The AMD Fork: Motherboard And CPUs
- 1. Is The World Ready For DIY HDMI PCs? Are We?
- 2. Components For The Ideal Media PC, Continued
- 3. Components For The Ideal Media PC, Continued
- 4. Components For The Ideal Media PC, Continued
- 5. Components For The Ideal Media PC, Continued
- 6. Reality Confronts The Ideal
- 7. Two Sets Of Builds, Two Sets Of Hardware
- 8. The AMD Fork: Motherboard And CPUs
- 9. The Intel Fork: Motherboard And CPUs
8. The AMD Fork: Motherboard And CPUs
As we worked on this story, motherboard manufacturers were going through considerable ferment, so that numerous options were available by the time we finished that weren't around when we started. We ended up settling on a nice Asus micro-ATX motherboard with integrated HDMI: the M2A-VM, which retails for around $80.
| Asus M2AVM | |
|---|---|
| Northbridge | AMD 690G |
| Southbridge | ATI SB600 |
| Voltage Regulator | Six Phases |
| BIOS | AMI 0502 (04/03/2007) |
| 200 MHz (FSB800) | 200.0MHz (+0.0%) |
| Connectors and Interfaces | |
| Onboard | 1x PCIe x16
1x PCIe x1 2x PCI 3x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) 1x Floppy 1x Ultra ATA 4x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s 1x Front Panel Audio 1x S/P-DIF Out 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) 2x Fan 3 pins (Chassis, Pwr) 1x Clear CMOS Jumper |
| IO panel | 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse)
1x RJ-45 Network 4x USB 2.0 1x DVI-D 1x VGA Out 6x Analog Audio (5.1 Channel, Mic-In, Line-In) D25 Serial port |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |
| ATI SB600 | 4x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,10)
1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) |
| Network | |
| GB PCIe LAN controller | AMD 690 chipset with Realtek RTL8111B PHY |
| Audio | |
| HDA Controller Interface | AMD 690 chipset with Realtek ALC883 5.1 Codec |
| FireWire | |
| VIA VT6308 | 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mb/s |
| Graphics | |
| AMD 690G | ATI Radeon X1250 graphics
Dual VGA output: DVI-D + RGB DVI-D with max resolution to 2560x1600 RGG with max resolution to 2048x1536 |
| Memory | |
| Dual channel 4x 240-pin DIMM | Up to 8 GB of unbuffered 800/667/533 DDR2 |
We tested this rig with both an AMD 4800+ (retail around $145) and an AMD 6000+ (retail around $270) AM2 dual-core CPU. The 4800+ features peak power consumption of 65 W at a lower price, as compared to the more expensive 6000+ with peak power consumption of 125 W. Thus, the 4800+ adds $225 to bring total system costs to $2,442, and the 6000+ adds $350 to bring total system costs to $2,567. Because AMD processor retail packages routinely include coolers, we stuck with a stock cooler for these builds. However, a good Zalman or Thermalright AM2 cooler won't cost you more than $50-$60.
| AMD System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Socket AM2 Processor | 4800+ Athlon 64 X2 AM2 processor (2.5 GHz, 65 nm, 1 MB L2 cache)
6000+ Athlon 64 X2 AM2 processor (3.0 GHz, 90 nm, 2 MB L2 Cache0 |
| RAM | Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8500C5D
2x 1024 MB DDR2-1066 (CL 5.0-5-5-15) |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi Deskstar HDS725050KLA360, Firmware K2AOAB0AACCB, 500 GB, 7,200 RPM, 16 MB Cache, SATA/300 |
| Graphics Card | Asus EN7600GT, P/N: EN7600GT/HTD/256M/A Nvidia GeForce 7600GT - 256 MB |
| Power Supply | Zalman ZM460-APS Silent Power Supply - 460W |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| OS | Windows XP Professional Media Center Edition 2005 Build 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2 |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
| Platform Drivers | NVIDIA Platform: nForce 9.53
Intel Platform: INF 8.0.1.1010 |
| Graphics Driver | Forceware 97.92 |
Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H
We also received a prototype Gigabyte motherboard for this story, the GA-MA69G-S3H. It's a full-size ATX board that features an AMD 690G chipset, along with an intelligent layout that places both of its PCI slots far enough away from the PCI x16 slot to keep them accessible even with a giant graphics card like an 8800, along with an HDMI output in the port block. But because pricing information wasn't available when this story was written, we decided not to include it in our benchmarks (though it may be slated for coverage later, when enough HDMI motherboards are available for a roundup). Nevertheless, this board offered a nice mix of functions and features, including an internal S/PDIF header, an optical S/PDIF on the port block and built-in HDTV support, all of which make it easy to use an HDMI-equipped graphics card for output if you decide to pony up for higher-end graphics. Though official pricing wasn't available to us, sources at Gigabyte put ballpark pricing for this mobo around $100. We like its layout and features, and hope we get the chance to put it to the test soon.
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