Sapphire Announces Pure Platinum A75 Motherboard for AMD A-Series APUs

[btarunr]

SAPPHIRE Technology, a leading manufacturer and global supplier of graphics, mainboard and multimedia solutions has just introduced a new mainboard developed to support the latest A-series Fusion APU family from AMD.

AMD’s A-series APUs combine - on a single chip - a Quad core CPU, interface circuitry equivalent to a Northbridge and a DX11 graphics core equivalent to a desktop level graphics card, and also incorporating a 3rd-generation UVD (universal video decoder) for the accelerated decoding of HD and Blu-ray content, including stereoscopic 3D support. This APU series together with the A75 chipset, which has native support for the latest interface standards, such as SATA 6G and USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 and PCI-Express Gen2, makes a powerful combination that delivers all the features required in a state-of-the-art PC.



The SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A75 is a full ATX sized board making full use of the combined features of the A75 chipset and A-series APU. Four dual channel memory sockets are provided, supporting up to 16GB of DDR3 memory with current technology, and capable of supporting up to 32GB when suitable modules become available. There are four onboard USB 3.0 ports (two at the rear) as well as four USB 2.0 ports (8 including headers), as well as Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth connectivity with EDR (enhanced data rate). It has five SATA 6G ports, including AHCI and RAID support, and a SATA 3G port brought out to the rear panel on an eSATA connector.

Three Video output options are provided for the graphics output of the APU - DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort - of which any pair can be used simultaneously. The HDMI 1.4a port supports both video and audio, including stereoscopic 3D output. The rear panel also has the standard I/O configuration for the on board HD 7.1 Audio.

Extensive expansion support is provided by two standard PCI slots as well as one PCI-E Gen2 x4 slot, two PCI-E Gen2 x1 slots, and one mini-PCI-E x1 (Gen2) connector for modules in this new format such as wireless network cards. All this in addition to one PCI-E Gen2 x16 slot, compatible with an add-in graphics card. When a suitable graphics card is fitted, such as a member of the SAPPHIRE HD6600 or SAPPHIRE HD 6500 series, the SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A75 supports Dual Graphics – that means that the graphical performance of the APU combines with the performance of the add-in card to achieve up to 175% of the performance of the APU graphics alone.

Many user friendly features have been incorporated in the SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A75, such as digital debug display and a push button reset for the BIOS, as well as start and system reset buttons. These are especially useful for enthusiasts interested in performance tuning or overclocking. The board has a Dual BIOS, allowing for experimentation and updates, and for the hard-core enthusiast, voltage test pads have been brought out to the edge of the board for the critical voltages on the APU and memory circuits.

The build quality of the SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A75 is high. It has a black multilayer PCB, and uses high quality gold plated connectors for USB 3.0 and LAN. It incorporates many of the high end features associated with the SAPPHIRE brand, such as the use of high reliability solid capacitors throughout. The multi-phase voltage regulation circuitry for both the APU and memory modules incorporate the patented SAPPHIRE Diamond Black chokes with coolers that have featured on SAPPHIRE’s high end graphics cards.

Hardware monitoring tools and the SAPPHIRE proprietary Mainboard TriXX software allow users to review and adjust a range of system parameters while optimising performance of the APU and A75 chipset.

The SAPPHIRE Pure Platinum A75 is in production now, and will be available through SAPPHIRE’s usual channel partners and retailers.

[RejZoR]

When will they get rid of the stupid PCI... Also the board somehow looks a bit khm, empty.

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

When will they get rid of the stupid PCI... Also the board somehow looks a bit khm, empty.

I simply cant understand, how anyone can hate pci slots... there is a lot of legacy stuff, like pci vgas and bios post code cards, that simply wouldnt work without it.
Im glad, that they still have backwards compability in mind,as it makes troubleshooting much easier, and i hope, that they will keep at least a single pci slot, on most of the boards, for a very long time.

