facebook rss twitter

Review: AMD AM2 motherboard duel - Foxconn vs Sapphire

by Tarinder Sandhu on 2 February 2007, 08:42

Tags: Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qahtc

Add to My Vault: x

Sapphire PURE AM2RD580 bundle and presentation







It's big, it's shiny and it costs £140!





Here's what you receive, folks:

Items Quick-install guide
Main user manual (English)
1 x 80-conductor flat IDE cables, 1 x 34-conductor flat FDD cable, 2 x non-latching-style SATA data cables, 2 x Molex-SATA single-ended power adapter cables
FireWire port expansion bracket card
S/PDIF In/Out expansion card bracket
Drivers and utilities CD containing (Sapphire case sticker, drivers for motherboard devices, Trend Micro Internet Security 2004, and ATI System Manager)
Stompsoft utilities CD containing (PCBackup 2005, Privacy Protector 2005 (seems to be a discontinued product), Recover Lost Data 2005 Trial Version, and Spyware X-Terminator 2005 Trail Version)
3 x driver floppy disks for Sil3132 and SB600 RAID drivers
Sapphire Select DVD containing (Brothers in Arms: Road to hill 30, Prince of Persia: Warrior within, Richard Burns Rally, and Tony Hawks Underground 2). No games codes included so all are trial versions
ATX I/O shield


There's nothing wrong with the manuals and Sapphire generally produces documentation in clear, concise English. We expect to see additional USB2.0 brackets included in the package but none were provided. That leaves you with the 4 integrated on the I/O section if your chassis doesn't feature built-in ports.

There's lots of trial version software and, disappointingly, the Sapphire Select DVD, usually shipped with graphics cards, doesn't provide codes to unlock any of the four games, so they're all trial version that can be updated to retail by purchasing the codes online.

Summary

A flashy box doesn't hide the shortcomings in the bundle. Bundles need to be evaluated with reference to the price point and, at £140 or so, this one isn't up to standard it should be.