780G / 8200 motherboard roundup?

[deruberhanyok]

I know there were some blog posts a while back, but I was wondering if there's still a plan to publish the full article on the new AM2+ chipsets and micro ATX motherboards? Most of the 780G articles out there just cover the Gigabyte board and it's hard to find solid information on lots of the other brands (or pretty much anything on the 8200 chipset).

If not, does anyone know of any sites that have done such an article?

 

[chucky2]

When it gets published, I hope 690G, G35, 7150 platforms are included for comparisons sake...just so the many of us that have these systems know what we could expect if we upgraded.

Also, I hope AnandTech includes a 780GX board, such as the newly announced Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H. Unfortunately it still looks to have the SB700 southbridge, instead of the 710 or 750. Maybe the full ATX version of this board would be available, which I believe does have the 750 southbridge.

Chuck

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: chucky2
When it gets published, I hope 690G, G35, 7150 platforms are included for comparisons sake...just so the many of us that have these systems know what we could expect if we upgraded.

Also, I hope AnandTech includes a 780GX board, such as the newly announced Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H. Unfortunately it still looks to have the SB700 southbridge, instead of the 710 or 750. Maybe the full ATX version of this board would be available, which I believe does have the 750 southbridge.

Chuck

SidePort will give a nice bump to the HD3200 IGP, but yeah, bummer on the lack of sb750. I don't think taht will qualify it as a '790gx' - maybe just a refresh of the 780g.

I imagine AT is waiting on the G45 to go head-to-head with AMD & nVidia top-shelf IGPs.

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: chucky2Also, I hope AnandTech includes a 780GX board, such as the newly announced Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H. Unfortunately it still looks to have the SB700 southbridge, instead of the 710 or 750. Maybe the full ATX version of this board would be available, which I believe does have the 750 southbridge.
Chuck

It's just a refresh of the MA78GM with SidePort added, 5 phase VRM and dualBIOS. Seems to have "Dolby Home Theatre" too, whatever that adds to the mix.

I think we'll have to wait a bit longer for 790GX and also see if there will even be a µATX version. All the Computex display boards seemed to be ATX form factor only.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: FireTech

Originally posted by: chucky2Also, I hope AnandTech includes a 780GX board, such as the newly announced Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H. Unfortunately it still looks to have the SB700 southbridge, instead of the 710 or 750. Maybe the full ATX version of this board would be available, which I believe does have the 750 southbridge.
Chuck

It's just a refresh of the MA78GM with SidePort added, 5 phase VRM and dualBIOS. Seems to have "Dolby Home Theatre" too, whatever that adds to the mix.

I think we'll have to wait a bit longer for 790GX and also see if there will even be a µATX version. All the Computex display boards seemed to be ATX form factor only.

DFI showed the mATX 790GX-M2RS with dual PCIe x16 slots

 

[deruberhanyok]

Just saw another thread where Gary Key mentioned it:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2201399&enterthread=y

Looks like the article will be coming soon, for anyone also wondering.

 

[imported_Kreed]

Originally posted by: deruberhanyok
Looks like the article will be coming soon, for anyone also wondering.

Why do I feel like it's 2007 all over again!

 

[deruberhanyok]

I don't know, but if you're saying that because some articles never surfaced last year, I don't think you're alone.

Any update on this? I've gone and bought an M3A78-EM - couldn't wait for abit's 780G board any longer and wasn't interested in the others given the blog posts Gary made a while back - but I'm still curious to see how everything all fares when compared (or hear about more issues, etc).

 

[chucky2]

At this point, we need to see a 690G, 780G, 790GX, 7150, 8200, G35, and G45 roundup.

And Yes, I'd move for at least one board from each of those families to be included. That way those with 690G/7150/G35 can determine if it's worth it to them for their use patterns to upgrade to say 780G/790GX, 8200, or G45.

Same hardware (where possible) should be used across platforms, most recent public drivers and BIOS's should be used. Vista Home Premium w/ SP1 would the best I'd think OS.

