AMD 890GX / SB850 Chipset Gigabyte Motherboard Preview

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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890GX / SB850 Chipset Motherboard Video Preview - Today AMD is announcing its newest generation motherboard chipset family on the Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H motherboard. It is comprised of the 890GX Northbridge, and SB850 Southbridge. If you are looking for a board with integrated graphics, you had better put the AMD 890GX on your short list. We are more excited about seeing native SATA 6Gb/s RAID than anything else, and we queue up a 4-disk RAID 0 array worthy of 4TB.

Video at the link above.
 
Nice. Good to see standard HDD's holding fast.
I'm gearing up for an upgrade next year, and since before the Core2's, I'm beginning to debate an AMD system, and board like this are very tempting...
 
I like how Kyle says "S-Video out" Whens he's pointing at the VGA port on the motherboard....
 
Cool beans, looking forward to the review. Going to have to take another look at AMD, wonder what the FX chip set is going to offer.

Mar
 
haha - s video! :D

Great preview. Loving all the videos! Keep up the good work!
 
nice, was looking at doing a raid setup a while back. looking more like a viable option. any idea how the raid 5 stacks up? seems a better way to spend my money then SSD right now.
 
wow, I'm sold! I think the only thing that could have made that any better would have been a plate of fried bacon. Because bacon universally makes EVERYTHING better.

Bacon aside. I am definitely going to be grabbing one of these for my next build. My old ASUS cheapy motherboard and Phenom x4 9550 are feeling a little tired. Would like to break into some nice 6-core/SATA3 gear.

And I agree that the spindle drive is far from dead. Especially given the storage capacity. downsides of course are power, heat, and reliability. But SSD's just need to get a little cheaper per GB before I'll seriously consider one.

Great vid Kyle. my brother Chris and I thoroughly enjoy the [H] TV reviews.

Shane
 
i'd check out anand's article before you get too enthusiastic about the new storage capabilities of the 850 SB.
 
I just read through Anand's article and i cant say that there are things in there that are really upsetting. Cant say that it is a total shock that Intel chipset performs better.

On the graphics im not so sure what the case is i mean with the sideport memory and stuff the thing should be faster then what they previously had in 785g ?

I do like the [H]ardocp preview :)
 
Kyle, anyway you can sweet talk Crucial into sending you 3 of Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5"?

They use the SATA III interface and shouldn't be performance bound like a mechanical HD.

I tend to think you have some THUBAN action sitting on your benches too, but there is a NDA still. I </3 NDAs.
 
Isn't 400MB/s a bit slow for 4x 1TB Caviar Black drives though? I would think it should be closer to 600MB/s. Kinda looked like it was bottlenecked until the 60% point of the HD Tach test.
 
- THANKS Kyle for taking the time to present us with another mobo video! Anytime we get to hear the sweet melodic tones of your voice descibing and demonstrating new computer tech is always welcome!

- "not a lot of bells and whisles with this one".. but probably not going to cost anywhere near the $300+ like your last 2 mobo previews! Certainly has more forward thinking and future proof tech than the MSI Trinergy mobo despite it having "digital" capacitors;)

- Still unavailable @ the Egg as of this post!

- That mobo has about the largest open socket area I have ever seen!

- The BIOS says March 1st @ 7:11 although you mentioned it was the afternoon,

- Why weren't all 5 drives recognized while in RAID 5? Does that concern you any even though 4 drives worked great together? Right now the WD1002FAEX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533) is going for $119 shipped so for $476 you got 3.63TB cooking at an average read speed of 361 MB/s with a burst @ 506.. awesome!

- I second the motion of testing the Crucial RealSSD C300.. it costs only $5 more with shipping at the Egg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148348&Tpk=CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1) than your 3.63TB RAID 0 so would make for a great comparision.. the latest and greatest SSD vs. old school spindle drives!

- Now Kyle, get a 6 core AMD CPU on that puppy, overclock it to the max and give us some benchmarks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Six-Core-039-Thuban-039-Desktop-Processors-Confirmed-for-2010-2-300x300.jpg
 
I wish there was a way to get two regular PS/2 ports. I'm not quite ready to throw out all of my PS/2 mice and KVMs :(

Also, 4 TB of space with 500+ MB/s read speeds is really impressive, and that for a mere fraction of what 4TB worth of SSD would cost :D

As for SidePort memory, Kyle skipped over it in the video, but it is basically dedicated video RAM, just like on a videocard. It allows the IGP to use dedicated VRAM instead of always relying on main RAM, which is hideously slow. I think I saw 512 MB of SidePort memory mentioned on the box? Wasn't very easy to tell. 256 seems more likely, as previous boards used 128 MB.
 
Elledan said:
Also, 4 TB of space with 500+ MB/s read speeds is really impressive, and that for a mere fraction of what 4TB worth of SSD would cost :D
Click to expand...

Its the random read performance that matters, not the sequential. Most of the time you use your hard drive, it is accessing data in non-sequential stores.

Having a 1-2 combo is the way to go though, 80 - 160 GB of SSD and multiple TB of storage from mech. drives.
 
Elledan said:
I wish there was a way to get two regular PS/2 ports. I'm not quite ready to throw out all of my PS/2 mice and KVMs :(

Also, 4 TB of space with 500+ MB/s read speeds is really impressive, and that for a mere fraction of what 4TB worth of SSD would cost :D

As for SidePort memory, Kyle skipped over it in the video, but it is basically dedicated video RAM, just like on a videocard. It allows the IGP to use dedicated VRAM instead of always relying on main RAM, which is hideously slow. I think I saw 512 MB of SidePort memory mentioned on the box? Wasn't very easy to tell. 256 seems more likely, as previous boards used 128 MB.
Click to expand...


