ASRock Announces Two 785G Products
by Gary Key on July 31, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Gary's First Looks
The AMD 785G has been available for sale off and on over the past few weeks along with product previews at various sites. Our preview was short as driver and BIOS problems kept us from providing additional detail on the chipset capabilities. We originally expected the launch date to be in late August but it is "officially" launching in a few days. As such, we have been busy testing this small wonder of silicon with a variety of driver sets since our first boards arrived earlier in the month.
Unfortunately, right up until the last driver release on Wednesday, testing has not been as smooth as we expected for a chipset that is more evolutionary than revolutionary. However, the final pieces of the puzzle are coming together now as we work on the initial chipset review and then an extensive motherboard roundup featuring several boards expected to be available on launch day or shortly thereafter.
BIOS releases are also coming at a fast and furious pace as final tuning adjustments are completed with C1E/CnQ and core unlocking capabilities at the top of the refinement list. Gigabyte and ASUS provided their first samples earlier this month and then we started to wonder if other products would be available on the new launch date. Fortunately, products from a variety of suppliers started arriving late this week with more to come early next week. Exactly what products will be available at launch is something we will discuss in the 785G article.
In the meantime, ASRock is introducing two 785G motherboards today. The M3A785GXH/128M features an ATX design equipped with the SB710 Southbridge, 16GB of DDR3 support, 128MB of DDR3 SidePort memory, three PCIe x16 slots (x16/x4 or x8,x8,x4), single PCIe x1 slot, and two PCI slots. The usual assortment of Gigabit LAN, 8-channel HD audio, AOD/ACC functions, HDMI/DVI/VGA output, and six SATA 3Gb/s ports are included.
The M3A785GMH/128M features a uATX design that is equipped with similar specifications to its ATX sibling. The primary difference being the layout with a single x16 PCIe 2.0 slot, single PCIe x1 slot, and two PCI slots. Both boards fully support ASRock’s Instant Boot, EZ OC, and IES technologies. They are also EuP (Energy using Product) and Windows 7 hardware ready. We will have a full review of both boards in early August.
ASRock M3A785GMH/128M 785G uATX based motherboard.
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Ryun - Friday, August 7, 2009 - link
Nah that was the first thing I enabled when I saw the issue. Still doesn't work, but thanks.anandreader - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
Seems to me there should be a published checklist on it that motherboard reviewers routinely check for. This is one of the items that should be on the checklist. Right next to "Bios protected against malware?"anandreader - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
This article in slashdot,http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/31/1337202/BIOS...">http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/31/1...eloaded-...
,
made it clear to me that a must-have feature on the next motherboard I buy has to be a write-enable toggle to protect the bios. I don't want my system to be so easy to flash that some security hole in the Bios enables a hacker to permanently compromise my system.
If I wipe my drive, I want to be confident that the Bios isn't infected as well. A toggle on the motherboard that needs to be set prior to flashing the bios with a bios upgrade would provide that security.
jmurbank - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 - link
That is not a BIOS problem. That problem is a Windows feature...whoops a Windows bug.I do not recommend ASRock motherboards to anybody unless they are qualify builders. If you are an end-user, ASRock just does not support these users. I am not a qualify builder, so even I do not take a chance with their products.
naa3e5 - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
This chipset lends itself perfectly for ITX (HTPC)... is anyone going to produce an ITX version... (I realize ITX is a small market but I believe it's growing)naa3e5 - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
Nice triple post... sorry work bandwith sucks...cghebert - Saturday, August 1, 2009 - link
I believe J&W is making one. I have only seen pictures and a brief description though.http://www.inpai.com.cn/doc/hard/98551.htm">http://www.inpai.com.cn/doc/hard/98551.htm
You can find a bit more if you google enough.
Jeffk464 - Sunday, August 2, 2009 - link
OMG, perfect thats what I've been looking for. Toss in the 65W processors and what a nice HTPC.naa3e5 - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
This chipset lends itself perfectly for ITX (HTPC)... is anyone going to produce an ITX version... (I realize ITX is a small market but I believe it's growing)naa3e5 - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
This chipset lends itself perfectly for ITX (HTPC)... is anyone going to produce an ITX version... (I realize ITX is a small market but I believe it's growing)