Introduction

I would like to thank Sapphire for supplying the tested motherboard.

When it comes to ATI video cards, Sapphire is one of the top, if not the number one manufacturer. After their tremendous success with video cards, they are now entering the motherboard business.

I find the name of the PI-A9RX480 a bit complicated. Maybe somebody at Sapphire will come up with an easier marketing name.

This is how Sapphire's naming scheme works:


The obvious choice when it comes to the selection of motherboard chipset, are chipsets from ATI.

ATI's new RS480 chipsets are geared to deliver high performance and good overclocking. On the PI-A9RX480, Sapphire chose to use the RX480. This version of the RS480 does not come with integrated VGA. Overclockers don't really need an integrated X300 on their motherboards, so it makes sense to scrap that feature and save a few bucks.

Sapphire has specifically developed that board to fit the needs of overclockers and enthusiasts, so the BIOS shines when it comes to overclocking options. For example DDR Voltage can be selected up to 4.0 V.

Features

Specifications from Sapphire

Chipset

• ATI RX480 x SB450 Chipset

Processor

• Support for AMD K8 Processor in Socket939 package
• Support Hypertransport Interface bus

VRM (Voltage Regulator Modules) on Board

• Flexible motherboard design with on board VRM, easy to upgrade with future AMD K8 processors
• 0.800V to 1.55V in 25 mV steps

System Memory

• A total of four 184-pin DDR RAM sockets
• DIMM size support from 64MB to 2GB
• Suppot of dual channel 128-bit wide memory interface
• Support of 266/333/400 DDR RAM memory type

System BIOS

• PnP, APM, ATAPI and Windows 2000/XP
• Full support of ACPI & DMI
• Auto detects and supports LBA harddisks with capacities over 160GB
• Easy to upgrade BIOS

Plug and Play

• Supports Plug and Play specification 1.1
• Plug and Play for Windows 2000 and XP
• Fully assignable PCI interrupts

Onboard I/O

• Onboard two PCI fast IDE ports supporting up to four ATA, ATA2, Ultra ATA33/66/100/133 IDE HDDs, CD-Roms, ZIP drives and LS-120 drives as boot drive
• One floppy port supports two FDD of 360KB, 720KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB and 2.88MB capacity
• Eight USB ports (four ports via two headers)
• PS/2 keyboard connector
• PS/2 mouse connector
• One front panel sound connector

Extended USB Support

• Includes 2 OHCI host controllers, increasing the number of external ports to eight
• Includes 1 OHCI USB2.0 host ontroller that supports all eight ports (Bandwidth shared between eight ports)
• This motherboard supports USB 2.0 feature only on Windows 2000 (with SP4 or above) and XP (with SP1 or above) OS.

Onboard Marvell 88E8052 PCI Express Gigabit LAN

• Full compliance with IEEE 802.3u 100 Base-T specifications and IEEE 802.3X Full Duplex Flow Control
• Supports 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s operation
• Supports Wake-On-LAN function and remote wake-up

PCI Express x16 Graphics Interface

• One 16-lane (x16 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
• Full compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification Revision 11.0a
• The base PCI Express frequency of this interface is 4 GB/s
• PCI Express supports an enhanced addressing mechanism
• An optional ADD2 card can utilize PCI Express Graphics x16 connection

PCI Express x1 Ports

• Two 1-lane (x1 port) PCI Express port intended for external graphics
• Fully compliant to the PCI Express Base Specification revision 1.0a
• Two virtual channel support for full unsynchronized data transfers
• Supports full 2.5 Gb/s bandwidth in each direction per x1 lane

Power Management

• Supports SMM, APM and ACPI
• Break switch for instant suspend/resume on system operations
• Energy star "Green PC" compliant
• Hardware monitoring circuit is supported, provide voltage, fan speed etc. monitoring
• Wake-On-LAN (WOL) support
• Supports Suspend-To-RAM (STR)

Onboard ALC880 7.1 audio

• Integrated Realtek ALC880 controller
• Fully Sound and Sound Blaster compatible
• Full-Duplex 4 24-bit two-channel DACs and 3 stereo 20-bit ADCs
• PnP and APM 1.2 support
• Windows 2000/XP drivers ready
• Line-In, Line-out, Mic-in, SPDIF-in, SPDIF-out
• Supports ALC880 codec for eight channel sound output

Onboard IEEE1394

• Compliant with IEEE1394 OHCI specifications v1.0 and v1.1
• Integrated 400Mb 2-port PHY

Onboard Serial ATA Host Controller

• Independant DMA operation on four ports
• Data transfer rates of 150 MB/s
• RAID 0/1 feature support

Onboard Serial ATA-II Host Controller

• Independant DMA operation on four ports
• Data transfer rates of 300 MB/s
• RAID 0/1 feature support

Expansion Slots

• 1 PCI Express x16 slot
• 2 PCI Express x1 slots
• 2 PCI bus master slots - ver. 2.2 compliant

Packaging

The box has a unique reflective packaging, logos and features to catch the buyers eye, and a window to give you a hint of the suprise inside.


On the back of the box is a description of the motherboard and specifications.


Open up the front cover, and you are treated with a picture of the motherboard, some additional features, and you reveal the full window, allowing you to view the motherboard.


In the window, you will see the motherboard. Similar to a few other manufacturers, Sapphire has chosen to use colors not common to the regular motherboard look.


Opening the box, you find the motherboard in its anti-static tray.


Under the motherboard you will find the bundled cables, CDs and the manual.

Contents

You will receive:

• Motherboard
• Users Manual, Sapphire Sticker
• 1x IDE Cable, 1x Floppy Cable, 1x SATA Cable
• Bracket for SPDIF
• Bracket for IEEE1394
• IO Shield
• Driver CD, Application CD

The included accessories are a bit lacking. However, the essential things, except for a SATA power cable, are there. The manual is very good, it even covers most of the enthusiast options in the BIOS.