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GA-890GPA-UD3H AMD 890GX + SB850 Chipset
Supports new generation of AMD Phenom II X6 processors
6 x SATA3 interface, 2 x SATA2 interface.
4 x slot Dual Channel DDR3 1866+
Integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics 128 Mb memory
2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 interface with ATI CrossFireX/ Integrated HDMI/ DVI
Mod EDIT:
Specifications
CPU
- Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom™ II processor / AMD Athlon™ II processor
- Hyper Transport Bus 5200 MT/s
Chipset
- North Bridge: AMD 890GX
- South Bridge: AMD SB850
Memory
- 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note 1)
- Dual channel memory architecture
- Support for DDR3 1866(OC)/1333/1066 MHz memory modules
- Support for non-ECC memory modules
Integrated Memory
- 128MB DDR3 SidePort memory
Onboard Graphics
- Integrated in the North Bridge:
- 1 x D-Sub port
- 1 x DVI-D port (Note 2)(Note 3)
- 1 x HDMI port (Note 3)
Audio
- Realtek ALC892 codec
- High Definition Audio
- 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
- Support for Dolby Home Theater
- Support for S/PDIF In/Out
- Support for CD In
LAN
- 1 x Realtek 8111D chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)
Expansion Slots
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) (Note 4)
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8) (Note 4)
(The PCIEX16 and PCIEX8 slots support ATI CrossFireX and ATI Hybrid CrossFireX technologies, and conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
- 3 x PCI Express x1 slots
- 2 x PCI slots
Storage Interface
- South Bridge:
a) 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 6 supporting up to 6 SATA 6Gb/s devices
b) Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, and JBOD
- GIGABYTE SATA2 chip:
a) 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
b) 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
c) Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD
- iTE IT8720 chip:
a) 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive
USB
- Integrated in the South Bridge:
Up to 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the back panel (Note 5), 8 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)
- NEC D720200F1 chip:
Up to 2 USB 3.0 ports on the back panel
IEEE 1394
- T.I. TSB43AB23 chip:
Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (1 on the back panel, 2 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a header)
Internal I/O Connectors
- 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
- 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
- 1 x floppy disk drive connector
- 1 x IDE connector
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
- 1 x CPU fan header
- 2 x system fan header
- 1 x power fan header
- 1 x front panel header
- 1 x front panel audio header
- 1 x CD In connector
- 1 x S/PDIF In header
- 1 x S/PDIF Out header
- 2 x IEEE 1394a header
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
- 1 x serial port header
- 1 x clearing CMOS jumper
Back Panel Connectors
- 1 x PS/2 keyboard port or PS/2 mouse port
- 1 x D-Sub port
- 1 x DVI-D port (Note 2)(Note 3)
- 1 x HDMI port (Note 3)
- 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
- 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
- 1 x IEEE 1394a port
- 1 x RJ-45 port
- 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)
I/O Controller
- ITE IT8720 chip
H/W Monitoring
- System voltage detection
- CPU/System temperature detection
- CPU/System/Power fan speed detection
- CPU overheating warning
- CPU/System/Power fan fail warning
- CPU/System fan speed control (Note 6)
BIOS
- 2 x 8 Mbit flash
- Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
- Support for DualBIOS™
- PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b
Unique Features
- Support for @BIOS
- Support for Q-Flash
- Support for Xpress BIOS Rescue
- Support for Download Center
- Support for Xpress Install
- Support for Xpress Recovery2
- Support for EasyTune (Note 7)
- Support for Easy Energy Saver
- Support for Time Repair
- Support for Q-Share
Form Factor
- ATX Form Factor; 30.5cm x 24.4cm
Notes
- (Note 1) Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
- (Note 2) The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connector by adapter.
- (Note 3) Simultaneous output for DVI-D and HDMI is not supported.
- (Note 4) For optimum performance, if only one PCI Express graphics card is to be installed, be sure to install it in the PCIEX16 slot. The PCIEX8 slot shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16 slot. When PCIEX8 is populated with a PCI Express graphics card, the PCIEX16 slot will operate at up to x8 mode.
- (Note 5) Two share the same ports with USB 3.0.
- (Note 6) Whether the CPU/system fan speed control function is supported will depend on the CPU/system cooler you install.
- (Note 7) Available functions in EasyTune may differ by motherboard model.
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 5)
00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller (rev 40)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 43a0
00:16.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 9714
01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS880 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4200]
02:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation Unknown device 0194 (rev 03)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)
05:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
05:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid? (in USD): $160.00 | Rating: 10
Kernel (uname -r):
2.6.39.2-34-desktop
Distribution:
openSuSE 11.4_64 (openSuSE 11.3_32), Ubuntu 11.04
This is mechanically speaking a very solid board with lots of connectivity (see the list from the Users Manual posted above). In addition it sports a range of backward compatibility features besides the modern connectors. I liked in particular the possibility to run my (relatively) old 250 GB PATA drive parallel to a new 1 TB SATA connected disk. For a short time I even reactivated my old 1.4 MB floppy and all were running flawlessly.
I installed a Phenom II 1050 CPU (which is way more than I need). This together with the ability to use up to 16 GB RAM (I have 4 GB for now) ensures a (hopefully) long time of use.<br>
The handbook is good: This is the first machine I ever built and all necessary information was there to get the box up and running. (Well, almost all. Who'd have believed with what amount of force the CPU cooler is mounted...).
The BIOS has a huge amount of parameters to adjust if one so choses. I'm no gamer but I'd guess there are enough possibilities for overclocking if that is wanted. (I use the optimized defaults for my RAM). One can switch the order of drives in the BIOS (handy e.g. when GRUB is grumbling after a system upgrade). Virtualization is supported, but not tried (yet).
There is a whole range of tools offered from Gigabyte for updating / flashing the BIOS, starting with something called "DualBIOS", a second copy of the BIOS for emergency-reloading though I have had no use for it so far, meaning to say everything runs good and proper.
I paid € 114,90 (about $ 160) in September 2010 for the board and I'd do it again. And as I simply haven't found any drawbacks I have to assign it full points (10).
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