Verdict: Cheap but not cheerful

The RS485M-M has the dual distinction of being the cheapest Socket AM2 motherboard we could find and the only micro-ATX Socket AM2 motherboard in this test.

As its name suggests, the RS485M-M is based on the previous-generation ATi Xpress 1150 (aka RS485) chipset. As well as managing the 16x PCI-E slot, the ATi Northbridge has an integrated GPU based on the Radeon X300 core. Like its desktop GPU counterpart, this integrated GPU is powerful enough for everyday Windows use, but it's rubbish for gaming. The Northbridge is partnered with the equally old SB480 Southbridge, which provides four RAID-capable S-ATA ports. This is disappointing, as it means that the board is unable to take full advantage of modern S-ATA II hard drives. The Northbridge and Southbridge are both fitted with small heatsinks.

If you don't fancy playing modern games that look like slideshows then you could always fit a graphics card in the 16x PCI-E slot, leaving a single 1x PCI-E slot and two PCI slots free for other cards. As the RS485M-M is such a cheap motherboard, it only supports 6-channel AC97 audio, although there are eight USB 2 ports. There's also a single Ethernet port that's limited to 10/100Mb/sec, although this isn't an issue unless you've installed a Gigabit network in your house.

The most bizarre aspect of this board, however, is the inclusion of only two DDR2 DIMM slots on the PCB, despite there being room on the board for four. This seems like cost cutting gone mad, and it will severely cramp your memory upgrade options.

Due its very basic Southbridge, at its stock settings, the RS485M-M slipped behind most of the other motherboards in this Labs test. The very basic BIOS only allowed us to increase the FSB, which has a theoretical limit of 500MHz. Without any voltage adjustments, we could only overclock the FSB of our test Athlon 64 X2 CPU from 200MHz to 230MHz, or 240MHz with the CPU multiplier dropped from 11 to 5.

The RS485M-M is incredibly cheap, but you'll have to be prepared to accept substandard performance and extremely limited overclocking. As such, it's best avoided.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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