uATX Results

[Mr Vain]

Originally posted by: deansdad
Aldous Huxley said it best when he said: "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

So true.

 

[lopri]

I have a Biostar 7050 and I like it a lot. Excellent features and performance for the price.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2089329&enterthread=y

 

[FireTech]

Another week passes by with no µATX & no P35...

 

[imported_Kreed]

The Intel Developer Forum (IDF) is being held next week in San Francisco. So, don't get your hopes up on seeing the rest of the µATX reviews.

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: FireTech
Another week passes by with no µATX & no P35...

and another...

 

[JKing76]

This is fucking ridiculous.

 

[FireTech]

Agreed but what's worse is that they don't seem to care.

 

[lopri]

I think you guys should have a little bit more understanding on the situation. As much as I was looking forward to this round-up, I could see the hurdles and dilemma that barred this article from being published. Like everyone/thing in life, there are priorities and timing. (to AT, that is) And we observed that major players updating their line-ups in the past couple months. NV revised their 61x0 chipset to 70xx, Intel's new (allegedly DX10 capable) "Extreme Graphics" were introduced in the form of G33/35, and AMD's 690 has just gotten mature enough to be competitive.

Unfortunately for AT, their timing for this planned article wasn't the best, and with the kind of price tags and newly (re)introduced features (such as HD playback and DTS funtionality) it's hard to recommend a year old technology no matter how solid a product is. Think about it - If this article had been, say, published when promised and AT had awarded editor's choices. Some of you who would have purchased the products based on the review would be screaming at Gary now because what you had purchased a month and a half ago would be pretty much an obsolete technology today. In my opinion, with the advent of high definition contents, mATX boards are experiencing a huge transition, and it'd be foolish (or even irresponsible) to publish a review at this point.

I got myself a Biostar 7050 to build a HTPC machine, and learned a lot about audio/video technology (at consumer level). And I now can see why this article hasn't been materialized and probably will never be. Even on time, this article could have been irrelevant. At least Gary gave us an early look in this thread, which was a tremendous help personally. Oh and I forgot that there was the first article up a few weeks ago.

Although there wasn't really any complete round-up, I think we should wait for the round 2 in the future.

 

[JKing76]

OK, say that's the reason. It still doesn't excuse the fact that Gary and Anand have been totally unresponsive to this issue since the delay went from unusual to ludicrous. An official "roundup's been canned", while disappointing, at least ends the frustration and shows a modicum of respect for their patrons. But this thread is completely ignored, and any time Gary is called out on another thread or in a front-page story, we get another lie about "review starts next week!"

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: lopri
I think you guys should have a little bit more understanding on the situation. As much as I was looking forward to this round-up, I could see the hurdles and dilemma that barred this article from being published. Like everyone/thing in life, there are priorities and timing. (to AT, that is)

Sorry lopri, please tell me - what is 'the situation'? You seem to have inside knowledge we aren't privvy to.
We know Gary had some personal issues at the beginning of the process (which we all made allowance for) but we didn't set the subsequent timetable or make delivery promises.
As for priorities, yes I agree AT do seem to have priorities and they appear to be directly related to Intel product launches...

Unfortunately for AT, their timing for this planned article wasn't the best...
Think about it - If this article had been, say, published when promised and AT had awarded editor's choices. Some of you who would have purchased the products based on the review would be screaming at Gary now because what you had purchased a month and a half ago would be pretty much an obsolete technology today.
It'd be foolish (or even irresponsible) to publish a review at this point.

Again, we the readers/ forum users did not request these extra features added to the roundup, that decision was taken by Gary when things were already well behind schedule.
You can use the 'already outdated' excuse for any technology article but it's especially true of one that isn't delivered on time.
If we had bought on the strength of an editors choce it would have been with the full knowledge that upcoming products would be technologically more advanced so that's just another poor excuse.

I got myself a Biostar 7050 to build a HTPC machine, and learned a lot about audio/video technology (at consumer level). And I now can see why this article hasn't been materialized and probably will never be. Even on time, this article could have been irrelevant.

Once more, we didn't force Gary to produce the roundup or make the promises on dates that he has.

At least Gary gave us an early look in this thread, which was a tremendous help personally.

Merely a tease IMO.

Oh and I forgot that there was the first article up a few weeks ago.

We know but that's like handing someone a book with the pages for chapters 2-6 ripped out...

Sorry lopri but you either have more information on this situation that the rest of us or are currently wearing your rose tinted spectacles. :laugh:

 

[FireTech]

Latest from Gary Key. Mark your calendar guys:

µATX G33 will be next Wednesday and will include the NV MCP73, the first P35 series will start this Friday with the Foxconn MARS board and the abit/Gigabyte mid-range boards late next week. The AMD µATX is scheduled on 10/2 with the budget P35 boards following on 10/5.

 

[imported_Kreed]

Originally posted by: FireTech
Latest from Gary Key. Mark your calendar guys:

µATX G33 will be next Wednesday and will include the NV MCP73, the first P35 series will start this Friday with the Foxconn MARS board and the abit/Gigabyte mid-range boards late next week. The AMD µATX is scheduled on 10/2 with the budget P35 boards following on 10/5.

