still going. Not even a hiccup. I actually lowered the cpu voltage in AOD from 1.3 to 1.29. Was showing the core at 1.34 volts at stock but now running at 1.29. Surprise my 3dmark 06 score went up by almost 500 points and i clocked the ram down to 800. Was running 10323 score with 1.34v and 800 ram. Boosted ram to 1066 score went to 10823 dropped core v to 1.29 and ram to 800 and now getting 10813.Makes no real sense except maybe core v was heating up processor.Processor temp in AOD is 43 idle bit in easytune it's 35.Bios shows 39 to 41 restarting. Been up for 8 days now without a hitch. See how long it goes. My mosfets are almost cold to the touch and a small fan on nb keeps it pretty cool also.
I just want to add that I'm running the 9850 BE on the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H without problems too. Stock voltage, Geil 2x2GB PC8500... So far so good since last saturday...
I'd like to know because I bought mine wanting an upgrade path and now hopefully AMD will switch to 45nm and have something in an AM2 socket that can compete with an E84xx or e85xx before they switch sockets.
I don't exactly want to be stuck at x2's because of cheap mosfets or crap, but I have no interest in crossfire or SLI, so A 790xx chipset is a waste to me.
my board is actually rated to run the 9750 125w processor but not the 9850. I have read that the 45nm processors will be able to run on am2+ mb's. 45nm has both a ddr2 and ddr3 mem controller installed. AM3 socket is for ddr3 ram. Your current am2 processors should fit in an AM3 board but cann't run due to they can only control ddr2 mem. Will have to wait and see if this actually happens but if it does the AM2 boards will be looking good till the AM3 starts to hit the market in mass. I think they did an article here about it. Hopefully someone can explain this to me but on AOD my processor is showing for a mem controller DDR2 DDR3 under preferences tab/device list. Says internal ddr2 ddr3 memory controller.
typing this on giga's GA-MA78GM-S2H board with a 9850 BE stock speed settings with kingston hyperx 1066 running at 2v actually running at 1066. Doing well so far am using an old processor cooling fan to cool mosfets. Sys temp 38c processor temp 36c while typing this.
bobaboo can you give me some hints concerning WHEN the 45nm DENEB will be available ? I know it's said 2H but this means a span of 6 months ! What's your feeling : june, august???
About the 790GX chipset version IN MoBo's : any clue when they will emerge ?
I willing to wait until july ....
It's only supported to take 95 watt processors, I am recieving one from newegg in 2 days. I've heard the sound is iffy, but I'll posy my experience with that in a few days.
i'm only using a small processor fan from an old processor. It is double sided taped to the power supply bottom in a small matx case so mb sits almost against the psu. The fan is small and light so no worries of falling off. You can get creative in this area as there is no real way to mount a fan. I slightly angled the fan to blow at and down on the mosfets towards the vid card i have in there. The mosfets are very cool to the touch with this setup. I also took a small fan from an old vid card and stuck it to the north bridge and it is also remaining very cool. Just get creative with it and try to figure out air flow path as to not mess up the flow of air.Been running 4 days now with no problems at all. The biggest problem in this area is lack of airflow around the cpu area,so just create some.
This is now an official use at ur own risk. Giga has removed the 9850 from their non official support list to not supported. Could be AMD's way of saying get a 790FX chipset for this processor cause Giga wouldn't support the cpu until AMD verified it for this chipset which they aren't doing. It will support the 9750 but not the 9850.AMD's website lists only 790FX boards as supporters of the 9850. 11 boards atm but list all 7 series chipsets for the 9750 and down.
They have not hit the states yet. Seems like only Australia has been lucky to have stock. If you're lucky you may find a store that ships outside AU. Otherwise, wait a few weeks/months.
Great articles Gary. Thanks a ton for the work, that at times you must find exasperating to say the least. Maybe exhausting too :-)
It amazes me how, (a small percentage admittedly)of people will buy and use a cheap motherboard in conjunction with high end processors.
