ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard Preview - AMD 785G

Even though the formal release of the AMD 785G chipset is not set to occur until sometime in August, the first 785G motherboards have been shipping to retailers for weeks and one managed to find its way to our front door here at Legit Reviews. Today, we have the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard to take a peek at. This socket AM3 motherboard uses the AMD 785G and SB710 chipsets and is packed full of features that one wouldn't expect on an entry level AMD motherboard that will range from $70-$90 if the price leaks are correct.

For starters, the AMD 785G platform will be the first to feature highly anticipated ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics, which means that DirectX 10.1 gaming performance will be coming to IGP mainboards. That means that the AMD 785G platform will have better video performance than the AMD 780G chipset, which uses ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics. The title of being the world's fastest motherboard GPU still belongs to the ATI Radeon HD 3300 Graphics on the AMD 790GX motherboards, as the second number in AMD's IGP nomenclature dictates the performance level. That is why the Radeon HD 3300 is faster than the Radeon HD 4200.



Inside the retail box one will find the bundle that comes with the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard. ASUS includes four Serial ATA cables, one Ultra DMA 133/100/66 cable, the I/O shield, Q-Connectors, user manual, motherboard support DVD and a case badge. The ASUS Q-Connectors allow you to hook up the front panel connectors to the supplied removable plug and then connect this plug onto the motherboard. This is a life saver when assembling a system down in a case where space and light is at a minimum. The I/O panel is just the standard stamped metal one, which is a bummer as we really like the ASUS Q-Shield version that is designed to decrease any electromagnetic interference from escaping out of or into the chassis through this area. It seems ASUS is planning on leaving that as a feature on their higher-end products.


As you can see from the image above the ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO is a full size ATX motherboard that features the AM3 processor socket by AMD. The M4A785TD-V EVO uses Stack Cool 3+ and is part of the Xtreme Design initiative that ASUS is currently promoting. The board has a very clean layout and features an 8+2 phase power design. AMD and ASUS asked us not to go into any more detail than what can be seen from pictures of the board, so we can only give you a brief overview of the M4A785TD-V EVO. This motherboard features SidePort Memory, which is an individual on-board DDR3 chip that acts as a memory buffer for the integrated Radeon 4200 graphics. Since the board has the Radeon 4200 graphics on-board it also sports ATI Hybrid CrossFireX technology.



Expansion capabilities come in the form of three PCI slots, one PCI3 x1 slot and two x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots for those looking to run video cards in an ATI CrossFire configuration. It should be noted that the blue PCIe 2.0 slot x16 operates at x16 mode and the gray PCIe 2.0 slot operates at x4 mode.


The back I/O panel offers plenty of connectivity. The board features a single purple PS/2 combo port and a total of six USB 2.0 ports available on the I/O panel with more available on the board itself. Additional connectivity includes an optical S/PDIF port, a single eSATA port, a single IEEE 1394a Firewire port, a single RJ-45 Gigabit LAN port and the eight channel surround sound ports. When it comes to video connections you have the 15-pin VGA port, DVI-D port and the HDMI port. This motherboard is fully HDCP compliant, so it should be ideal for Blu-Ray playback or for any other protected content.


The heat sink on the AMD 785G chipset is impressive looking with a twin color design that looks like something from the orient. The days of boring old cookie cutter heat sinks have been long gone, but it is still amazing that designers keep coming up with new and innovative cooling solutions.

Stay tuned for a performance review of this great looking AMD 785G motherboard once it becomes public!

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Intel DP55KG Motherboard Preview at Quakecon 2009

Intel Kingsberg, Whitesberg and Sharpsberg Mobos

we got a nice little surprise when we arrived. At the Intel booth they are showing three of their four upcoming P55 Express chipset based motherboards here at the show. On display are the DP55KG, DP55WG and DP55SB motherboards. These boards are scheduled to be launched next month according to sources at the show, so enjoy this little sneak peak at what Intel is cooking up for this brand new platform.



The DP55KG and DP55WG are Full-ATX form factor boards, codenamed Kingsberg and Whitesberg, respectively and the the Micro-ATX DP55SB in the middle is codenamed Warrensburg. Let's take a closer look to see what these three P55 boards are all about.


The Intel Extreme Series DP55KG 'Kingsberg' motherboard is the highest end motherboard that Intel will be offering with the P55 Express chipset. The board has a very clean layout and features six phase power management. Right now there is a debug port located just to the left of the blue SATA header, but that will be removed on the production boards. The board features a x16 PCI Express slot and a x8 PCI Express slot for graphics cards and has been licensed to support both ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technology. The board has a pair dual-channel DDR3 memory slots as these boards do not use triple-channel like the Intel X58 Express platform does. The motherboard also features on-board Bluetooth and has a location for an antenna to be attached. One interesting thing about this flagship motherboard is that Intel is still not using solid-state-capacitors on their enthusiast motherboards. This is something worth pointing out as companies like ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI have all switched over to better components in recent years.