I can't stress this enough: With the exception of 790GX and G45, all of these platforms are out. So there should be no delaying the roundup because of a driver or BIOS bug. If it's broke, push on and report it.u In the case of 790GX and G45, use the newest available to you and do the review...mark the results as pre-Production and get it done.

This working with the manufacturers because there's bugs has gotten way out of hand. If they have retail product for sale, then they can have the results of those retail products shown, plain and simple. If it makes them look bad, well, maybe next time they'll spend more time on QA than reaping the most money while we suffer with their product.

OK, rant over...

Chuck

 

[imported_Scoop]

8200 is old already so I wouldn't bet on it. SPCR reviewed the Asus M3N78 Pro, which is a 8300 chipset board. Better than the 780G in terms of power consumption. HybridPower results were disappointing though. I guess the hopes were a bit too high to think it would actually turn the GPU off. Hopefully in the future.

 

[chucky2]

Ok, throw in the 8300 for good measure too.

Chuck

 

[deruberhanyok]

Any updates?

 

[HardwareSearcher]

Yep, I don't remember exactly which motherboard round-up it was, but I do remember when that round-up never came that they said would come. As you know, the P45/X48 motherboard roundups are not here either...and their ETA was on the 14th. But it is not about the ETA, but more about how long it has been now since the release of the new boards...but what I don't understand is if AnandTech doesn't do it, why doesn't someone else do it? I guess no one else has enough resources?

 

[deruberhanyok]

News?

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: deruberhanyok
News?

If you want an µATX board now buy 780G, if you want ATX buy 790GX.

 

[deruberhanyok]

I purchased an Asus M3A78-EM several weeks ago, as I said above. I'm quite happy with it.

I'm asking about the article because it's another in a string of articles that "we're working on" and "is coming in a week" that seems to have just vanished. There were several last year, as chucky pointed out, that never surfaced either. Just because I've bought a board doesn't mean others won't be looking for comparative reviews in the future and many of these models will be available for a year or more. Information in a review covering a bunch of different models can be very helpful to someone down the road when websites are no longer reviewing "old" products despite continued availability and interest.

I was in a similar situation earlier this year, before 780G came out, thinking about getting a 690G board. Some of Anandtech's articles made reference to a big 690G roundup that I thought would be very useful to me. It was never published. Ultimately I heard of the 780G, saw a writeup on HKEPC and decided to wait. 3 months after abit announced their 780G board and it still wasn't available I gave up on waiting and bought the above mentioned Asus model, which was brand new at the time. There were plenty of blog posts about issues with some of the early 780G boards and in them it always seemed the roundup was just around the corner...

I don't mean to sound all crabby and "I'm old, give me my internets" but if they'd just stop saying "this article is coming soon" they might save themselves some hassle.

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: deruberhanyokI was in a similar situation earlier this year, before 780G came out, thinking about getting a 690G board. Some of Anandtech's articles made reference to a big 690G roundup that I thought would be very useful to me. It was never published. Ultimately I heard of the 780G, saw a writeup on HKEPC and decided to wait. 3 months after abit announced their 780G board and it still wasn't available I gave up on waiting and bought the above mentioned Asus model, which was brand new at the time. There were plenty of blog posts about issues with some of the early 780G boards and in them it always seemed the roundup was just around the corner...

I don't mean to sound all crabby and "I'm old, give me my internets" but if they'd just stop saying "this article is coming soon" they might save themselves some hassle.

There were good (& thoroughly discussed) reasons why the 690G & P35 roundups didn't appear and I'm sure there is a good reason why this hasn't either.

I always look forward to Gary's articles & blogs but if I need reviews of a product now and his haven't appeared then I'll look elsewhere and use my judgement on their relevance.

 

[deruberhanyok]

Then maybe they could make a blog post explaining why the roundup isn't coming. While I was digging around I never saw any explanation as to what happened to either of those articles. If the discussion took place on the forums that doesn't do much for people who are just coming to anandtech looking for the articles and have no desire to search the forums to find out if an article exists.

