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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Hrel - Thursday, August 20, 2009 - link
3 PCI-E x16 slots... really? I'd much rather see an additional x1 slot and a x4 slot.Finraziel - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
That's odd... I count either 5 or 7 sata ports on the GXH, instead of 6. There's the two clearly visible in the bottom left, with I presume 4 but perhaps 2 more right there in a sideways orientation... And then there is another one right by the backplate, above the CPU??? What an odd placement for another sata port, I wonder if they had one port leftover from implementing an e-sata port? If they did and there's really 8 ports on the board (with the e-sata port) that'd be great imho. Most mainboards don't have enough sata ports imho, making me wonder how you're supposed to use the space in certain cases (for instance the HTPC enclosure I've got my eye on offers space for 6 internal 3.5" drives, 2 5.25" drives and an additional 3.5" drive if you want (have to give up the front IO bracket, hardly any mainboard lets you use all this if you don't want those horrible old ide cables through your case)Finraziel - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
Ok, sorry, did a little more research (looked at the manual on asrock site), and unfortunately there's a different (much worse!) explanation... The oddly placed sata connector near the backplate needs to be connected to the orange sata connector in the bottom left using a sata-cable... That's terrible ASRock!Guess if I actually do want to fill my HTPC up with harddrives I may just have to buy an extra sata controller when I run out of ports :S.
bwave - Monday, August 3, 2009 - link
My guess this is another AMD Chipset that does not support 1440x900 or 1680x1050 the most popular (19"/20"/22") sizes a motherboard with integrated video would sell with. Simply ridiculous.Sure, you could upgrade to a video card, but then why would you buy a mATX motherboard?
Kurotetsu - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
Its annoying that they're still using the default 1xPCI-Ex16, 1xPCI-Ex1, 2xPCI configuration for the mATX board. I'd really like it if they ditched the outermost PCI slot and replaced it with a PCI-Ex1 slot or even a x4 slot (even better if that became the new default config for mATX).ET - Sunday, August 2, 2009 - link
Why note 16x? It'd be pretty cool to have a CrossFire mATX MB. A good configuration would be 2 16x slots, one 4x slot and one PCI.aj28 - Sunday, August 2, 2009 - link
DFI has already done this on several of their mATX boards, sans the 4x slot. Imo, PCI-E 1x/4x devices are still too scarce, too expensive, and offer no real advantage to comparable PCI models.Ryun - Friday, July 31, 2009 - link
I know this is only a preview but could you guys see if S3 state/standby works on these boards? I bought a Asrock 760G for my brother and while S4 (hibernation) does work, standby will not (only will go into S1 & S2). After speaking with Asrock tech support (who were great by the way) they informed me that none of their boards support S3 state.Everything about the board that I got for my brother is great, except this one major flaw.
ABC111 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
I have an Asrock A780LM motherboard, too.The S3 can work.
I think you can [Enable] the [Suspend to RAM] in the BIOS.
Or reinstall the OS again.
Hope it's useful to you : )
ABC111 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
Upos, I check my BIOS, should set [Auto] on [Suspend to RAM] in the BIOS.This option is on [ACPI Configuration] page in the BIOS.