ECS A890GXM-A Motherboard

Conclusions

This is a “First Look” article, but you can check the performance of AMD 890GX chipset on our ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 review. Traditionally motherboards based on the same chipset achieve the same performance.

From this review we learned that AMD 890GX is way better than AMD 785G, providing a performance gain between 33% and 37% in games. However, on-board video is still a bad way to play games: a very low-end Radeon HD 3450 with 64-bit memory interface and 256 MB was between 44% and 64% faster than AMD 890GX. Therefore if you are looking for a system to play games, even occasionally, you are still better off buying an add-on video card, even the cheapest one (this Radeon HD 3450 costs USD 35).

But that doesn’t mean that AMD 890GX should be ignored. Motherboard manufacturers will be providing motherboards based on this chipset with very good features, and you may want to pick a motherboard based on this chipset even if you want to install an add-on video card.

Since it natively supports SATA-600 ports, motherboards based on this chipset will probably be cheaper than motherboards that require an extra chip to do the same thing, helping to bring SATA-600 to the mainstream arena. And even if you don’t plan to use a SATA-600 hard drive or SSD, you will have a system ready for this new technology for a future upgrade, which is always desirable.

Now talking specifically about ECS A890GXM-A, its main feature besides the SATA-600 ports is the presence of three PCI Express x16 slots (the third one always working at x4 speed), which is an interesting way to compete on the high-end arena. This motherboard doesn’t have USB 3.0 ports, but ECS will be releasing an identical model that has this feature (A890GXM-AU).

Another good feature is the presence of four different types of video connectors (although only two can be used at the same time), allowing you to connect this motherboard to any kind of video monitor.

It is also nice to see ECS improving the overall quality of their products. A890GXM-A features a 6+1-phase voltage regulator (with activity LED’s), only solid capacitors, ferrite chokes, a passive heatsink featuring a heatpipe and some overclocking options.

This motherboard should please all sorts of users, like the user building an HTPC and the user that wants a system with the latest technologies and doesn’t mind having a low-end gaming performance or wants to try the on-board graphics from AMD 890GX before deciding if he or she will need an add-on video card, and also the user that wants to install three video cards to improve gaming performance or to have tons of video monitors connected to his or her PC.

The success of this motherboard will depend on its price when it arrives on the market.