The rear I/O panel on the Intel DP55KG 'Kinsberg' motherboard is packed full of goodies. Starting from the left you'll see two eSATA headers, which is a nice touch. Just to the right of that is a little button. This is the Back-to-BIOS switch, which can be used to recover the BIOS if your overclocked settings fail to work out for you. After that, you can see the S/PDIF in/out connectors, eight USB 2.0 headers, 1334 Firewire and then all the audio jacks for the Intel High Definition Audio (7.1 Dolby Home Theater support).


One of the big complaints on Intel branded boards is that they didn't rotate their SATA headers 90 degrees to have them coming off the side of the motherboard. Intel has finally listened to consumers and has added these modern headers on all of their P55 boards.


The Intel Extreme motherboards usually have a skull on them and the Intel DP55KG 'Kinsberg' motherboard is no different on that front. The skull is actual back-lit with LED lights and the outer skull is a different color than the eyes of the skull. Intel actually put a lot of time and effort into this skull as the eyes act as activity lights for the storage drive. Intel informed us that you can adjust how the lights work in the BIOS. If you want to shut them off you can disable the feature in the BIOS as well.


Turning the board over you can see the 10 LED lights that bring the skull to life when the system is powered up.

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The ASUS Crosshair III Formula

The ASUS Crosshair III Formula

The ASUS Crosshair III Formula isn't a new kid on the block but that hardly means it's old news. This third version of ASUS' top AMD motherboard is a vast departure from the previous versions in that it no longer uses an Nvidia chipset to provide SLI. ASUS has jumped on the Dragon platform train by using AMD's 790FX chipset and providing two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots with CrossFire functionality. I have mixed feeling about this as I'd love to see SLI on a top-end AMD socket AM3 motherboard, but 790FX with SB750 brings so much goodness to the table that it is with only fleeting sadness that I unboxed this board. I've always enjoyed the Republic of Gamer products from ASUS and the Crosshair III Formula delivers on nearly all accounts.

Asus Crosshair III Formula 790FX Motherboard Image

The Crosshair III Formula essentially takes the 790FX M4A79T-Deluxe pcb and tweaks it a bit while adding additional features and bumping the quality in the components. Like all Republic of Gamer boards the Crosshair III Formula comes with an add-in audio module providing cleaner sound. There is also the LCD Poster which provides diagnostic information and a menu for browsing through the options provided in TweakIt. TweakIt is a hardware supported overclocking feature that lets you adjust all the BIOS settings on the fly. This can help all overclockers push their systems to the edge of stability. Before we dig into the board images and tests here's a list of the features on the board.

CPU

* AMD Socket AM3 ;Phenom II /Athlon II /Sempron 100 Series Processors
* AMD 140W CPU Support
* AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
* Supports 45nm CPU

Chipset

* North Bridge: AMD 790GX
* South Bridge: AMD SB750

Memory

* Dual-channel DDR3 memory architecture
* 4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 16GB
* Supports DDR3 up to DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600
* Supports ECC and non-ECC un-buffered memory modules

Expansion Slot

* 2 x PCI Express Gen 2.0 x16 slots
* 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
* 1 x PCI slots

Storage

* Support by AMD SB750
* 5 x Serial ATAII 3.0Gb/s devices
* RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
* 2 x IDE Ultra DMA 66/100/133
* 1 x eSATA

Audio

* SupremeFX X-Fi Audio Card featuring 8-Channel Audio Codec
* EAX Advanced HD4.0
* X-Fi Crystalizer
* Supports 1x S/PDIF output
* Supports Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF output

Rear Panel I/O

* 1 x PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse connector
* 1 x RJ45 LAN connector
* 1 x eSATA
* 6 x USB ports
* 1 x FireWire 800
* 1 x Clr CMOS switch

Internal I/O

* 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
* 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power Connector
* 8 x 4-pin fan connections
* 1 x Power on button
* 1 x Reset button
* 1 x IDE connector
* 3 x thermal sensor connector
* 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
* 5 x Serial ATA 3Gb/s connectors
* 3 x USB 2.0 headers supporting 6 additional ports
* 1 x IEEE1394 header supports 1 additional port
* 1 x LCD POSTER port

Form Factor

* ATX Size, 305mm*245mm
* 9 mounting holes

Warranty

* 36 months on parts

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Gigabyte P55-UD6 and P55M-UD4 Motherboard -reviews

Gigabyte P55-UD6 and P55M-UD4 Motherboard Reviews

Gigabyte's P55 Lineup
Today for the P55 launch we have two of Gigabyte's 11 P55 motherboards up for review. The GA-P55-UD6 is their high-end P55 motherboard with every feature known to man crammed onto an ATX motherboard. Ok, maybe not a every feature but close. The GA-P55M-UD4 is their high-end P55 mATX motherboard featuring the vast majority of the options on the GA-P55-UD6 albeit laid out on a compact mATX canvas. The only thing missing on the GA-P55M-UD4 is the TPM security module, the onboard LED debug reader, half(12) of the power phases, and a few expansion slots which might sound like a lot but in reality isn't nearly that much.





