ASUS M2NPV-VM Motherboard Review :: Setup and Installation

Setting up a computer is second nature to me by now, with the literally hundreds of computer systems I've built over the years. I feel, however, it is important to discuss the setup of a motherboard as sometimes there are problems with the installation or hardware that would show up an issue that the manufacturer did not anticipate.

Clear RTC

PMC

After mounting the motherboard on the open-air test bench we use for testing, I proceeded to screw in the screws and standoffs to secure the motherboard. The screw hole placement on a mini-ATX board is slightly different than that of a Med-ATX board so be sure to adjust the standoffs accordingly.

The remainder of installation went without a hitch, and in fact, the installation of the board was very easy. One minor nitpick is the non-inclusion of a SATA RAID driver floppy to install a new operating system. ASUS's Driver CD has a Create Floppy option which allows you to create a driver floppy before booting into Windows. I always do a "first boot" install first with a single stick of DDR2 memory, the CPU, and the video card to ensure the motherboard POSTs without issue.