Friday, January 8th 2010
ASUS M4A89GTOD PRO RS890 Motherboard Pictured
At the ongoing CES event, ASUS displayed some of its upcoming motherboards which included the M4A89GTOD PRO, an ATX form-factor model based on the AMD 890G chipset. The AMD 890G seems to be a successor to the AMD 790GX, in being a performance integrated graphics part. It integrates a DirectX 10.1 compliant IGP while supporting discrete graphics with 2-way ATI CrossFireX.
The M4A89GTOD PRO comes with an expansive feature-set thanks to the AMD 890G. The more interesting component being the AMD SB800 southbridge chip, which is on its way to being one of the first PC motherboard chipsets to natively support SATA 6 Gb/s. The chip doles out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, while doing away with its on-die IDE controller. An external JMicron-made storage controller compensates with an IDE connector, a SATA 3 Gb/s port (colored black) and perhaps an eSATA port (at 3 Gb/s speeds), too.
The AM3 socket CPU is powered by a 5-phase (two chokes per phase) VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMMs for dual-channel memory. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8, x8 when both are populated), two PCI, and one each of PCI-Express x4 and PCI-Express x1. There's the usual VIA-made 8+2 channel HD audio CODEC with optical SPDIF connectivity, FireWire, USB 2.0 ports from the southbridge, and observable display connectivity which includes DVI and D-Sub. Interestingly the blank padding right below the audio connectors shows there could be room for a revision with USB 3.0 support using an NEC-made two port USB 3.0 controller. ASUS may release this board a little later this year, probably in Q2.
Source:
F1CD.ru
The M4A89GTOD PRO comes with an expansive feature-set thanks to the AMD 890G. The more interesting component being the AMD SB800 southbridge chip, which is on its way to being one of the first PC motherboard chipsets to natively support SATA 6 Gb/s. The chip doles out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, while doing away with its on-die IDE controller. An external JMicron-made storage controller compensates with an IDE connector, a SATA 3 Gb/s port (colored black) and perhaps an eSATA port (at 3 Gb/s speeds), too.
49 Comments on ASUS M4A89GTOD PRO RS890 Motherboard Pictured
I will apologise for the smartness though as I feel stupid as I didn't realise you could get ram slots with clips only at one end. ( and thus have an upside down)
Every motherboard I've seen has clips both sides.
I imagine it's just a mistake on a preproduction model.
Wander why they would showcase a 890G with the 800SB chip mobo first. Seems to me the prudent course would be what MSI did - show us the enthusiast board first since we are the folks are going to be the early adopters and shell out the dough before the rest of the market. This is the integrated chipset and while would be above average, is not what the performance/gamer crowd will go after. So with that, a big MEH to this board. Give me 890FX and 850SB. SATA 6 is nice, USB3, but most importantly 2x 16PCI2.0 slots.
So, can't wait to see the performance 890FX board from ASUS, as that will be my next purchase, no doubt it about it. Probably will stick with a fast dual core AM3 (at first, to keep down costs), but then drop in an hexa-core upgrade once they are past the first stepping of the manufacturing process. Considering that will probably be the last and fastest chip on the AM3 platform, it should retain its resale value pretty well (just like my socket 939 64-bit X2 4800+ chip is now - selling on eBay for 2x the cost of current, faster dual cores. I was as surprised as you)
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And no, they were not designed entirely to eliminate the graphics card clearance issue, trust me, people have been breaking off those stupid latches for years to make the DIMMs easier to insert and remove. The motherboard manufacturers just finally caught on...
Just to give you an idea, this is my AMD rig in my sig:
That picture is a little older, so I'm using the taller G.Skill RAM in the black slots because the yellow is blocked by the CPU cooler. When I switched to shorter sticks, it was actually a real hassle to get in there to unlatch the top latches(not to mention a pain getting the stick to slide under the heatsink and then engage the latch with no real way to put pressure on that side of the stick). Now, if I ever wanted to to get the stick in the first yellow slot out again, it would be next to impossible for me to get my hand down in the small space to unlatch it, but then again I guess that is why God invented the Bic pen.:laugh:
Not going to be a problem for everyone, but some, and if you can eliminate the hassle for some, it is a good thing. IMO.
Edit* that picture wasn't there when I posted this, seems like a case design flaw rather then motherboard problem, damn that's tight.
Also clean your exhaust fan, its filthy :p
Back on topic and it's interesting, but expected to see (now) SATA 6.0Gbps being implemented into the board, again - even if it isn't necessary right now.
hehe
The case was actually re-used from my old 939 rig, that is why it is a little dusty. The case fan was replaced a few weeks later(I forgot to order it with the rest of the parts:banghead:).
Another point being, Ram needs to be spaced a little further away from the CPU slot due to the shear size of CPU cooling.
I wish alot of manufacturers would setup the ram clips like the Asus P7P55D board we sell at work. One end is stationary and the other actually is the clip. I've never broken a clip but I know friends that have and I believe that would really help out the novice builder.
One MATX chipset, one ATX chipset, one high end ATX chipset.
The mobo manufs are all :( sales suck with our overpriced product, what to do? so they paint it a different color, put fake power saving crap on there, and try and re-sell it...
I bought a 790FX/SB600 chipset based motherboard way back, and a few months later they release the 790FX/SB750 :wtf: That pissed me off because I was having issues with the SB600. All you have to do is google it and its problematic. So why on earth would they release it? They just should have waited for the SB750 to get released.
Sometimes I wonder about AMD, though I do love there hardware and there price/performance.:roll:
You took the words right out of my mouth :laugh:
I bet if ASUS was to release a plain 850FX/SB850 chipset based motherboard, painted it UV RED and called it something like Asus Red Dragon Edition with absolutely nothing special and charged people $300+ for it, they would probably sell out completely. I know I would be one of those suckers :banghead:
The M3A32-MVP with SB600 was an amazing board (almost legendary I dare say) even to this day. I just finally sold mine to make the jump to full AM3, but I'll probably regret selling that board forever. It impressed me all the way up to the last day I owned it. :toast:
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As for innovations on some of the new boards I would LOVE to see some manufacturers on the AMD side of the fence start producing boards with super beefy cooling like I see on the Intel boards from the likes of Gigabyte, EVGA, and ASUS. I know that the AMD processors run a lower temps and all that, but it would still be great to see the northbridge's, southbridges, and mosfets get some beefy cooling love too! The coolers they use now are very nice sure, but I just want to see some of the more ridiculous looking offerings on our side of the fence too!
Gimme a Gitabyte UD7 for an AMD rig! It looks so ridiculous/insane....AND I WANT IT! :D
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128413
Kei
Might be named the HD 4300 because of the higher stock clock?
In related news, Catalyst 10.1's will supposedly allow Hybrid Crossfire between RS880 IGP's and upcoming Cedar (HD 5350) cards.
That way, hybrid crossfire is still the same as the 780/785G boards - low end cheap crap only :P