AMD 780G Chipset Motherboard Preview

ASUS, ECS, Foxconn

During a recent trip to visit ATI we got a chance to see numerous AMD 780G motherboards and while we are finishing up our 780G review this should hold you over. AMD expects 780G based motherboards to be priced between $80-$120 with some manufacturers boards available this week and others later in the month. AMD has told us that ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ECS, Sapphire, Foxconn, Biostar, DFI, ASRock, PCPartner, J&W and Jetway are all releasing motherboards using the AMD 780G/SB700 chipsets in their designs.

Designed for socket AM2+ processors, the AMD 780G Chipset makes use of the ATI Radeon HD 3200 series graphics core to deliver the premium Windows Vista experience, without compromise. ATI Avivo HD technology coupled with UVD produces smooth HD video playback for all major formats, and true-to-life images for all multimedia, including high-definition content. The AMD 780G Chipset – the first chipset with integrated digital DisplayPort output – provides more display choices (i.e. VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort) than any other chipset today. The AMD 780G chipset also employs AMDs latest Southbridge technology, the AMD SB700 series, to give PC users the most connectivity options available today. The AMD SB700 chipset supports up to 12 USB 2.0 connections, 6 AHCI based SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports with eSATA capability, HD audio, system power management, and established connectivity options, such as parallel ATA. With the 780G and SB700 chipsets motherboard manufacturers can come up with some interesting designs and today we will be showing you what ASUS, ECS, Foxconn, Gigabyte, MSI, J&W and Jetway have developed.

The ASUS M3A-H/HDMI motherboard is the first up and features VGA and HDMI viedo outputs. The layout on the board looks nice and the heat sinks look pretty good sized compared to some of the others that we got a chance to look at. The 780G (north bridge) chipset looks like active cooling could easily be added later for those that are looking to overclock on this Micro ATX platform. With six SATA headers and a single IDE header the ASUS M3A-H offers upport of numerous drives.

The ECS R780M-A motherboard is what ECS Elitegroup came up with for the 780G and features a black PCB and a layout that many of these boards share. Both VGA and HDMI video outputs are found on the R780M-A, but only five SATA headers are on the board. ECS reserved one of the six SATA lanes for an eSATA header that is located on the I/O panel.

The Foxconn A7GM-S motherboard has a blue PCB with yellow, green, blue and white components. The A7GM-S has VGA, DVI and HDMI video outputs to make sure no matter what connection you are looking for the board will have it. The Foxconn A7GM-S also supports GBLan (RTL8111B) and HDAudio (ALC888). All six SATA headers are used internally, so no eSATA on this one.