[Ferrum Master]

The Board looks cheap... dangerously cheap...

And I agree about the PCI, it is quite useful, not two them maybe, but come on... this board doesn't do a quad CFX or SLI, it is for mere people that have plenty of PCI devices left, like sound cards or additional USB, legacy I/O for instruments. (I still use them instead of integrated, why? Because if there is a defective device you'll blow the card not the whole bridge out).

[_JP_]

There is a serious lack of PWM fan headers on that board. I wouldn't want to resort to Arctic's PST system, but this board leave no choice.
Also, I see FAIL. The 4th PCI-e slot has an open end, but the CMOS battery is right next to it. That must be Sapphire's way of telling us, "We leave you the option of inserting a x8, or x16, card in there, but you won't want to do it".

[$immond$]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

When will they get rid of the stupid PCI... Also the board somehow looks a bit khm, empty.

I have no need for PCI myself, I have would liked everything using the x16/x8 PCI-e slots. PCI should go the way of AGP dead and as for legacy cards I dont bother with them.

[Drone]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

When will they get rid of the stupid PCI

This is an eyeroller. If you don't like it don't buy it. Whatever...




This mobo doesn't look too cool and all however dual graphics idea and the 175% boost seem nice.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by $immond$

I have no need for PCI myself, I have would liked everything using the x16/x8 PCI-e slots. PCI should go the way of AGP dead and as for legacy cards I dont bother with them.

Just because you don't have need for them doesn't mean no one else doesn't.

[micropage7]

i want motherboard with white pcb
the motherboard market getting crowded, what they offer to us that different from other brand?

[Velvet Wafer]

Originally Posted by micropage7

i want motherboard with white pcb
the motherboard market getting crowded, what they offer to us that different from other brand?

white PCBs are, for some reason, very expensive to manufacture... sadly!
I also would like to see more of them again

[Jizzler]

The thing is, board with PCI outnumber boards without 236769392 to 7.

PCIe purists keep bringing it up in hopes that some manufacturer will hear our plea! If you look at newegg.com there are 21 FM1 boards available. All of them have PCI. 12 with one slot, 5 with two slots, and 4 with three slots. We have to compromise while those who want X number of PCI slots have multiple options available to them.

Perhaps this is why I like ITX so much, and am waiting for the ITX FM1 boards (Asus, ASrock) to ship to retailers. Only one slot and it's PCIe x16!

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by Jizzler

The thing is, board with PCI outnumber boards without 236769392 to 7.

PCIe purists keep bringing it up in hopes that some manufacturer will hear our plea! If you look at newegg.com there are 21 FM1 boards available. All of them have PCI. 12 with one slot, 5 with two slots, and 4 with three slots. We have to compromise while those who want X number of PCI slots have multiple options available to them.

Perhaps this is why I like ITX so much, and am waiting for the ITX FM1 boards (Asus, ASrock) to ship to retailers. Only one slot and it's PCIe x16!

Errr.. This board has one PCIe x16 slot! and two PCIe x1, one PCIe x4, and two PCI slots... Don't get me wrong I like my itx boards but i didn't buy them because they only have one slot and it PCIe x16...

EDIT: I'm just poke'n fun at you buddy! Don't hate on the Weaver..hehehe

[JrRacinFan]

It's going to be still a good while for PCI to get truly outdated. Also regarding the number of components on the board, Sapphire has always been a budget board maker(as far as I can remember). I would rate them near Asrock in terms of feature/cost, they just don't develop many boards. With that said, i would buy this board.

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

It's going to be still a good while for PCI to get truly outdated. Also regarding the number of components on the board, Sapphire has always been a budget board maker(as far as I can remember). I would rate them near Asrock in terms of feature/cost, they just don't develop many boards. With that said, i would buy this board.

Didn't they pick up some of the EVGA guys that build there boards? I agree with you, I think they will try to make some high end boards and sell them budget minded like Asrock which is owned by ASUS.

