ASUS M5A series motherboards hit retail

As it was reported earlier, Asus made official statement on AMD FX (Zambezi) processor compatibility with Socket AM3 motherboards. That list included OG Crosshair IV Formula, M4A89TD PRO/USB3, M4A89GTD PRO models as well as М5A line-up that features700 and 800 series chipset based products. Europe sources indicated that ASUS M5A boards are already available for purchase therefore, if you plan to move to Zambezi platform, now is the right time to ask the price of novelties.

One of important things M5A boars have is black CPU Socket. Besides that all models of the series support Asus software and hardware technologies like AI Suite II, MemOK!, TurboV and Core Unlocker, and don’t forget USB 3.0, SATA 3 and CrossFireX.

According to specs of the top M5A motherboard, M5A88-V EVO, it uses AMD 880G and AMD SB850 chipsets. The board comes with GPU Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics accelerator, two PCI Express x16 (the second works in x4 mode) slots, five SATA 3, two USB3.0 and one e-SATA port.

ASUS M5A88-V EVO and M5A87 — are the only products supporting 140W TDP processors. M5A78L and M5A78L LE can work with CPU TDP not exceeding 125 W, while the entry-level model, M5A78L-M LX, is dedicated to run with 95W power hungry processors.

New ASUS motherboards has been already spotted at Europe retailers. The prices varies from €45.61 for M5A78L to €75.59 and €99.09 Euro for ASUS M5A87 and M5A88-V EVO respectively

Just to remind you, AMD Zambezi processors, codename Bulldozer, should debut in June 2011