I mean for crying out loud, you don't have to spend 350.00 or 400.00 on a board. There are some very good boards out there for 150.00 to 180.00. Kinda like going to a nice resturaunt, ordering a 40.00 plate, and then drinking Bud light throughout the meal. If you walk out with heartburn, you probably shouldn't blame the food.
I know, I know, it's not quite the same thing. And there's really no excuse for these makers and partners to be providing product like this without being more aware of it's capabilities, but hey, don't go stuffing a 10,000.00 motor into a 1986 Mustang that's ready to fall apart.
Sure, back in the day a cheap chipset would cripple performance anywhere up to 20% or so. However, since the hammers integrated the memory controller into the CPU and switched from FSB to HT, the performance of a mainstream board and an "enthusiast" board have been nearly identical. These days the main things that should be setting boards apart are features and BIOS options.
For people who don't need dual gigabit NICS, Raid 0+1, and enough BIOS options to make even a seasoned DFI board owner cry, there's no reason not to get a mainstream board for a high end chip. I know I'm not the only person who bought a 939 Opteron, plugged it into a $70 [url=http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p...">http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p...]ASrock 939Dual-SATA2[/url], and was happy as a lark.
The only time this is a problem is when manufacturers start cutting down build quality to save costs. Whether it's weak PWM designs, or cheap knock-off capacitors from China, it's simply not acceptable.
Props to Anandtech for trying to get this issue worked out. We need to find the next 939Dual-SATA2! :)
I do understand what you're saying about cheap junk boards though.
I imagine this article is for people who are looking for inexpensive boards, not cheap junk boards. :) You know, the kind of people who buy a $20k Toyota knowing that it will hit 250 thousand miles and keep right on going.
People who buy a Yugo motherboard on the other hand...
Glad to hear gigabyte's response. I have one on backorder and my 9750 is somewhere in transit, it wont be refunded or exchanged without a re-stocking fee (total BS)
But if they back their board with the 9850, 9750 should be no prob.
(and if is, I'll RMA it 1000 times until they give me one that works! :p)
I've got a laptop, so I'll survive..
But lets hope it doesn't come to that.
I know this isn't the section, but it is really hard to read the articles with the advertisements with dancing people right next to the text. It's such a eye sore. please Ban the dancing ADs.
...and the motherboard makers think it's acceptable that it can't even handle AM2+ CPU's that they KNOW are going to be released soon????
Worse, they put the board out not even being able to handle the highend Socket AM2 that HAVE been out???
Then there's the whole I buy a 6000+ and OC it...thereby drawing 125W or something close to it...it runs but my board dies in 1.5 years after the warranty runs out because they underengineered it???
J&W I've never heard of...but for Gigabyte to pull something like this strikes me as pretty unacceptable. Have your board cost $5 more and plaster all over it that it's the sh1t and why...you'll get more sales than you will know since we know it's underengineered...
Chuck
P.S. Now I wonder what the motivation has been for not having a 690G article, which is over 1 year overdue? Just how are the designs on that handling even 95W AM2+'s??? We ARE going to see at least a couple of 690G boards in this roundup, right?
First of All, Thanks for the update Gary, we really appreciate it!
Perhaps this is a good chance to do a MOSFET cooler comparison using these boards specifically, I know that I would buy one if I knew that it would make my board more stable and allow me to OC it further, I ordered a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H and a 6400+ and I'm not even gonna try OC'ing it out of fear of blowing the whole thing, so MOSFET coolers may be the solution...
Thanks,
Avi
P.S. If you could gary, send me a PM and let me know if you're considering this, cause if so I will wait to buy one, but if not, I'll have to pick a random MOSFET cooler and hope it's good...
"I seriously wonder why Anandtech posted such an article. I wonder what will happen to 8200 products."
I think it's not related to the chipset no matter the 780G or the 8200?
Gary, why you posted such an article up? ocworkbench seems doesn't agree with you.
BIOSTAR confirms Phenom 9850 will run on TA780GM2+ AMD 780G board
Posted on 04/11/2008 @ 02:46 PM
This is a follow up on our response to the article about some AMD 780G boards won't run the Phenom 9850 processor.
