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Review: AMD 690G motherboard showdown - ASUS v Sapphire

by James Thorburn on 1 August 2007, 16:25

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), AMD (NYSE:AMD), Sapphire

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaje3

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ASUS M2A-VM HDMI - specifications


CPU All AMD AM2 CPUs
Northbridge AMD 690G
Southbridge ATI SB600
Memory 4 DIMMs, dual-channel, DDR2-800/667/533, ECC and non-ECC, un-buffered memory (8GiB max)
VGA

Integrated ATI Radeon X1250-based graphics
Maximum shared memory of 1024MiB
Supports HDMI technology with HDCP compliance - max resolution 1920 x 1080p

Dual VGA output support:
D-SUB & DVI/HDMI
DVI & HDMI
TV-out (component - YPbPr - AV, S-Video) & DVI/HDMI

PCI Express 1 x PCI Express x16
1 x PCI Express x1
PCI conventional 2 x PCI
ATA 1 x Ultra DMA 133/100
SATA 4 x SATA 3Gb/s supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID10
LAN PCIe Gigabit LAN
Audio ALC883 High Definition Audio 6-channel CODEC
Floppy 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
FireWire Supports 2 x 1394a ports
USB Supports 10x USB 2.0 ports
ASUS special features ASUS MyLogo2
ASUS CrashFreeBIOS3
ASUS EZ Flash2
ASUS Q-Fan
ASUS O.C Profile
ASUS Music Alarm
Back panel I/O ports 1 x Parallel
1 x PS/2 mouse
1 x PS/2 keyboard
1 x IEEE 1394a
1 x DVI
1 x VGA
1 x RJ45
4 x USB 2.0/1.1
6-channel audio I/O
Internal I/O connectors 3 x USB 2.0; supports additional six USB 2.0 ports
Front-panel connector for High Definition Audio
1x COM port
CD audio-in
1 x S/PDIF output
Fan-power headers for CPU and chassis
Chassis-intrusion
IEEE 1394
24-pin EATX power
4-pin ATX 12V power
BIOS 8Mib Flash ROM, Award BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SMBIOS 2.3
Form factor mATX form factor, 9.6in x 9.0in (24.5cm x 22.9cm)
Current street price Ā£40 (inc VAT)

ASUS has packed a comprehensive amount of functionality onto this microATX motherboard.

However, some premium features, notably the ASUS AI lifestyle, aren't included and that's a shame considering the AMD 690G's suitability for home theatre PC (HTPC) systems.