ECS A890GXM-A2 Motherboard

[nextpage title=”Introduction”]

The new ECS A890GXM-A2 is an updated version of the ECS A890GXM-A, which we already covered. Both are socket AM3 models based on the AMD 890GX chipset. Even though this chipset comes with integrated video, both motherboards come with three PCI Express x16 slots. The main differences between the two are the addition of two USB 3.0 ports and a better color scheme on the new model. Let’s check it out.

Before talking specifically about this motherboard from ECS, let’s briefly talk about the AMD 890GX chipset.

In the table below we provide a comparison between AMD 890GX and previous chipsets with integrated graphics from AMD: AMD 785G, AMD 790GX, and AMD 780G.

As you can see, the main specs of the graphics engine from the AMD 890GX are pretty similar to AMD 790GX’s, except that the AMD 890GX uses a DirectX 10.1 engine while AMD 790GX’s is DirectX 10.

The main difference on AMD 890GX is the use of a new south bridge chip, called SB850. This south bridge chip natively supports SATA-600 ports (a.k.a. “SATA 6 G”) and in fact this is the first chipset to arrived on the market with this feature (currently on motherboards based on other chipsets featuring SATA-600 ports an external controller chip must be used). Like the SB750 used with AMD 790GX, they support RAID level 5, a configuration not supported on the SB710 and SB700.

Notice how the SB850 supports only USB 2.0 ports. Motherboards based on this chipset that have USB 3.0 ports, like the A890GXM-A2 we will be exploring in this article, use an external controller chip.

Chipset	AMD 890GX	AMD 785G	AMD 780G	AMD 790GX
GPU Clock	700 MHz	500 MHz	500 MHz	700 MHz
Graphics Processors	40	40	40	40
ROPs	4	4	4	4
Engine	HD 4290	HD 4200	HD 3200	HD 3300
DirectX	10.1	10.1	10	10
PCI Express	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
South Bridge Chip	SB850	SB710	SB700	SB750
USB 2.0 Ports	14	12	12	12
SATA-300 Ports	None	6	6	6
SATA-600 Ports	6	None	None	None
RAID	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 10	0, 1, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
ATA-133 Ports	1 (2 devices)	1 (2 devices)	1 (2 devices)	1 (2 devices)

ROPs stand for “Raster Operation Units” and are also known as “Rendering Back-End Units.” They are the final stage on rendering a 3D image.

Other chipsets with on-board video from AMD include the AMD 690V, AMD 690G, AMD 740G, and AMD 780V. The AMD 690V, AMD 690G, and AMD 740G are based on a DirectX 9 graphics engine, while the AMD 780V is based on a DirectX 10 one. The AMD 780V is based on the Radeon HD 3100 engine, which runs at 400 MHz – clock is the main difference between the HD 3100, HD 3200 and HD 3300 engines.

Like the SB750, the SB850 south bridge chip supports an overclocking feature called “Advanced Clock Calibration” or simply ACC. How exactly this new feature works is completely obscure, as AMD does not explain how it works in details. All we know is that SB850 provides a feedback loop to some AMD CPUs, using some unused CPU pins, allowing you to unlock hidden features of the CPU – most commonly unlocking an extra CPU core, if you were lucky to get a CPU that has hidden disabled cores inside. You can read more about this feature here and here.

As you may know by now, on systems with integrated video the video memory is achieved by stealing part of the main RAM. Chipsets from AMD have a feature called SidePort, which is an optional memory chip soldered on the motherboard in order to increase video memory. This motherboard from ECS brings this feature, having 128 MB of GDDR3-1600 memory on-board to speed up video.

In Figure 1, you can see the basic block diagram of the AMD 890GX chipset.

Figure 1: AMD 890GX chipset

[nextpage title=”The Motherboard”]

So far ECS released four models based on the AMD 890GX chipset, and in the table below we summarized the main differences between them. The A890GXM-AU and A890GXM-A are offered in two versions, 1.0 or 2.0, with the 2.0 coming with a core unlocking feature, feature not present on the 1.0 version or on the IC890GXM-A. The A890GXM-A2 supports this feature. All models use only solid capacitors, except the IC890GXM-A, which uses solid capacitors only in its voltage regulator circuit, using regular electrolytic capacitors on the rest of the board.

	IC890GXM-A	A890GXM-A	A890GXM-A2	A890GXM-AU
Form Factor	ATX	ATX	ATX	ATX
Memory	4 sockets	4 sockets	4 sockets	4 sockets
PCI Express x16 slots	Two	Three	Three	Three
PCI Express x1 slots	Two	Two	One	Two
PCI slots	Two	One	One	One
SATA-600	5 ports, 1 eSATA	5 ports, 1 eSATA	5 ports, 1 eSATA	5 ports, 1 eSATA
USB 3.0	No	No	Yes, two ports	Yes, two ports
Audio Codec	ALC892	ALC892	ALC892	ALC892
Networking	1 Gigabit Ethernet port	2 Gigabit Ethernet ports	2 Gigabit Ethernet ports	2 Gigabit Ethernet ports
Video Outputs	VGA, DVI-D	VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort	VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort	VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Voltage Regulator	3+1	6+1	6+1	6+1

In Figure 2, you have an overall look of the ECS A890GXM-A2. It seems that ECS is reading our reviews, because one thing that we always criticized ECS for was their tendency to use three hundred different colors on their motherboards, making their products to look like a Christmas tree, and with the A90GXM-A2 they decided to pick only three colors, gray, white, and black, giving the product a more professional looks.