I understand and agree with your point about checking other websites. I think it is great advice. Ultimately I did just that and found some kinda useful information. I eventually got tired of waiting on abit (which, given recent news, is a good thing) made a blind buy of a new model and it worked out well for me.

My point is that if they're going to say "the article is coming soon" in a blog post every week and then never post the article, maybe they shouldn't be saying "the article is coming soon."

 

[rjc]

For what its worth Fudzilla did a round up of 4 780G boards:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=8184&Itemid=40

Based on above about a month or so ago i bought the J&W model, its quite good.

If i was buying today definitely would be looking for a model with sideport memory. Maybe also hold the purchase for a few weeks to see if any 790 based boards show up, the raid 5 on the SB750 would come in handy in htpc/file server setups.

From the same site, if you want to go even smaller this mini ITX looks really good:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=8459&Itemid=37

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: rjcIf i was buying today definitely would be looking for a model with sideport memory. Maybe also hold the purchase for a few weeks to see if any 790 based boards show up, the raid 5 on the SB750 would come in handy in htpc/file server setups.

I ended up with the GA-MA78GPM-DS2H and and am more than happy with my choice.

I was thinking of waiting too but don't need the overclocking abilities of 790GX or RAID5 as I have a server.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: rjc
From the same site, if you want to go even smaller this mini ITX looks really good:
http://www.fudzilla.com/index....view&id=8459&Itemid=37

Finally, a Mini-ITX board that uses SO-DIMM instead of full-sized DIMM slots. I've been wondering whether there was some kind of royalty fee to use SO-DIMMs that might explain why nobody was doing this two years ago. Micro-ATX boards are a good candidate for them as well. And I thought of using some dedicated IGP memory (e.g. side-port) at least two years ago, too.

Now, I wonder how long it will take them to think of using a SO-DIMM slot for side-port memory instead of soldering a fixed amount to the board, and designing desktop cases specifically for using slim optical (e.g. notebook) drives instead of full-sized optical drives (especially for compact chassis).

 

[rjc]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Finally, a Mini-ITX board that uses SO-DIMM instead of full-sized DIMM slots. I've been wondering whether there was some kind of royalty fee to use SO-DIMMs that might explain why nobody was doing this two years ago. Micro-ATX boards are a good candidate for them as well. And I thought of using some dedicated IGP memory (e.g. side-port) at least two years ago, too.

I think laptop sales are on the up(...and regular pcs the reverse) so SO-DIMM is much more competitively priced now...remember in the past getting absolutely ripped every time i upgraded a notebooks memory.

Now, I wonder how long it will take them to think of using a SO-DIMM slot for side-port memory instead of soldering a fixed amount to the board, and designing desktop cases specifically for using slim optical (e.g. notebook) drives instead of full-sized optical drives (especially for compact chassis).

Not sure what the chipset supports, following this link:
http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?407
There is a picture of the qimonda memory chip. Does anyone know if this is regular DDR2 or GDDR2? The site says DDR2 but just in case.

Was thinking if its GDDR2 will be kind of difficult to ever find a SO-DIMM with that memory type.

Found some prices for MINIX board, not so good around $180...might be due to limited availibility so far, initial vendors gouging. The J&W 780g board i bought a month ago had 64mb sideport as was $10 cheaper than the original gigabyte 780g without sideport, most of the rest of their stuff is fairly value oriented, competing with the other chinese vendors i guess.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: rjc
Not sure what the chipset supports, following this link:
http://www.jwele.com/motherboard_detail.php?407
There is a picture of the qimonda memory chip. Does anyone know if this is regular DDR2 or GDDR2? The site says DDR2 but just in case.

That's GDDR2 but many (if not all) graphics controllers can accept regular PC DRAM. Many lower end graphics cards have actually used regular DDR and DDR2 DRAM.

 

[deruberhanyok]

I'm guessing we won't see any kind of comparison article at this point?

 

[imported_Kreed]

I think you'll see the article when all the drivers are stable and the bugs have been resolved. ;-)