Tuesday, March 30th 2010
Gigabyte Readies GA-890FXA-UD7 High-End AMD Motherboard
Gigabyte is looking to share some of its latest innovations in motherboard design with its AMD platform lineup, with a new enthusiast-grade motherboard in the works that rivals up with some of the company's highest-end products from its Intel platform lineup. The GA-890FXA-UD7 is the newest in the league. The model stays above the recently revealed GA-890FXA-UD5. It is a socket AM3 motherboard geared up for AMD's newest six-core processors, based on AMD 890FX + SB850 chipset. It has six PCI-Express slots (electrical: x16/x8, x4, x8, x4, x16/x8, x8), and supports 4-way ATI CrossFireX. The CPU is powered by a 10-phase VRM, with 2-phase memory VRM.
For the first time on the AMD platform, Gigabyte uses its Hybrid Silent-Pipe cooler. The cooler connects the CPU VRM, 890FX northbridge, and SB850 southbridge using a heatpipe, and the heatsink over the northbridge has provision for a water-block (included), or a large and complex aluminum heatsink that fits into the top expansion slot. The SB850 natively supports six SATA 6 Gb/s ports complete with RAID 0,1,5,10 support. An additional GSATA2 controller gives out two SATA 3 Gb/s ports and the IDE connector. Connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF connectors, two gigabit Ethernet controllers, two USB 3.0 ports, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and FireWire. It is expected to be out in a month.
Source:
Bit-Tech.net
For the first time on the AMD platform, Gigabyte uses its Hybrid Silent-Pipe cooler. The cooler connects the CPU VRM, 890FX northbridge, and SB850 southbridge using a heatpipe, and the heatsink over the northbridge has provision for a water-block (included), or a large and complex aluminum heatsink that fits into the top expansion slot. The SB850 natively supports six SATA 6 Gb/s ports complete with RAID 0,1,5,10 support. An additional GSATA2 controller gives out two SATA 3 Gb/s ports and the IDE connector. Connectivity includes 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF connectors, two gigabit Ethernet controllers, two USB 3.0 ports, a number of USB 2.0 ports, and FireWire. It is expected to be out in a month.
50 Comments on Gigabyte Readies GA-890FXA-UD7 High-End AMD Motherboard
At this price, they should have just put that oversize heatsink back in their pocket and gave me another 16x PICe slot even it would be 4x. I'd be a lot more interested then.
Did they have extras left over from their X58 board that they needed to get rid of? Between that and the PCI slot its like someone had an "oh crap!" moment. :nutkick:
HS retention socket - blue, CPU socket - White, 2 RAM slots white 2 are blue, SATA 6 Gbps - blue, 3 Gbps white, expansion slots..hmmm.. ok 1 PCI slot and make it white :P
Edit : For me, the F_audio header near the CPU socket is a fail. I am bit worried of my cables going everywhere.
And for the heatsink, it cools every hot component on the motherboard and it doesn't take any slots. It goes above the first 16x slots :rolleyes:
Take this photo and line up the heatsink in your head with 'audio' and 'USB' words.
www.techpowerup.com/img/10-03-30/164a.jpg
No fail on this board, go buy it! :)
As for the excessive PCIe slots....I thought it would be the same way with my P6T6. Now that I look at it, I can have two 5870s crossfire, my tv tuner card, and I can add in a SATA 3 card without problems. Now I wish I would have gone with the P6T7 since then I could get in a USB3 card without it having to go through the SB.
I guess a compromise would have been add a 1x slot at the top for those who want to add in sound, but I still don't see the point of the PCI slot. I think it would have been nice to see them do a Workstation board with either one of those kinds or arrangements. If they would have then dropped the IDE and the FDD slots too, I would have bought it the day it came out.
While I don't need a workstation board, like my Asus, they offer great flexibility when it comes to upgrades to be able to keep it around longer.
But the cooler doesn't take away slots, like my previous point was.
edit: hmm, even E-ATX has only 7 PCI slots. This motherboard wont fit any case! :D Well found at least one that it fits, Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P80 (has 10 PCI slots)
lian-li.com/v2/tw/product/upload/image/PC-P80/P80f02.jpg
Most boards have 6 pci slots because the "Northbridge" heatsink pushes them all down one slot. A few with 7 pci slots put a 1x slot at the very top. Most importantly....
these all conform to the ATX format which work in all consumer cases that have 7 slots.
This is not some weird board or abnormal. This is a normal ATX board that will work in a case that fits ATX boards with up to 7 pci slots. Therefore......
the heatsink will take up the very first PCIe slot which is 1 of 2 16x electrical PCIe slots on the board.
This board is not designed for air but water. Some nut head in PR decided it would be a good idea to throw that stupid, useless heatsink in there so that those who don't want water don't feel left out if they want the top Gigabyte 890FX board.
So will this fit into an Antec 900 Two case?
Just save some money and get the 890FXA-UD5. Same stuff as the UD7 without the extra stuff you won't need. Its listed on Newegg for 180 and will fit the Antec 902 without a problem
The 890FXA-UD7 is a XL-ATX. The largest board that the 902 will fit, according to Antec, is a regular ATX. I would hope that Antec would know what size boards could fit in their case.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX
Most boards are either MicroATX, MiniATX, Standard ATX, or Extended ATX. Extended ATX is close to more of Server Market.