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by Mindweaver

Didn't they pick up some of the EVGA guys that build there boards? I agree with you, I think they will try to make some high end boards and sell them budget minded like Asrock which is owned by ASUS.

Yes they did! Not the whole "dev team" just some of them.

EDIT:
Also not necessarily owned by Asus, more like these comparisons:

Phillip Morris: Marlboro & Basic
WWE Branding: Raw & Smackdown!

More like a sister company so to speak. I think they are the same board manufacturing plants but different bios engineers and onboard components.

[Mindweaver]

Originally Posted by JrRacinFan

Yes they did! Not the whole "dev team" just some of them.

Hopefully just the good ones..

[JrRacinFan]

Originally Posted by Mindweaver

Hopefully just the good ones..

OMG! Nice! ROFL

[TheLaughingMan]

I really like the boxart design.

[RejZoR]

Originally Posted by Drone

This is an eyeroller. If you don't like it don't buy it. Whatever...




This mobo doesn't look too cool and all however dual graphics idea and the 175% boost seem nice.

If you don't like it, well you can't buy anything because ALL boards still have PCI on it (except maybe some ridiculous SuperComputer mobo which i don't need).
You buy a top of the range super duper high end mobo, place all the high end latest components around it and get annoyed by useless PCI slot on the mobo wasting space where i could have a PCIe soundcard. Instead i have to place it tight next to graphic card where it blocks half of the airflow. Not cool at all. If i turn them around, they have some more space between but then the graphic card is again at the very bottom with crippled airflow again.

If we got rid of much newer AGP and also PATA connectors, why the hell we still have this archaic PCI slot on the modern boards. Last time i used PCI was with X-Fi Xtreme Music back in 2005. And even back then i was thinking, man when will they migrate this to PCIe...
Now, nearly 7 years later, PCI is still around (it's a 18 years old bus), collecting dust and pissing me off. Sorry, but i see absolutely no point in keeping it around. Plus it should be the other way around.
If YOU don't like the lack of PCI enabled mobo, then don't buy the PCIe one. Because quite frankly it's time for PCI to retire. If you have money to buy a brand new high end mobo you're also able to replace that ancient soundcard or whatever with a modern PCIe one.
If you don't like that fact then it's tough luck. With your thinking we'd still be using Core i7 on Socket 1... it's just time to move on.

[Thatguy]

It was cheaper for me to build a dual core phenom then a apu system for my front office, though I would have prefred to build a APU system. Maybe when the back office computer dies I'll build a APU system for that one.

Still pricing is a bit high and this is to be expected with a new cpu and motherboard. I expect prices drops late 2011 early 2012.

[Casecutter]

I just don't get why an ATX board for APU market, while the idea of ITX that makes sense. To me if I buy into APU's it's all about small, simple, and low power. Though with a discrete graphic option say a year from now if you think of keeping it revenant. APU's are not for the normal computer savvy build (geek), it's for OEM's building SFF, business class machines, or HTPC. Somehow everyone is pumping up these APU's into something they are not.

Stop passing the Kool-Aid

[HYPER-TWIN]

All this talk about a silly pci slot, and no one not even the auther of the article has mentioned the MSATA port on the board!
This is what i think makes this product stand out from the rest, should make for some interesting benchies
people still use WIN XP so i think pci is still ok, you do have more choices so dont complain.

[_JP_]

Originally Posted by HYPER-TWIN

(...)and no one not even the wright'er of the article has mentioned the MSATA port on the board!

That's because it is a mini-PCI-e port. It was mentioned.

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

When will they get rid of the stupid PCI... Also the board somehow looks a bit khm, empty.

I still use a PCI sound card, cuz it works and sounds good, PCI is still a ways away from kicking the bucket for that reason.

[HYPER-TWIN]

@JP Sorry my bad , but still i think this is a feature rich mother board that will help people upgrade, i think that some of us can use most off our old hardware and still build a good and cheep system.