As computers go, you can expect to pay top dollar for that top of the line performance. A real power house system could cost upwards of a couple thousand, at least. But you don't necessarily have to shell out the big bucks to get a capable computer. Thankfully, Sapphire is pushing their way into the market as a budget parts provider. And that's not to say that their components are cheap. Though quite affordable, the PC parts Sapphire manufacturers are both well designed and well fabricated.
Take for quick example, the pair of Sapphire graphics cards we recently reviewed. They both run ATI based GPUs, and both held their own when tested against some comparable rivals. The
Sapphire X1650 Pro graphics card quite impressed me, whilst the
Sapphire X1300 XT became the embodiment of what a budget card (both at about $100 USD) should be.
And now, we move onto motherboards. The Sapphire Pure CrossFire 3200, also tagged as the PC-AM2RD580, is quite unique. Perhaps the most striking of its aspects, that being of the white PCB design. I've never really seen that before. The AMD AM2 processor support is really nice, especially nice. And the ATI RD580 chip set quite impresses. Did I mention CrossFire?
Now this may be a budget board, so we shouldn't expect unparalled performance and blinding speeds. But I have a feeling, a hunch if you will, that this board might turn out to be pretty nice. So, let us roll up our sleeves and put the Sapphire PC-AM2RD580 through its paces. I'm all ready.
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