ECS A890GXM-A Motherboard Review - PAGE 1

Carl Poirier - Thursday, June 17th, 2010 Like Share

Gigabyte and ASUS are obviously not the only manufacturers that have built motherboards around the 890GX; the competition is quite ferocious as of late since AMD is doing well with its Athlon II and Phenom II lineups. Another competitor in this market is EliteGroup Computer Systems, more commonly known as ECS. Even though today's subject has been available since the chipset's launch, Neoseeker has just got to it. This is not too bad though; it allows for a more mature BIOS that can potentially fix some issues.

If one recalls the previous AMD motherboard from ECS that entered the labs, the A785GM-AD3, Neoseeker was reluctant to recommend it, especially when comparing to the competitor's solutions. So how will ECS fare this time? Can the A890GXM-A catch up for its predecessors? The answer lies in the following pages.

Specifications

CPU	Socket AM3 socket for AMD Phenom™ II processors Support 125W Phenom™ II X6 processors High-performance HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface Support transfer rate up to 5200 mega-transfers per second
Chipset	North Bridge: AMD 890GX South Bridge: AMD SB850
Graphics	On Chip (AMD 890GX-based with ATI™ Radeon HD4290 graphics ) Integrated DirectX10.1 graphics processor Share Memory: Maximum up to 512MB AMD SidePort Memory : DDR3-1333 (64Mx16=128MB)
Memory	Dual-channel DDR3 memory architecture 4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 32 GB Support DDR3 up to 1800(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066 DDR3 SDRAM
Expansion Slots	3 x PCI Express Gen 2.0 x16 slots 2 x PCI Express x1 slots 1 x PCI slot *The third PCIEX16 only support bandwidth x4
Storage	Support by AMD^® SB850 •5 x Serial ATAIII 6.0Gb/s devices •RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID 10 configuration •1 x eSATA
Audio	Realtek ALC892 8-Ch High Definition audio CODEC Compliant with HD audio specification
LAN	Dual Realtek 8111DL 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet Controller
Rear Panel I/O	1 x D-sub(VGA) 1 x HDMI Port 1 x DVI Port 1 x Display port 2 x RJ45 LAN connectors 1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in) 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector 1 x Clear_CMOS button 1 x eSATA 6 x USB ports
Internal I/O Connectors and Headers	1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power Connector 1 x 4-pin CPU_FAN connector 1 x 3-pin PWR_FAN connector 1 x 3-pin SYS_FAN connector 1 x Power on button 1 x Reset button 1 x Speaker header 1 x Front panel switch/LED header 1 x Front panel audio header 1 x SPDIF out header 1 x 4-pin power connector for VGA card 1 x Clear CMOS header 5 x Serial ATAIII 6Gb/s connectors 4 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 8 USB ports 1X Stand by LED (Red Light) 1X Power on LED (Green light) 1 x Chassis intrusion header
BIOS	AMI BIOS with 8Mb SPI Flash ROM Supports Plug and Play, STR (S3) / STD (S4) , Hardware monitor, Multi Boot Audio, LAN, can be disabled in BIOS F11 hot key for boot up devices option Support over-clocking Support eJIFFY Support Page Up clear CMOS Hotkey Support ECS M.I.B III Utility •CPU voltage adjustable •Memory voltage adjustable •NB Chipset Voltage Adjustable •HT Voltage Adjustable •External Clock Adjustable •Multiple Frequency Adjustable by CPU
Form Factor	ATX Size, 305mm*244mm

Specifications are courtesy of ECS at http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Product/Product_Detail.aspx?DetailID=1115&CategoryID=1&DetailName=Feature&MenuID=19&LanID=0

next: Closer Look »

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Article Index

1.	Introduction & Specifications
2.	Closer Look
3.	Test Setup & Benchmarks used
4.	Overclocking
5.	SiSoft Sandra
6.	Handbrake & POV-Ray
7.	WinRAR & Cinebench
8.	HDTune & PCMark Vantage
9.	Crysis Warhead & Bioshock
10.	Far Cry 2 & Left 4 Dead
11.	IGP Performance
12.	Power Consumption & Conclusion

Comments

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0 thumbs! ^

Gravity Jun 18, 10

I feel this was a pretty good review of the product and it's great that specs were included.
I can't really see any option other then running 2 video cards max. It seems more like main intention is for one primary card, other slots to be used for whatever. Kinda surprised the last slot can't tweaked or used for more then 4x.

0 thumbs! ^

Supernova1332 Jun 18, 10

Nice review. Not a terrible board but not good either. I'm surprised at the power drain compared to the othre 890 board

A little slower in most bench but most of them wouldn't be noticable. I would opt for a slightly better board though if you're doing anything other than office work. There are even some cheaper boards that would perform better.