Does the "AMD µATX" review on 10/2 include boards based on both the AMD/ATI and Nvidia chipsets?

Or

Do we have to wait a bit longer for the Nvidia µATX review?

 

[FireTech]

Best to ask that question in his latest articles comments section, I don't think he visits here anymore...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuch...ts/showdoc.aspx?i=3098

 

[Gary Key]

Hi,

Here is the final plan, if it does not work out, hopefully the next guy will do a better job for you.

Next Wednesday - September 26th
G33 and MCP73 (MCP73 actually launches on the 25th now, but we will not have a production board until the 24th, the reference board is working fine but the BIOS is not ready yet)

Wednesday - October 3rd
AMD 690G and NV7025/7050 boards - was trying to pull this in to the 1st/2nd, but have a trip planned late next week to AMD to view RD/RG790 that I did not plan on but cannot miss.

Wednesday - October 10th
System build guide and Linux overview

Wednesday - October 17th
HTPC Mania with a heavy emphasis on Graphics and Audio under Vista.

In between these dates, I will be doing P35 comparisons to get that area caught up also. In the meantime, I am finding the latest products from companies like ASRock, Foxconn, and Jetway to actually be a very good bargain with a surprising level of quality again in the sub $60 market, so we will look at those products in early November.

I also have some assistance coming our way next week in the motherboard area along with a new section we will start up later in October for those who want to overclock but need help in setting up a board. We will explain everything we know, right down to clock skews, and show what to do and results on air, water cooling, and phase depending on the board. I apologize for the wait, delays, and lack of information recently. The details are not important at this point nor the reasons why, but we will get caught up in a hurry here. Hopefully, FireTech understands now. :beer:

One last item - G35 looks like a November launch, probably a paper review in October but products have been pushed out again.

 

[FireTech]

Originally posted by: Gary KeyThe details are not important at this point nor the reasons why, but we will get caught up in a hurry here.

I agree and hope/believe you will.

Hopefully, FireTech understands now. :beer:

I do :wine:

With all the delays, it now means my HTPC will probably arrive alongside the new baby. It'll give me something to do on those sleepless nights..... :laugh:

 

[Skott]

This should be interesting... :laugh:

 

[bharok]

I couldn't wait anymore so I pulled the gun:

GA-G33m-DS2R Motherboard
E6750 CPU
Cool Master RR-LCH-P9E1 CPU Fan
eVGA 8800GTS 640MB GPU
2GB Kit CL5 DDR2-800
the rest is the standard stuff..
hope it all fits in MicroFly MX6 Case

 

[Skott]

Good choice on the mobo. I'm not familiar with the hsf but everything else looks good.

 

[Gary Key]

A slight change in plans...

The G33 still goes up on Wednesday, but it will be the afternoon article. The MCP73 retail boards just arrived a couple of hours ago. There is no way to make it for Wednesday, much less the launch at midnight tonight. :Q Anyway, we will do a separate article for the MCP73 boards we have for next Monday with a chip overview and paper introduction sometime tomorrow. I have reference board results but the BIOS was beta as were the drivers, just not worth the confusion of publishing a handful of numbers that are already changing in the first set of benchmarks run on the retail kits. Also, 4GB installs work now.

The 690G/7050 boards are still on for next week, the calendar is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon still, any delay at all would just be to Thursday at midnight.

With the delay in the G35 and the fact the G965 will continue on now for a while, we are going to do a G965/G31 catch up article in a couple of weeks. I will also break out a few game scores under XP on the G965 as a comparison to the state of Vista drivers at this time.

 

[Zap]

:beer:

 

[koolpc]

Abit?s AN-M2HD

Is this a good board to get?

 

[hans007]

i bought a g31. i can do a mini review if anyone cares once it arrives tommorrow.


i guess what is funny is i originally posted in this thread when i bought a 946gz. and now its g31 time (moving 946gz to server) and i also have a 945gz which will just be sitting in my pile of junk.


and all microatx! haha

 

[bharok]

I've heard installing 64-bit Vista is not worth the trouble with drivers. Its installing 32-bit vista on a C2D processor better?

 

[Gary Key]

My curse continues... An update to our program to convert the charts from CSV to HTML is not working, having to code everything manually now, it will be late today.

 

[LTE]

Originally posted by: bharok
I couldn't wait anymore so I pulled the gun:

GA-G33m-DS2R Motherboard
E6750 CPU
Cool Master RR-LCH-P9E1 CPU Fan
eVGA 8800GTS 640MB GPU
2GB Kit CL5 DDR2-800
the rest is the standard stuff..
hope it all fits in MicroFly MX6 Case

I'm going with a VERY similar setup, but I've been looking at the GA-G33M-S2 as well. For 30 bucks less it looks like I'm missing out on RAID and one SATA port, but they look otherwise identical. Am I wrong about that?

The -S2H also looks tempting, but I've not seen much about it yet.

Edit: Ok, I really should have dove deeper into the mobo rec's thread. The S2H is out b/c its pci-e x16 slot is effectively x4, if i read correctly (other reasons as well, but less relevant for me). A shame, really, because it seemed like such a great board.

Between the DS2R and S2, the same thread notes that Raid, # of sata ports, and solid capacitors are the only differences. What difference does solid capacitors make?