When it comes to FM2, Gigabyte really has done an excellent job with the Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4. This is it if you want a "high-end" APU board. Not only does it take full advantage of all the features offered by the A85X FCH and the FM2 APU platform, but it also brings in full overclocking support, so you can tweak to your heart's content. But who really wants to overclock an APU?
When it comes to the enthusiast side of things, AMD's FM2 platform doesn't really fit the bill. It's cheap, has limited capability, and a limited number of compatible parts. However, there are, with the industry as advanced as it is, many enthusiasts that have been around for a decade or longer, myself included, that want HTPCs as well as high-performance computers. And we do want our HTPC to be snappy and responsive without gobbling up tons of money. AMD's FM2 APUs are a direct answer to that need.
I'm using one of the two Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 boards I have received as samples as the base for my HTPC rig. It does everything I need, and I can, should I want to do some gaming on my home theatre, pop in any discrete GPU to get a more than reasonable performance. I don't need to supply the board with a lot of cooling because of its International Rectifier VRM design, which keeps the HTPC from interfering with my movie watching. The Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 does exactly what I want, and does it at a very affordable price of less than $500; Windows8 included...but one thing is missing here.
The only real downside I see to this product is its lack of onboard WiFi and Bluetooth. I deducted .25 points because of this. I would much rather see a price tag that's $15 higher to get those functions, simply to forgo adding another wire to my HTPC for internet connectivity. Gigabyte has a slew of products that have an add-in WiFi card, and I wish the F2A85-UP4 would be one of them. And that is all. It's going to be really hard for any other OEM to offer much more with an FM2 board. They could, perhaps, offer a better OC or that WiFi I mentioned...I'll let you know in the coming weeks!