WE have received word direct from BIOSTAR that their board will no issues running the latest Phenom 9850 processor. They have conducted overnight tests on the mainboard. They found it HOT but the system did not fail at any instance. BIOSTAR did not give details on how the tests were done.
since I am with the 2% that has the intention of installing a Phenom 9850 onto a 780g MoBo and after reading this quote : "For those who demand this extra level of performance, we expect to see several 780G ATX designs in May offering improved PWM designs". My question is : will there be a ATX mobo from Gigabyte which can handle this situation and still be mainstream or is this just a guess from Anandtech?
There are ATX variants out already.
But the Asus board ( http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149&...">http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&...mp;l4=0&... ) does NOT have on-board video outputs - I have no clue why it uses the "G" chipset then... maybe it still can offer the hybrid crossfire boost.
And ECS in fact only have ATX, no uATX board with this chipset - so I guess it is the one tested by AT. It does have integrated video, but is with a 4-phase PWM and no official support of the 9850.
So the current situation is quite bad. We'll have to wait for the future boards.
But I am not even sure I would want an ATX board... Why can't they make a uATX one?
I was thinking of a small HTPC case that can only house a uATX board, I don't want a separate GPU since the 780G is adequate and there isn't much expansion card space in the case anyway, but I still want a quad-core CPU for best performance with media encoding and editing.
I bought the ECS A780GM-A with AMD 4800 CPU, Corsair VX450 and Antec Sonata case and I plan to use this set as a server for my my internal home needs. (So not a any kind of real 365 * 24 h company server with high load)
I went to 780G based system because I want the computer to be accessible all of the time but most of the time it is anyway working almost idle. Therefore a system which can only use about 50 watt while being idle and about 130 watt in maximum was a good solution for me.
I bought AMD 4800 because I would have needed to wait 4850E for a couple of weeks and according to some comparison between AMD 5000 and 4850, the difference between them was about 10 watt in idle usage, so the difference between 4850E and 4800 is should be even less.
I am currently pretty satisfied to this system, I use Linux and installed latest X86_64 bit version of Mandriva 2008.1. The free radeonhd drivers did not yet supported the HD 3200, but the non-free fglrx drivers from ATI works very well.
So far I have only made one simple benchmark by comparing this system and my previous 5 year old Asus A7N8X motherboard based system which has 5 year old AMD 1800 ghz 32 bit CPU.
With the old 32 bit system the kernel 2.6.25 compilation took 98 minutes with with almost all supported drivers selected and with new 64 bit system the compilation took about 38 min. (It would be interesting to know whether it would have been even faster if I would have used 32 bit version of Linux in this new kernel as the produced binaries should then at least in theory be smaller)
The system CPU and case temperatures seems to be about 40 celcius all of the time on this system.
The only problem I have is with the integrated Atheros L1 based the integrated network card. I suspect that it is broken in the motherboard as Linux does not recognize it.
In addition I have noticed that that it does not blink any lights if I connect the RJ45 cable to it. (I have work around this by buying a separate 1 gb a-lite 1 network card that works just fine from pci slot)
Thanks again Gary for the great writeup. Love seeing this stuff posted with updates and all... I almost think I prefer seeing updates every few days to single static reviews at this point.
"ASRock believes strongly that the retail heatsink is the problem. It appears not enough airflow is generated in a radial pattern to properly cool the MOSFETS."
Logically it's very very true and correct!
but in reality this answer might be the worse I've seen so far from these mobo manufacturers!
Is ASRock starting to blame the AMD cooler? It is a well-known fact for which cooler that the AMD CPU is bundled with! this is not the first day of launch!
And if ASRock believes what they claimed is correct, are they going to bundle an excellent cooler that is most suitable to work on their board for free, so as to cool down its mosfets??
If not, does it mean with an original Phenom cooler my 9850 CPU is not going to work stable on their board as what I had experienced in the past 2 days?!
