ASUS F1A75-V Pro vs. Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4H – Llano at ~$120
by Ian Cutress on November 7, 2011 6:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Asus
- A75
Board Features
| ASUS F1A75-V Pro | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | FM1 |
| CPU Support | Llano - AMD A series and E2 series |
| Chipset | AMD A75 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100.0 MHz |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 1866 9-9-9 |
| Core Voltage | Auto, offset and manual, 0.8 V to 1.7 V |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Auto, 8x to CPU limit |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 2.30 V to 1.35 V |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1T or 2T |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB Dual Channel Support for DDR3, 2400/2200/1866/1333/1066 MHz |
| Expansion Slots |
1 x PCIe x16 (runs at x16/x0 or x16/x4) 1 x PCIe x4 2 x PCIe x1 3 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID | 6 x SATA 6 Gbps, Support for RAID 0, 1, 10 |
| Onboard |
7 x SATA 6 Gbps 4 x Fan Headers 1 x Front Panel Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header 1 x S/PDIF Out Header 4 x USB 2.0 Headers 1 x USB 3.0 Header 1 x COM header 1 x TPU Switch 1 x EPU Switch |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek RTL8111E chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek® ALC892 |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header 2 x CHA 1 x PWR |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 port 1 x D-Sub 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out Connector 2 x USB 2.0 4 x USB 3.0 1 x eSATA 6 Gbps 1 x Gigabit Ethernet Audio Jacks |
| BIOS Version | 0902 / 1501 |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
As with the Gigabyte board, we see a Realtek NIC+Audio combination, although this is the ALC892 rather than the ALC889 on the Gigabyte. Also of note is that there is no Firewire here.
One of the big things to note is that the second PCIe x16 lane actually only runs at x4. This should put severe limitations on throughput if CrossFireX is planned between to discrete GPUs - however our GPU testing later shows that for some titles, it's not that much of a bottleneck.
In The Box
Driver CD
User Guide
IO Shield
Q-Connector for Front Panel
2 x Locking SATA 6 Gbps cables, right angled.
As we are in the $120 region for motherboards, we do not expect anything spectacular in the box. It is a shame that there is nothing special in here, such as a USB 3.0 back panel connector.
Software
Driver installation is very easy from the driver CD, using an ‘Install All’ option to do everything, or drivers can be picked from a list then installed at once. The same goes for the software, though ASUS’ software has focused primarily on the AI Suite application, which we have covered on various ASUS boards before, so I will only cover it briefly here.
The AI Suite is designed to cover everything—overclocking options, energy efficiency options, fan controls, sensors for monitoring, and BIOS updates. Over the iterations it has got quicker to use and works rather well.
The fan controls are of importance here, allowing the user to control the CPU and Chassis fans, in terms of a double gradient speed profile.
One flaw to mention is the saving of overclock profiles. When a profile is saved, if you have changed the voltage in the software, saving the profile does not save the current voltage. It saves the voltage to which the board was booted at. Hopefully this will be corrected in future iterations.
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Taft12 - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
An F1 socket board with 3 PCI-E x16 slots? Consider my face palmed.Googer - Sunday, November 13, 2011 - link
ASUS and ASROCK have FM1 boards with 3 PCI-e x16 slots. There maybe another, but I'm not aware.Googer - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
"The Gigabyte board wins again in our USB 3.0 testing."Since the ASUS uses two separate USB3 controllers, one on chipset, the other an ASmedia USB3 PCI-e. Peformance can vary based on which port you plug in to. If I remember correctly, the front Panel and ports near the PS2 port is the other ASmedia USB3 port. A little retesting is certainly needed here.
Etern205 - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I've notice there are four display outputs, VGA, DVI, HDMI, and Display Port. What is the maximum number of displays you can use at one time just by using the IGP?Not doing for eyefinity, but for 3 separate monitors.
Thanks
Googer - Sunday, November 13, 2011 - link
I haven't tested it but on my ASUS, I think the limit is 2 with out discreet graphics. However, I could be wrong on this.crtune - Sunday, November 13, 2011 - link
It really depends upon the device. I have an Echo Audio Mia card from several years ago, which while not having exactly every feature a newer card would have, has profoundly excellent audio quality. For the type of audio I work on (2+1 traditional stereo; mostly demo recordings, documenting gigs I'm on and so forth) this audio card is ideal and really I do not want to spend the several hundred on a newer one which will meet the standards I have for audio cards (in Los Angeles, CA as a musician I compete with people who have top quality audio gear). NONE of the onboard audio, on even the best on-board audio set ups will be as noise free and low latency as the audio I'm getting using this old card.So, now you should understand why someone might want to use legacy PCI bus hardware devices.
swaaye - Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - link
The people who think "legacy" ports are bad aren't going to be convinced otherwise unless they have their own reason for using them. This topic comes up endlessly.