HEXUS.reviews :: EQS AMD 690G motherboard - the first chipset from the all-new AMD

[Tarinder]

AMD's launched a new AM2 chipset that carries native HDMI and an IGP with Avivo technology. EQS's AMD 690G board is a retail example at under 50 quid.

Find out more.

[jimbouk]

Wow, that's some good tech for a low cost media center. AMD may not have the performance crown at the minute but if they keep producing things like this then their market share can only go up.

[cjs150]

The first real question that needs to be looked at is how well this will handle 720p and 1080i HD - have the IGP plus a low cost dual core AMD CPU got enough grunt to handle time shifting, streaming over a network and the simple aspect of playing HD-DVD and (with an appropriate tuner) HD broadcasts. If they have then this looks like a winning combination for a simple media centre.

Assuming the answer to the first question is positive then cooling (and its related issue noise) then need to be examined. The basic chipset appears to run cool, so the main sources of heat and noise are going to be the PSU, hard disks and optical drive

[Tarinder]

cjs150,

Indeed, I couldn't agree more, and we're testing those very facets right now.