AMD 890FX Roundup - A Quartet of AMD's Finest
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A Quartet of AMD's Finest
A Quartet of AMD's Finest
Lost amidst the headlines surrounding the launch of AMD's 6-core Phenom II X6 desktop processors was the simultaneous introduction of AMD's updated enthusiast chipset, the AMD 890FX. While review sites naturally dedicated some time to it (we gave it a page here), there wasn't time to examine the various 890FX boards in-depth. The fact that the AMD 890FX is mostly similar to its predecessor, with the exception of a new Southbridge, meant that there was even less of a story for the press. After all, the new SB850 may bring SATA 6Gbps support, but for most users still using older SATA 3Gbps hard drives, the newer interface is unlikely to bring immediate benefits.
In any case, we have already tested the AMD Phenom II X6 and its Turbo Core technology to our hearts' content. This brings us finally to the high-end enthusiast AMD 890FX motherboards that vendors hope you purchase along with a brand-new 6-core processor. And maybe a couple or even a quartet of AMD Radeon HD 5800 graphics cards for quad CrossFireX if you are at it.
Don't be surprised if we tell you that some of these motherboards cost as much or almost as much as a Phenom II X6, for among them are premium models from top brands like ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte and MSI. Although we've gathered the top boards from each maker in this round-up, the Biostar board is the most affordable 890FX motherboard in our mix and should make for an interesting comparison.
An interesting trend that we noticed for these four boards is that while AMD has removed the Advanced Clock Calibration feature that was used by enthusiasts to unlock the 'disabled or hidden' cores on certain AMD processors, the motherboard vendors have stepped up and introduced their own unlocking features. All four boards have their form of 'core unlocking' and one can even go to the extent of turning certain cores on/off if you choose to.
The 'unlock' is as simple as enabling a setting in the BIOS, which is certainly an improvement over the past, where one has to scour forums online to find the right model and the correct BIOS version to unlock an AMD processor, as we documented here. Before we examine the merits of these boards in the next few pages, the specifications are listed below. As we have previewed three of these boards, ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI, we will be using some of the content and images from those previews.
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula | Biostar TA890FXE | Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 | MSI 890FXA-GD70 | |
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CPU Support | AMD Socket AM3 Processors (Phenom II / Athlon II / Sempron) | |||
Chipset | AMD 890FX and SB850 | |||
Memory |
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Storage |
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Audio |
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Networking |
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IEEE 1394 (FireWire) |
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I/O Interface |
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Expansion Slots |
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Special Features |
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PCB | ATX form factor, 30.5 x 24.5cm | XL-ATX form factor, 32.5 x 24.4cm | ATX form factor, 30.5 x 24.5cm |
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