Sapphire PI-AM2RS690MHD - packaging and bundle
Don't mess with Sapphire's kung-fu robot!
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Unlike many manufacturers these days, Sapphire is considerate enough to include a floppy disk with the Windows XP installation drivers for the SB600's SATA RAID controller. A small touch but one that can save a lot of messing around.
[advert]Five expansion card brackets are supplied for S/PDIF in and out, TV-out functionality, USB and FireWire. So you can mix and match the connectors you need. However, you end up with more than could be fitted into a mATX chassis. And these are full height-brackets - we'd have preferred to have seen half-height versions included as well.
DVI output is provided using a half-height PEG card but, as with the ASUS, this uses a full-height bracket.
Warranty
At the time of writing, the warranty page on Sapphire's web site was unavailable due to maintenance. This seems a little odd given that the rest of the site was working fine, but web sites are complex things.
Assuming Sapphire has not changed things since we looked at previous products, then the PI-AM2RS690MHD comes with a two-year warranty.
Claims in the first year are handled by the reseller. Thereafter, they're handled by a UK-based service centre.
Summary
Sapphire's bundle for the PI-AM2RS690MHD goes over the top with brackets. Five of them - plus a PCIe 16x DVIO card - is a little ridiculous for a mATX board, considering that a mATX chassis only has four expansion slots.
As for the warranty, it can't match ASUS's but seems reasonable enough. We'd like to include more information on turnaround times and other service issues but we'll endeavour to update this review once Sapphire's warranty page is working correctly.