Figure 2: ECS A890GXM-A2 motherboard

As mentioned, th
is motherboard has 128 MB video memory soldered on the motherboard. In Figure 3, you can see the 1 Gbit GDDR3-1600 chip (1 Gbit = 128 MB) in charge of this feature.

Figure 3: 128 MB GDDR3-1600 memory chip

[nextpage title=”Slots”]

The AMD 890GX chipset has one PCI Express 2.0 x16 lane that can be split-up into two x8 lanes if necessary. Translation: motherboards based on this chipset can have one or two x16 PCI Express slots, but they will work at x8 if two video cards are installed. The north bridge chip supports a total of six PCI Express x1 lanes, while the south bridge chip supports two more.

The ECS A890GXM-A2 comes with three PCI Express x16 slots, just like its older sister, the A890GXM-A. The first two (gray ones) work at x8 if both are used at the same time, while the third slot (black one) always work at x4 (using four x1 lanes from the north bridge chip). All slots support CrossFireX mode, as expected, including Hybrid CrossFire, which is the ability to use the motherboard integrated graphics together with a compatible video card in CrossFireX mode.

If you install a dual-slot video card in the second PCI Express x16 slot you will block the third PCI Express x16 slot.

The motherboard comes also with one PCI Express x1 slot and one standard PCI slot. The A90GXM-A has two PCI Express x1 slots.

This motherboard requires a standard peripheral power connector to be installed in order to provide extra current to the PCI Express slots.

Figure 4: Slots

[nextpage title=”Memory Support”]

AMD CPUs have an embedded memory controller, meaning that it is the processor – and not the chipset – that defines what memory technologies and the maximum amount of memory you can have. The motherboard, however, may have a limitation as to how much memory can be installed.

At the moment the integrated memory controller from socket AM3 processors supports only DDR3 memories up to 1,333 MHz under dual-channel architecture, however ECS says the A890GXM-A2 supports DDR3 memories up to 1,800 MHz through overclocking. The A890GXM-A2 has four DDR3 sockets and since at the moment each DDR3 memory module can have up to 4 GB each, you can have up to 16 GB with this motherboard.

The first and second sockets are white, while the third and fourth are gray. In order to achieve the maximum performance you should install two or four memory modules in order to enable dual-channel architecture. When only two modules are used, install them on sockets with the same color in order to enable this feature.

Figure 5: Memory sockets; install two or four modules for the best performance

[nextpage title=”On-Board Peripherals”]

The AMD 890GX chipset is a dual-chip solution. As we mentioned earlier, the AMD 890GX is the first chipset to natively support SATA-600 ports, and the A890GXM-A2 provides five of the six SATA-600 ports supported by the chipset – the sixth port was converted into an eSATA-600 port located at the rear panel. These ports support RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.

The motherboard comes with a SATA-to-eSATA adapter, so you can have two eSATA-600 ports if you need.

Four of those five SATA-600 ports are rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them.

Figure 6: SATA-600 ports

No parallel ATA (PATA a.k.a. IDE) or floppy disk drive port are present.

This motherboard has 12 USB 2.0 ports, four soldered on the rear panel and eight through four headers located on the motherboard. This product also has two USB 3.0 ports at its rear panel, controlled by an EtronTech EJ168A chip. This motherboard doesn’t offer FireWire (IEEE1394) ports.

Eight-channel audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC892 codec. Unfortunately this component isn’t listed at Realtek’s website, so we can’t discuss audio quality. The A890GXM-A2 comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output and you can add a coaxial SPDIF output (or route digital audio to a video card, in order to have audio in its HDMI connector) installing an adapter on the motherboard “SPDIFIO” header.

The analog audio connectors are independent if you have a 5.1 analog speaker system, but if you have a 7.1 analog speaker system you will have to “kill” either the “mic in” or the “line in” jack to install it. This may not be a problem for most users, since if you want a 7.1 audio system you will probably connect the motherboard to a home theater receiver or a digital speaker set using either the SPDIF or the HDMI connector.

The ECS A890GXM-A2 motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, controlled by two Realtek RTL8111DL chips, which are connected to the system using PCI Express x1 lanes and thus not presenting any potential performance issues. These ports support teaming, meaning that they can be combined for a 2 Gbps bandwidth if you have a compatible switch in your network.

In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard rear panel, with VGA output, DVI-D output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, clear CMOS button, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA-600 port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports, an optical SPDIF output and shared analog 7.1 audio outputs.

Figure 7: Motherboard rear panel

No mouse or keyboard PS/2connector is available, thus you have to use a USB mouse and a USB keyboard with this motherboard.

