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790GX motherboard roundup

by on13 June 2008

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Computex 08: SB750 on all of them


The 790GX chipset from AMD seemed quite popular with the motherboard manufacturers during Computex and we thought we’d to a small roundup of boards for you to have a look at. We’ve already covered Gigabyte’s board here. All of the following boards support Hybrid CrossFireX and features the SB750 southbridge.

First up is Asus with the M3A78-T. We’re not sure why Asus stuck with 78 in the model name, but it could be because AMD’s code name for this chipset was 780D. Usually, this board has three x16 PCIe 2.0 slots, but as the chipset is limited to dual x8 support for CrossFireX, we’re not sure what Asus has done here, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

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There’s HDMI, DVI and D-sub connectivity, and around the back you’ll also find a PS/2 port, six USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, FireWire, Ethernet, optical S/PDIF out and 7.1-channel audio. The board has five SATA ports, headers for an additional six USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire port. There’s also one x1 PCIe slot and two PCI slots for expansion.

Next up, we have DFI with its Lanparty DK 790GX-M2RS. This board is slightly different from the rest we’ve seen, as it doesn’t feature any onboard display connectivity. If you look closely at the picture, there’s a header just behind the rear audio connectors and it says DVI next to it, so we presume this is for a riser card that adds at least a DVI port to a bracket that slots in around the back. This isn’t really a downside to a board like this, as if you’re going to use a graphics card with it, then the onboard display connector is unlikely to be used unless you’ve got a multi-monitor setup. DFI has left some space for a memory chip for side port memory, but since they don't seem to go after those looking at using the onboard graphics, we can see why they didn't include it.

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Apart from this, DFI has gone with a tried and true rear I/O layout with a pair of PS/2 ports, optical and coaxial S/PIDF, a clear CMOS jumper, six USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio. You get two x16 PCIe 2.0 slots, although due to chipset limitations you end up with eight lanes of bandwidth as with all of these boards if you run CrossFireX. There’s also a single x1 PCIe slot and three PCI slots, as well as six SATA connectors. As with all Lanparty boards from DFI, this one has power and reset buttons.

That brings us to Foxconn and the A7AD-S, which comes with HDMI, DVI and D-sub connectors, as well as a pair of PS/2 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio. On top of this the board has two x16 PCIe slots, two x1 PCIe slots and two PCI slots, six SATA ports, headers for an additional eight USB 2.0 ports and one additional FireWire port. There also appears to be space for some side port memory, but as you can see on the picture, the space for it just below the heatsink is empty.

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Finally, we have MSI with the K9A2GX-Digital. There are two odd things with this board; first of all, we haven’t seen MSI using the Digital suffix before and secondly, this motherboard has a blue PCB. Considering that MSI has used red PCB’s for all its retail motherboards for as long as we can remember, this is something quite peculiar. The board has HDMI, DVI, and D-sub connectivity as well as a PS/2 port, six USB 2.0 ports, optical S/PDIF out, eSATA, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1-channel audio.

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On top of this you get a pair of x16 PCIe slots, two PCIe x1 slots and two PCI slots. There’s also five SATA connectors, headers for an additional six USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire port. MSI has also added power, reset and clear CMOS buttons and this is, as far as we know, the first motherboard to feature the second generation of Dr MOS. There are a couple of oddities: first, the chipset heatsink looks rather unusual, and secondly, MSI is using a couple of dip switches to switch between single and dual slot mode, although in all fairness, this isn’t too much of a hassle compared to some companies which still rely on jumpers.

That’s it for this roundup, and we’re quickly coming to an end of our Computex 08 coverage, but we still have a couple of more nuggets for you before way say good bye to this year's show.

Last modified on 13 June 2008
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