ASRock, please, update your website with a "Qualified Third Party Processor Cooler Support List Cooling Our Mosfets" - the QTPPCSLCOM, together with the CPU support list, if you think the original Phenom cooler bundled by AMD is a piece of crap!
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gunbar - Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - link
Can i use the motherboard and cpu, with Thermaltake Blueorb FX cpu cooling? or do i have to cool more things, i use Antec Ninehundred chassi...insider - Friday, June 6, 2008 - link
update : I dropped this BAD mobo ! pc didn't even start after a few days. Bad quality so I got rid of it ! Bought MSI platinum : wow !!!gunbar - Sunday, June 8, 2008 - link
i have tested this motherboard and Quad 9850 now for awhile, works like a charm... =)bobaboo - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
ASUS has now released a new 780g board full ATX with support for the 9850. You can get it at NewEgg.avi85 - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
...and it has a 5 phase power system...insider - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
would be nice to have a specification which board it is :can't find it back ! BTW does it contain the SB700 ? I believe that's buggy is it not ?bobaboo - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
still going. Not even a hiccup. I actually lowered the cpu voltage in AOD from 1.3 to 1.29. Was showing the core at 1.34 volts at stock but now running at 1.29. Surprise my 3dmark 06 score went up by almost 500 points and i clocked the ram down to 800. Was running 10323 score with 1.34v and 800 ram. Boosted ram to 1066 score went to 10823 dropped core v to 1.29 and ram to 800 and now getting 10813.Makes no real sense except maybe core v was heating up processor.Processor temp in AOD is 43 idle bit in easytune it's 35.Bios shows 39 to 41 restarting. Been up for 8 days now without a hitch. See how long it goes. My mosfets are almost cold to the touch and a small fan on nb keeps it pretty cool also.Daeox - Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - link
I just want to add that I'm running the 9850 BE on the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H without problems too. Stock voltage, Geil 2x2GB PC8500... So far so good since last saturday...insider - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - link
Does somebody know when its successor will appear ?http://www.xfastest.com/viewthread.php?tid=8547&am...">http://www.xfastest.com/viewthread.php?tid=8547&am...
royalcrown - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
Is your board only rated to handle 95w proc. ?I'd like to know because I bought mine wanting an upgrade path and now hopefully AMD will switch to 45nm and have something in an AM2 socket that can compete with an E84xx or e85xx before they switch sockets.
I don't exactly want to be stuck at x2's because of cheap mosfets or crap, but I have no interest in crossfire or SLI, so A 790xx chipset is a waste to me.
bobaboo - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
my board is actually rated to run the 9750 125w processor but not the 9850. I have read that the 45nm processors will be able to run on am2+ mb's. 45nm has both a ddr2 and ddr3 mem controller installed. AM3 socket is for ddr3 ram. Your current am2 processors should fit in an AM3 board but cann't run due to they can only control ddr2 mem. Will have to wait and see if this actually happens but if it does the AM2 boards will be looking good till the AM3 starts to hit the market in mass. I think they did an article here about it. Hopefully someone can explain this to me but on AOD my processor is showing for a mem controller DDR2 DDR3 under preferences tab/device list. Says internal ddr2 ddr3 memory controller.bobaboo - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
typing this on giga's GA-MA78GM-S2H board with a 9850 BE stock speed settings with kingston hyperx 1066 running at 2v actually running at 1066. Doing well so far am using an old processor cooling fan to cool mosfets. Sys temp 38c processor temp 36c while typing this.insider - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
is it still working ???bobaboo - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
still working.insider - Thursday, April 17, 2008 - link
bobaboo can you give me some hints concerning WHEN the 45nm DENEB will be available ? I know it's said 2H but this means a span of 6 months ! What's your feeling : june, august???About the 790GX chipset version IN MoBo's : any clue when they will emerge ?
I willing to wait until july ....
bobaboo - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
45nm chips not expected anytime before september at the earliest from what i hear. As for the 780gx 2009 is expected release.insider - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
thx mate !!!! I wonder whether a ATX MoBO will come available soon with a 780G chipset. I also wonder why all these µATX mobo's are manufactured ?????royalcrown - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
There are, ECS makes one: A780GM-A (V1.0)http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Products/Products...">http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Produc...ame=Feat...