Intel's LGA1156 is a new socket with new processors and a new chipset. Codenamed Ibex Peak, Intel's P55 platform consists of the LGA1156 processor and a platform controller hub(PCH) which contains the SATA and USB controllers. Since the PCI Express controller has been removed from the chipset and placed on the CPU, the processor now communicates to the PCH via a direct a direct media interface in a similar fashion that the X58 north-bridge communicates with the ICH10R south-bridge on LGA1366 boards. This also means that the chipset now consists of just the PCH chip, making board design all that easier. Below are the specification lists for the two motherboards we will be reviewing today.

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4

CPU
Support for an Intel® Core™ i7 series processor/Intel® Core™ i5 series processor in the LGA1156 package
(Go to GIGABYTE's website for the latest CPU support list.)
L3 cache varies with CPU
Chipset
Intel® P55 Express Chipset
Memory
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
Audio
Realtek ALC889A codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for Dolby® Home Theater
Support for S/PDIF In/Out
Support for CD In
LAN
1 x RTL8111D chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x4 slot
1 x PCI slot
Multi-Graphics Technology
Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology (The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots only.)
Storage InterfaceIntel® P55 Express Chipset:
5 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4) supporting up to 5 SATA 3Gb/s devices
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s connector (eSATA/USB Combo) on the back panel supporting up to 1 SATA 3Gb/s device
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0, GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD
iTE IT8720 chip:
1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
USB
Integrated in the Chipset
Up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (10 on the back panel, including 1 eSATA/USB Combo, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
IEEE 1394
T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
Up to 2 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
7 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
2 x system fan headers
1 x power fan header
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x CD In connector
1 x S/PDIF In header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x IEEE 1394a header
1 x power button
1 x clearing CMOS button
1 x reset button
Back Panel Connectors
1 x PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse port
1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
9 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x eSATA/USB Combo connector
1 x IEEE 1394a port
1 x RJ-45 port
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/ Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
iTE IT8720 chip
H/W Monitoring
System voltage detection
CPU/System temperature detection
CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
CPU overheating warning
CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
CPU/System fan speed control
BIOS
2 x 16 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features
Support for @BIOS
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue
Support for Download Center
Support for Xpress Install
Support for Xpress Recovery2
Support for EasyTune
Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2
Support for Smart 6™
Support for Q-Share
Bundle Software
Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
Operating System
Support for Microsoft® Windows 7/Vista/XP
Form Factor
Micro ATX Form Factor; 24.4cm x 24.4cm

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6

CPU
Support for an Intel® Core™ i7 series processor/Intel® Core™ i5 series processor in the LGA1156 package

L3 cache varies with CPU
Intel® P55 Express Chipset
6 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for DDR3 2600+/2200/1333/1066/800 MHz memory modules
Support for non-ECC memory modules
Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
Audio
Realtek ALC889A codec
High Definition Audio
2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
Support for Dolby® Home Theater
Support for S/PDIF In/Out
Support for CD In
LAN
2 x RTL8111D chips (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Support for Teaming
Support for Smart Dual LAN
Expansion Slots
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16_1)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8_1) (The PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX8_1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4_1)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots
Multi-Graphics Technology
Support for ATI CrossFireX™/NVIDIA SLI technology Technology (The PCIEX16_1 and PCIEX8_1 slots only.)
Storage Interface Chipset:
6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10
GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_2, GSATA2_3) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD
2 x JMB362 chips:
2 x eSATA 3Gb/s connectors (eSATA/USB Combo) on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD
2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_0/GSATA2_1) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD
iTE IT8720 chip:
1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
USB
Integrated in the Chipset
Up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (10 on the back panel, including 2 eSATA/USB Combo, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
IEEE 1394
T.I. TSB43AB23 chip
Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
1 x floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
10 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU fan header
3 x system fan headers
1 x power fan header
1 x Chipset fan header
1 x front panel header
1 x front panel audio header
1 x CD In connector
1 x S/PDIF In header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x IEEE 1394a header
1 x serial port header
1 x clearing CMOS button
1 x power button
1 x reset button
Back Panel Connectors
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
2 x IEEE 1394a ports
8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x eSATA/USB Combo connectors
2 x RJ-45 ports
6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/ Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
iTE IT8720 chip
H/W Monitoring
System voltage detection
CPU/System temperature detection
CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
CPU overheating warning
CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
CPU/System fan speed control
BIOS
2 x 16 Mbit flash
Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
Support for DualBIOS™
PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features
Support for @BIOS
Support for Q-Flash
Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue
Support for Download Center
Support for Xpress Install
Support for Xpress Recovery2
Support for EasyTune
Support for Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2
Support Smart TPM
Support for Smart 6™
Support for Q-Share
Bundle Software
Norton Internet Security (OEM version)
Operating System
Support for Microsoft® Windows 7/Vista/XP
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Note
TPM function is optional due to different regional policy

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