I can't get the IGP to work with the driver installed so I skipped over talking about it in the Preview.
 
Thanks for the video.

I know this is a bit outside of the scope of your video, but I wonder if the raid controller is a little more robust on this MB than they have had in the past. On my current MB (M4A79T Deluxe) I'm running raid 5 and I have to rebuild the raid about once a month due to it dropping a drive (usually after plugging in a USB storage device).
 
Good to see you doing another AMD board Kyle! Dont forget to keep your eye on nvidia's chipset in the amd world as well though. Keep up the good work:)
 
Got integrated video working this morning but it does not seem to like to scale the resolution above 1280 so I am not sure what is going on.....
 
Seriously dissapointed that AMD didn't do more with the IGP. Its teh same as a 785G IGP just overclocked :( ... which all 785G IGPs overclock to by default anyway!
And they market it as being HD 5450 hybrid crossfire friendly haha
There not even the same Direct X parts! Let alone mismatches in shaders and memory bandwidth!
Come one AMD, dont do an Nvidia on us ... or just append a + next time.
 
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Oh yeah slightly saddened no DX11 integration :(. When should I be expecting that?
 
Yea, but would you get a full size board with an IGP? I don't know about you guys but when I think IGP, I'm thinking at least M-ATX. It is also a good thing that Gigabyte revised their USB power section. On my UD3-p55 board the USB power isn't quite enough to keep up with my power demanding laser mouse. I have to use a powered hub or my mouse cuts out all the time. :( I have also just about given up on WD. They might be faster than everyone else, but if I am constantly rebuilding then I never see the speed. I have been trying the Samsung drives lately. I have already had to send a few of those back as well. Lets hope this isn't a market trend.

Back on topic. Next time we get a video, will there be a hexacore processor in it?:D No offense, your a good enough looking fella, but Id rather see the cool new CPUs.
 
Elledan said:
Around the time when DX11 features on an IGP actually matter, is my guess :p
Click to expand...

That would be a different story if Hybrid HD 5450 were not being marketed for the board as the ideal companion. Thats why I mentioned it with relation to the DirectX mismatch !!!
 
BallerX said:
Yea, but would you get a full size board with an IGP? I don't know about you guys but when I think IGP, I'm thinking at least M-ATX. It is also a good thing that Gigabyte revised their USB power section. On my UD3-p55 board the USB power isn't quite enough to keep up with my power demanding laser mouse. I have to use a powered hub or my mouse cuts out all the time. :( I have also just about given up on WD. They might be faster than everyone else, but if I am constantly rebuilding then I never see the speed. I have been trying the Samsung drives lately. I have already had to send a few of those back as well. Lets hope this isn't a market trend.

Back on topic. Next time we get a video, will there be a hexacore processor in it?:D No offense, your a good enough looking fella, but Id rather see the cool new CPUs.
Click to expand...

Yea knwo what your saying, and I am agreed, except the MATX of these is going to be the same. I myself own a MATX 785G and have been dying for at least an upping of the IGP in terms of shader count so it can be paried with more reasonable GFX cards and make hybrid crossfire (or dual wahtever they are callign it now) reasonable / versatile.
Making the part DirectX 10.1 or 11, I dont think matters that much ... only irritates me when they tout any 5x00 parts for hybrid on the platform.

On the front is USB power im so with you on that, have noticed the same trend. And hard drives sadly are going on the trend you mentioend as well. I have had a fair amotun of WD failiures, ranging from enterprise drvies, mainstream drives (be they Green or not) and even My Books die on me. And I treat my drives with up most respect, including constant airflow.
 
Sorry I cant watch the video as I dont have broadband.
I have read other sites reviews and my question is are you able to have dual monitors with the IGP?
 
I was hoping the [H] would weigh in on this chipset, but alas it is a video review and I'm deaf. I was forced to read the review on Anandtech, but I'd much rather have the [H]'s perspective. Does anyone know if they may be captioned someday or if transcripts will ever be made for [H]ers who can't hear?

At least I was able to pick up on some visual stuff like layout, BIOS, catalyst stuff, etc...that's at least a bit more than at Anand's site.
 
Ravynmagi said:
Isn't 400MB/s a bit slow for 4x 1TB Caviar Black drives though? I would think it should be closer to 600MB/s. Kinda looked like it was bottlenecked until the 60% point of the HD Tach test.
Click to expand...

Indeed. It does seem slow.

With my F3's in RAID 0 on my P5Q-E, the small (~100 GB) slice gets around 310 MB/s in HDTach. With 4x WD Blacks I would've expected something around 500 MB/s, at least.
 
Awesome Review, Kyle- before you beat yourself up, yours are about the only video reviews I watch- you get to the point and provide alot of info.
I'm interested in the RAID 5 performance on this board as well if you have time. I have an ASUS M4A78T-E + PhenomII x4- the thing is bulletproof and sips power.

Also, do you have a write-up or video on what you use to produce your video reviews? Keep up the awesome work!
 
Great video and impressive preview of SATA III performance. Waiting patiently for the full review. :)
 
I love these videos. I like seeing the motherboards and such up close in their full glory. The video quality is good enough I almost feel like I have the hardware :p

Definitely going to have to watch the full thing later today, as I'm very interested in SATA 3!
 
Looking forward to the FX version. Hopefully with better RAID performance than the current offering.
 
RAID is support by SB850 chipset, which will be same southbridge chip across the 890GX, 890X and 890FX northbridge chipsets lineup.
 
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