It's only supported to take 95 watt processors, I am recieving one from newegg in 2 days. I've heard the sound is iffy, but I'll posy my experience with that in a few days.
avi85 - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
could you post a picture (or pictures) of the cooling fan on the mosfets and how you mounted it?bobaboo - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
i'm only using a small processor fan from an old processor. It is double sided taped to the power supply bottom in a small matx case so mb sits almost against the psu. The fan is small and light so no worries of falling off. You can get creative in this area as there is no real way to mount a fan. I slightly angled the fan to blow at and down on the mosfets towards the vid card i have in there. The mosfets are very cool to the touch with this setup. I also took a small fan from an old vid card and stuck it to the north bridge and it is also remaining very cool. Just get creative with it and try to figure out air flow path as to not mess up the flow of air.Been running 4 days now with no problems at all. The biggest problem in this area is lack of airflow around the cpu area,so just create some.avi85 - Thursday, April 17, 2008 - link
Do you think that if I get an Arctic Cooling freezer 64 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... it would be enough? cause they have the bottom few fins bent down towards the mosfets...bobaboo - Thursday, April 17, 2008 - link
This is now an official use at ur own risk. Giga has removed the 9850 from their non official support list to not supported. Could be AMD's way of saying get a 790FX chipset for this processor cause Giga wouldn't support the cpu until AMD verified it for this chipset which they aren't doing. It will support the 9750 but not the 9850.AMD's website lists only 790FX boards as supporters of the 9850. 11 boards atm but list all 7 series chipsets for the 9750 and down.lesbaer45 - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
I can't seem to find the J&W board for sale in the U.S. Anybody know of a retailer?The J&W website listed some "Evertek" as the distributor but they had z-e-r-o information on that supplier website.
xTrinity - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
They have not hit the states yet. Seems like only Australia has been lucky to have stock. If you're lucky you may find a store that ships outside AU. Otherwise, wait a few weeks/months.random2 - Saturday, April 12, 2008 - link
Great articles Gary. Thanks a ton for the work, that at times you must find exasperating to say the least. Maybe exhausting too :-)It amazes me how, (a small percentage admittedly)of people will buy and use a cheap motherboard in conjunction with high end processors.
I mean for crying out loud, you don't have to spend 350.00 or 400.00 on a board. There are some very good boards out there for 150.00 to 180.00. Kinda like going to a nice resturaunt, ordering a 40.00 plate, and then drinking Bud light throughout the meal. If you walk out with heartburn, you probably shouldn't blame the food.
I know, I know, it's not quite the same thing. And there's really no excuse for these makers and partners to be providing product like this without being more aware of it's capabilities, but hey, don't go stuffing a 10,000.00 motor into a 1986 Mustang that's ready to fall apart.
Mr Perfect - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
It really isn't that outrageous of an idea.Sure, back in the day a cheap chipset would cripple performance anywhere up to 20% or so. However, since the hammers integrated the memory controller into the CPU and switched from FSB to HT, the performance of a mainstream board and an "enthusiast" board have been nearly identical. These days the main things that should be setting boards apart are features and BIOS options.
For people who don't need dual gigabit NICS, Raid 0+1, and enough BIOS options to make even a seasoned DFI board owner cry, there's no reason not to get a mainstream board for a high end chip. I know I'm not the only person who bought a 939 Opteron, plugged it into a $70 [url=http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p...">http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2524&p...]ASrock 939Dual-SATA2[/url], and was happy as a lark.
The only time this is a problem is when manufacturers start cutting down build quality to save costs. Whether it's weak PWM designs, or cheap knock-off capacitors from China, it's simply not acceptable.
Props to Anandtech for trying to get this issue worked out. We need to find the next 939Dual-SATA2! :)
Mr Perfect - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
I do understand what you're saying about cheap junk boards though.I imagine this article is for people who are looking for inexpensive boards, not cheap junk boards. :) You know, the kind of people who buy a $20k Toyota knowing that it will hit 250 thousand miles and keep right on going.
