EQS A72K9-CF Crossfire Edition Mainboard

http://img.hexus.net/v2/motherboards...s/eqs_logo.png
With ATI Crossfire recently released to muted reception and everyone concentrated on the graphics side of things, it was hard to forget that new mainboards are also needed to get the multi-GPU system up and running. HEXUS have had the pleasure of spending time with two Crossfire Edition mainboards in recent weeks and the first fruit of that shows up today with a look at the EQS A72K9-CF.

EQS aren't a vendor you might readily recognise, but with PC Partner heavily supporting them it's one you'll get to know a lot more. So if you're interested in Crossfire or just want a decent Socket 939 mainboard with PCI Express, is the A72K9-CF for you? Join HEXUS.core as we evaluate it in our full review. Got a comment to make? Do so in this thread!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rys

http://img.hexus.net/v2/motherboards...s/eqs_logo.png
With ATI Crossfire recently released to muted reception and everyone concentrated on the graphics side of things, it was hard to forget that new mainboards are also needed to get the multi-GPU system up and running. HEXUS have had the pleasure of spending time with two Crossfire Edition mainboards in recent weeks and the first fruit of that shows up today with a look at the EQS A72K9-CF.

EQS aren't a vendor you might readily recognise, but with PC Partner heavily supporting them it's one you'll get to know a lot more. So if you're interested in Crossfire or just want a decent Socket 939 mainboard with PCI Express, is the A72K9-CF for you? Join HEXUS.core as we evaluate it in our full review. Got a comment to make? Do so in this thread!

I was hoping someone would review this soon since www.overclock.co.uk has had them for awhile now. ^__^

I did have a few questions that were not covered in your review that I'm hoping you can answer:

1. With both X850's in place were all three PCI slots available or did the lower-most X850 block the first PCI slot?

2. I looked at the images you had up but was only able to locate 2 3-pin fan headers. Are there only two or is there more?

3. For those of us across the pond from you in the U.S. do you feel support would be an issue? I mean, it may be awhile before Sapphire or PC Partner start shipping boards for the U.S. market and I'd really like to get my paws on this board sooner. ^__^

4. I checked EQS's website and they still do not have an online copy of the manual or any drivers available. I found this quite odd since the board has been for sale for about a week or so now. Did they have any ETA as to when this would be updated?

5. How was USB and SATA performance? There have been a lot of concerns over the SB450's lackluster USB performance and lack of SATA2 and NCQ support and was curious if they were able to tweak things any to improve it?

6. Were you able to test an Athlon X2 processor on this board to see if there were any issues?

I know these are a lot of questions but I've been itching to ask someone who actually has one before I place my order. ^__^

Looks pretty naff to me. Crossfire not worth gettin yet: maybe when the x1800xt comes out and the boards reduce in price this may be far more viable :)