ASUS M4A89GTOD PRO RS890 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

Uhm, why are the memory slots up-side-down?

 

[Mussels]

Uhm, why are the memory slots up-side-down?

so that everyone goes and buys upside down ram, duh.


pity its only got a DX10.1 part, hybrid crossfire might have been interesting in DX11

 

[btarunr]

Uhm, why are the memory slots up-side-down?

I guess because they're too high up?

 

[Semi-Lobster]

Since the Radeon HD 3450 became the Radeon HD 4200 IGP in the RS880 chipset, are we to assume that the RD890 chipsets will also have an IGP derived from the RV620 GPU or can we expect an RV710 based IGP?

 

[Fourstaff]

pity its only got a DX10.1 part, hybrid crossfire might have been interesting in DX11

Agreed. I was hoping to see a DX11 chip there.

 

[theorw]

So when can we hope for actual HARDCORE xfire 16x-16x action with this chipset line?
Should we expect 890FX for XFIRE?
Id love such a chip cos i am looking for a Phenom quad for a change!

 

[Silverel]

Bah, halfway there. Still need to get USB 3 on that sucker. I'd imagine by the end of Q1...

 

[Brewster0101]

Don't see the point in any new motherboard that does not have usb 3.0 built in. There are enough motherboards on the market to suite everyone's need.

New motherboards like this need to have usb 3 otherwise its just pointless.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Don't see the point in any new motherboard that does not have usb 3.0 built in. There are enough motherboards on the market to suite everyone's need.

New motherboards like this need to have usb 3 otherwise its just pointless.

Couldn't agree more - would also have liked to have seen SATA 6.0Gbps even if it isn't needed right now. Still, we'll most likely see these features arrive on high-end boards in the not to distant future.

Off topic - Nice to see you've got a Kodama as your avatar - love those little ones.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Couldn't agree more - would also have liked to have seen SATA 6.0Gbps even if it isn't needed right now.

Can't you read, it has SATA 6Gbps...

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Can't you read, it has SATA 6Gbps...

Oooh sand in someone's vagina.

 

[Brewster0101]

Hehe... Kodomas are awesome.

They look like little scary things when they move their heads, but they are actually meant to
be cleaver and wise creatures, like dolphins of the land so I read once.

Can't you read, it has SATA 6Gbps...

Still Sata 3 or not, still pointless without USB 3. Also the SATA ports are all pointing up, none are at a 45% angle. Don't understand why board makers seem to put the parallel port at 45% an angle but on the same boards not any sata ports.

 

[eidairaman1]

Return of the PCIE 4X slot, I say why not just space the card slots away from the rest since the x16 slots have dual slot cards installed and you cant use all the other slots for what you want.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Oooh sand in someone's vagina.

No, I just wish people would spend 5 seconds reading shit before making stupid statements :shadedshu

 

[El_Mayo]

No, I just wish people would spend 5 seconds reading shit before making stupid statements :shadedshu

pretty sure it was a mistake

 

[pantherx12]

Uhm, why are the memory slots up-side-down?

Only to the boards you've used, you can have you ram work sideways to, there's no down or up to ram after all

 

[btarunr]

I'm fairly sure this padding is for an NEC µPD720200. So USB 3.0 for the final version can't be written off.

 

[El_Mayo]

What makes USB 3.0 so much better than USB 2.0?

 

[btarunr]

What makes USB 3.0 so much better than USB 2.0?

That it has 10 times the bandwidth.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Only to the boards you've used, you can have you ram work sideways to, there's no down or up to ram after all

If you actually paid attention to the picture you'd noticed that the top part in this case doesn't have any locking clasps. The whole idea of these memory slots is that you shouldn't have a locking clasp on the side where the graphics cards gets close to the memory modules as to allow you to remove and add memory modules without having to take out the graphics card. The way they're fitted on this board makes no sense at all.
And yes Mr Smartass, I'm well aware that you can fit the slots either which way around, I think I've been tinkering for computers a while longer than you...

 

[El_Mayo]

That it has 10 times the bandwidth.

I'ma go and google what that is then come back
ohh i see
how much bandwith does USB 2.0 have?

And yes Mr Smartass, I'm well aware that you can fit the slots either which way around, I think I've been tinkering for computers a while longer than you...

I don't liek his tone

 

[btarunr]

I'ma go and google what that is then come back
ohh i see
how much bandwith does USB 2.0 have?

1/10 that of USB 3.0

 

[El_Mayo]

1/10 that of USB 3.0

Did you like my sarcastic "Thanks"?
you earned it

 

[newtekie1]

If you actually paid attention to the picture you'd noticed that the top part in this case doesn't have any locking clasps. The whole idea of these memory slots is that you shouldn't have a locking clasp on the side where the graphics cards gets close to the memory modules as to allow you to remove and add memory modules without having to take out the graphics card. The way they're fitted on this board makes no sense at all.
And yes Mr Smartass, I'm well aware that you can fit the slots either which way around, I think I've been tinkering for computers a while longer than you...

Actually, the idea behind the slots with only one latch is to have a slot with only on latch. They were not designed soley with the graphics card clearance issue in mind.

In some cases, this does eliminate the issue of the latch hitting the graphcis card. However, this motherboard clearly has no issue with the latching hitting the graphics card, as the memory slots are plenty far away. So in this case it makes sense to mount the side without the latches at the top, as those are always more of a pain to unlatch when the motherboard is installed in a case because the power cables tend to block them.