People who buy a Yugo motherboard on the other hand...
avi85 - Saturday, April 12, 2008 - link
There should be no problems when putting a $150 processor(6000+) in a $90 dollar mobo...recneps77 - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Glad to hear gigabyte's response. I have one on backorder and my 9750 is somewhere in transit, it wont be refunded or exchanged without a re-stocking fee (total BS)But if they back their board with the 9850, 9750 should be no prob.
(and if is, I'll RMA it 1000 times until they give me one that works! :p)
I've got a laptop, so I'll survive..
But lets hope it doesn't come to that.
sivanor - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
According to Siliconmadness there are issues regarding the 780 chipset do not support the advertised HT 3.0 Hyper Transport Link[url]http://www.siliconmadness.com/2008/03/amd-780g-chi...[/url]
It's something with A11, A12, A13 revision of that chipset. IMO, this issue is maybe even more serious, than the 125W mention in article.
Wish Anandtech/Gary also would look into this issue (testing), and maybe be able to get an statement from AMD/ATI.
FireTech - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Gary already has addressed the issue back in March....:http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=42...">http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=42...
donkeycrock - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
I know this isn't the section, but it is really hard to read the articles with the advertisements with dancing people right next to the text. It's such a eye sore. please Ban the dancing ADs.chucky2 - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
...and the motherboard makers think it's acceptable that it can't even handle AM2+ CPU's that they KNOW are going to be released soon????Worse, they put the board out not even being able to handle the highend Socket AM2 that HAVE been out???
Then there's the whole I buy a 6000+ and OC it...thereby drawing 125W or something close to it...it runs but my board dies in 1.5 years after the warranty runs out because they underengineered it???
J&W I've never heard of...but for Gigabyte to pull something like this strikes me as pretty unacceptable. Have your board cost $5 more and plaster all over it that it's the sh1t and why...you'll get more sales than you will know since we know it's underengineered...
Chuck
P.S. Now I wonder what the motivation has been for not having a 690G article, which is over 1 year overdue? Just how are the designs on that handling even 95W AM2+'s??? We ARE going to see at least a couple of 690G boards in this roundup, right?
avi85 - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
First of All, Thanks for the update Gary, we really appreciate it!Perhaps this is a good chance to do a MOSFET cooler comparison using these boards specifically, I know that I would buy one if I knew that it would make my board more stable and allow me to OC it further, I ordered a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H and a 6400+ and I'm not even gonna try OC'ing it out of fear of blowing the whole thing, so MOSFET coolers may be the solution...
Thanks,
Avi
P.S. If you could gary, send me a PM and let me know if you're considering this, cause if so I will wait to buy one, but if not, I'll have to pick a random MOSFET cooler and hope it's good...
R3MF - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
MSI have four mATX boards listed as 125W capable, two AMD and two nVidia.one of the nVidia 8200 boards (K9N2GM-FIH) is also listed as being "Solid Caps", and this is what i will wait for.
The motherboard is THE most important part for a stable system, i do NOT buy cheap-ass motherboards. ever.
duron266 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
"I seriously wonder why Anandtech posted such an article. I wonder what will happen to 8200 products."I think it's not related to the chipset no matter the 780G or the 8200?
Gary, why you posted such an article up? ocworkbench seems doesn't agree with you.
FireTech - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
Thanks for the update Gary.duron266 - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
BIOSTAR confirms Phenom 9850 will run on TA780GM2+ AMD 780G boardPosted on 04/11/2008 @ 02:46 PM
This is a follow up on our response to the article about some AMD 780G boards won't run the Phenom 9850 processor.
