ASRock M3A785GXH/128M - new cheap Crossfire capable motherboard with 785G IGP

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I just saw this review of the ASRock M3A785GXH/128M:

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/mainbo...m-785g-p1.html

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1068/1/

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/291...ted/index.html

Basically this is a 785G based motherboard with 128MB of DDR3 RAM for the IGP. However via a switch card it can do Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X!

Also this motherboard is at least £10 cheaper then its nearest competitor the Asus M4A79XTD EVO:

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/pr...ource=googleps





The motherboard seems to be decent quality as even the solid capacitors are made in Japn.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

One of these with an X2 555BE and a pair of HD5770 1GB cards would be a very cheap and capable gaming computer!

[scaryjim]

I... However via a switch card it can do Crossfire at PCI-E 2.0 8X! ...

OMFG! Switch Cards!

Is this really much cheaper than a 790X board though? The IGP is pretty irrelevant since ATI don't have a desktop switching technology to turn the discreet card off and let the IGP handle 2D work...

And if you're going to use switch cards to enable 2x 8x why not do it on a 770 board? It'd make a lot more sense then this... thing!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

OMFG! Switch Cards!

Is this really much cheaper than a 790X board though?

Yes!! The cheapest AM3 790X motherboard I know off is the Asus M4A79XTD EVO which costs aorund £85!

The Asrock motherboard is around £68 to £75!

The IGP is pretty irrelevant since ATI don't have a desktop switching technology to turn the discreet card off and let the IGP handle 2D work...

And if you're going to use switch cards to enable 2x 8x why not do it on a 770 board? It'd make a lot more sense then this... thing!

What if you are selling your cards then?? You still can use the computer in between upgrades or if there is some issue with the graphics cards too.

The motherboard also uses decent components and has an impressive array of connections for the price.

If I had more cash on me ATM and wanted to actually have another ATX build I would actually get this motherboard.

With a Phenom II X2 or an Athlon II X3 it would form the basis of a nice little gaming setup IMHO.

[scaryjim]

What if you are selling your cards then?? You still can use the computer in between upgrades or if there is some issue with the graphics cards too.

If you can afford two cards worth using in a Crossfire setup (and I assume anyone who would be interested in this board can), you can probably afford to have a cheap spare PCIe card lying around in case something goes wrong with your main setup - there's a few new cards available at around £20 (I got an 8400GS from microdirect for ~ £23 recently...) and you can probably pick something up even cheaper on ebay...

EDIT: Ignore that last edit, I was talking out of my rear end (it's an AM3 board, not an AM2+... *doh*)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you can afford two cards worth using in a Crossfire setup (and I assume anyone who would be interested in this board can), you can probably afford to have a cheap spare PCIe card lying around in case something goes wrong with your main setup - there's a few new cards available at around £20 (I got an 8400GS from microdirect for ~ £23 recently...) and you can probably pick something up even cheaper on ebay...

???

So basically you want to spend £40 more for no real difference??

Basically £20 on another graphics card and £20 on the next cheapest motherboard with exactly the same Crossfire functionality.

£40 is the difference between an X2 555BE at current prices and an X4 955BE or the more than the difference between an X2 240 and a X2 550BE.

£40 is also the difference between and HD5750 1GB Crossfire setup and a HD5770 1GB Crossfire setup.

[scaryjim]

No, I was suggesting that someone who can afford 2 5770's probably *already* has a spare graphics card lying around somewhere. I *can't* afford 2 5770s and I *do* have a spare graphics card lying around

You can get a 790GX motherboard for £78 which has native support for CrossfireX (as well as a natively higher-clocked IGP, if that's your thing) and is designed as an enthusiast chipset. That looks like a much better investment than a midrange IGP board that's been hacked to get CrossfireX. I'd much rather pay a little extra to get the native support if CrossfireX was the feature I was shopping for in a motherboard. Besides, if I'm considering an outlay of £200+ on the graphics cards to go into the board, does scrimping £10 - £20 on the motherboard make sense?

On the other hand, 770based mobos are significantly cheaper than 785G ones to start with (ASRock's base 770 is ~£10 cheaper than their base 785G), so it makes much more sense as a board to hack into a crossfire board - assuming similar additional costs it'd be less than £60 to fit a switch card to a 770 board, and that *would* make sense to me. Doing it to the midrange IGP chipset when there's already an enthusiast IGP chipset with native CrossfireX support just seems - well, odd.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can get a 790GX motherboard for £78 which has native support for CrossfireX (as well as a natively higher-clocked IGP, if that's your thing) and is designed as an enthusiast chipset.

I didn't know about that motherboard before!! You should have told me about this in the first reply you made as this looks a nicer motherboard primarily since it has a nice VRM cooler and a slightly better VRM design!!

On the other hand, 770based mobos are significantly cheaper than 785G ones to start with (ASRock's base 770 is ~£10 cheaper than their base 785G), so it makes much more sense as a board to hack into a crossfire board - assuming similar additional costs it'd be less than £60 to fit a switch card to a 770 board, and that *would* make sense to me. Doing it to the midrange IGP chipset when there's already an enthusiast IGP chipset with native CrossfireX support just seems - well, odd.

Except the only Crossfire capable 770 motherboards like the £60 MSI 770-G45 do asymmetrical Crossfire like all the sub £100 P55 motherboards. Seems pointless to me!!

Also regarding the point of a cheap Crossfire motherboard not everyone will get a pair of graphics when they do a build. The advantage of a cheap Crossfire motherboard is that it opens up the potential for a cheap performance boost down the line and this can be incorporated into a budget build for only a few quid more.

For example if someone had bought an HD4830 at launch for around £90 they could have bought another one when the card was made EOL for well under £60 give their setup a good performance boost in games.

[scaryjim]

I didn't know about that motherboard before!! You should have told me about this in the first reply you made as this looks a nicer motherboard primarily since it has a nice VRM cooler and a slightly better VRM design!!

I didn't know about it in my first post either I went looking, as if I hadn't been able to find a board for < £80 I would've been more inclined to agree with you

... the only Crossfire capable 770 motherboards like the £60 MSI 770-G45 do asymmetrical Crossfire like all the sub £100 P55 motherboards. Seems pointless to me!!

I know - that's why I think they'd be perfect candidates for ASRock to stick a Switch Card in! They have the same northbridge arrangement of PCIe lanes as the 785G (AFAIK, anyway) - if ASRock could use a switch card with those boards they could turn them into 2x 8x Crossfire boards too, for < £60. Then I'd be tempted