to run my memory at 1066 yet. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I know it's "Technically" supported.