WE have received word direct from BIOSTAR that their board will no issues running the latest Phenom 9850 processor. They have conducted overnight tests on the mainboard. They found it HOT but the system did not fail at any instance. BIOSTAR did not give details on how the tests were done.
insider - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
since I am with the 2% that has the intention of installing a Phenom 9850 onto a 780g MoBo and after reading this quote : "For those who demand this extra level of performance, we expect to see several 780G ATX designs in May offering improved PWM designs". My question is : will there be a ATX mobo from Gigabyte which can handle this situation and still be mainstream or is this just a guess from Anandtech?Visual - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
There are ATX variants out already.But the Asus board ( http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=149&...">http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&...mp;l4=0&... ) does NOT have on-board video outputs - I have no clue why it uses the "G" chipset then... maybe it still can offer the hybrid crossfire boost.
And ECS in fact only have ATX, no uATX board with this chipset - so I guess it is the one tested by AT. It does have integrated video, but is with a 4-phase PWM and no official support of the 9850.
So the current situation is quite bad. We'll have to wait for the future boards.
But I am not even sure I would want an ATX board... Why can't they make a uATX one?
I was thinking of a small HTPC case that can only house a uATX board, I don't want a separate GPU since the 780G is adequate and there isn't much expansion card space in the case anyway, but I still want a quad-core CPU for best performance with media encoding and editing.
lamikr - Saturday, April 12, 2008 - link
I bought the ECS A780GM-A with AMD 4800 CPU, Corsair VX450 and Antec Sonata case and I plan to use this set as a server for my my internal home needs. (So not a any kind of real 365 * 24 h company server with high load)I went to 780G based system because I want the computer to be accessible all of the time but most of the time it is anyway working almost idle. Therefore a system which can only use about 50 watt while being idle and about 130 watt in maximum was a good solution for me.
I bought AMD 4800 because I would have needed to wait 4850E for a couple of weeks and according to some comparison between AMD 5000 and 4850, the difference between them was about 10 watt in idle usage, so the difference between 4850E and 4800 is should be even less.
I am currently pretty satisfied to this system, I use Linux and installed latest X86_64 bit version of Mandriva 2008.1. The free radeonhd drivers did not yet supported the HD 3200, but the non-free fglrx drivers from ATI works very well.
So far I have only made one simple benchmark by comparing this system and my previous 5 year old Asus A7N8X motherboard based system which has 5 year old AMD 1800 ghz 32 bit CPU.
With the old 32 bit system the kernel 2.6.25 compilation took 98 minutes with with almost all supported drivers selected and with new 64 bit system the compilation took about 38 min. (It would be interesting to know whether it would have been even faster if I would have used 32 bit version of Linux in this new kernel as the produced binaries should then at least in theory be smaller)
The system CPU and case temperatures seems to be about 40 celcius all of the time on this system.
The only problem I have is with the integrated Atheros L1 based the integrated network card. I suspect that it is broken in the motherboard as Linux does not recognize it.
In addition I have noticed that that it does not blink any lights if I connect the RJ45 cable to it. (I have work around this by buying a separate 1 gb a-lite 1 network card that works just fine from pci slot)
deruberhanyok - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
Thanks again Gary for the great writeup. Love seeing this stuff posted with updates and all... I almost think I prefer seeing updates every few days to single static reviews at this point.Natfly - Friday, April 11, 2008 - link
I agree, thanks for the update! Looking forward to the 780g reviews.duron266 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
"ASRock believes strongly that the retail heatsink is the problem. It appears not enough airflow is generated in a radial pattern to properly cool the MOSFETS."Logically it's very very true and correct!
but in reality this answer might be the worse I've seen so far from these mobo manufacturers!
Is ASRock starting to blame the AMD cooler? It is a well-known fact for which cooler that the AMD CPU is bundled with! this is not the first day of launch!
And if ASRock believes what they claimed is correct, are they going to bundle an excellent cooler that is most suitable to work on their board for free, so as to cool down its mosfets??
If not, does it mean with an original Phenom cooler my 9850 CPU is not going to work stable on their board as what I had experienced in the past 2 days?!
duron266 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
ASRock, please, update your website with a "Qualified Third Party Processor Cooler Support List Cooling Our Mosfets" - the QTPPCSLCOM, together with the CPU support list, if you think the original Phenom cooler bundled by AMD is a piece of crap!