Other smaller features present at the A890GXM-A2 include the presence of on-board power and reset buttons, the use of 15µ gold contacts (usually motherboards use 5µ gold contacts), eJiffy (an operating system stored inside the motherboard read-only memory that allows you to access the Internet without needing to load the operating system or even without having a hard disk drive installed, being equivalent of ASUS’s Express Gate and MSI’s Winki), and a core unlocking feature, which allows you to unlock hidden cores on certain AMD CPUs (this function is available in the motherboard setup, under the “M.I.B. III” menu, option “CPU Unlock”).

In Figure 8, you can see all accessories that come with this motherboard.

Figure 8: Accessories

[nextpage title=”Voltage Regulator”]

The ECS A890GXM-A2 motherboard comes with a seven-phase voltage
regulator circuit. From the seven available phases, six are used to generate the CPU main voltage (VDD, a.k.a. Vcore) while the other one is used to generate the voltage required by the integrated memory controller, the HyperTransport controller, and the L3 memory cache (VDDNB). Therefore, this motherboard has a “6+1” configuration.

This motherboard has a series of seven LEDs for you to monitor the activity of each phase.

This motherboard comes with a passive heatsink installed on top of the transistors of the voltage regulator circuit, connected to the passive heatsink that is installed on top of the north bridge chip using a U-shaped, 5-mm heatpipe. In Figure 9, you can see the voltage regulator circuit with this cooling solution installed and, in Figure 10, with it removed.

Figure 9: Voltage regulator circuit

Figure 10: Voltage regulator circuit

All capacitors used on this motherboard are solid and the voltage regulator circuit uses ferrite chokes, which are better than iron chokes. Please read our Everything You Need to Know About the Motherboard Voltage Regulator tutorial for more information.

[nextpage title=”Overclocking Options”]

The new ECS A890GXM-A2 provides only a few overclocking options. Below we list only the main ones available on the 1.1 BIOS.

• CPU reference clock: From 200 MHz to 500 Hz in 1 MHz steps
• SidePort clock: From 200 MHz to 850 MHz in 66 MHz steps
• CPU voltage: From 0.800 V to 1.550 V in 0.025 V steps
• CPU voltage: From +50 mV to +500 mV in +50 mV steps (on top of the above configuration)
• Memory voltage: From +10 mV to +630 mV in +10 mV steps
• North Bridge and HyperTransport voltage: From +10 mV to +510 mV in +10 mV steps
• South bridge voltage: From +10 mV to +310 mV in +10 mV steps
• SidePort voltage: From 1.50 V to 1.75 V in 0.05 V steps.

Figure 11: Overclocking menu

[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]

The main specifications for the ECS A890GXM-A2 include:

• Socket: AM3
• Chipset: AMD 890GX
• Super I/O: ITE IT8721F
• Parallel ATA: None
• Serial ATA: Five SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10)
• External SATA: One eSATA-600 port controlled by the chipset, one additional eSATA-600 port if the included adapter is used
• USB: 12 USB 2.0 ports, four soldered on the motherboard and eight available through four headers on the motherboard, and two USB 3.0 ports, controlled by an EtronTech EJ168A chip
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): None
• On-board video: Yes, Radeon HD 4290 engine running at 700 MHz (40 processing cores), with 128 MB GDDR3-1600 memory (Hynix H5TQ1G63BFR-12C)
• On-board audio: Produced by the chipset together with a Realtek ALC892 codec (8-channel, no more technical information was provided), on-board optical SPDIF output
• On-board LAN: Two Gigabit Ethernet ports controlled by two Realtek RTL8111DL chips, connected to the system through two PCI Express x1 lanes
• Buzzer: No
• Power supply required: EPS12V
• Slots: Three PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (the first two working at x8 when two video cards are installed and the third one always working at x4), one PCI Express x1 slot and one standard PCI slot
• Memory: Four DDR3-DIMM sockets (up to 16 GB up to DDR3-1800 through overclocking)
• Fan connectors: One four-pin connector for the CPU cooler and two three-pin connectors for auxiliary fans
• Infrared Interface: No
• Extra Features: External clear CMOS button, LEDs to monitor the phases of the voltage regulator circuit, eJiffy
• Number of CDs/DVDs that come with this motherboard: One
• Programs that come with this motherboard: Norton Internet Security 2011
• More Information: https://www.ecs.com.tw
• Average price in the US: This motherboard wasn’t available on the market on the day we published this First Look article.

[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]

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

The new A890GXM-A2 is basically an updated version of the A890GXM-A with two USB 3.0 ports added. Smaller differences include a better color scheme, the removal of one PCI Express x1 slot (to add room for the USB 3.0 controller chip), and the addition of a core unlock feature, which is only available on the 2.0 revision of the A890GXM-A.

All other features are the same, with the SATA-600 ports and the three PCI Express x16 slots being the highlights. 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.

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 but doesn’t want or doesn’t have the money to buy a video card right now. With this motherboard you can use its integrated graphics while you don’t have a decent video card, and the extra PCI Express x16 slots will ensure that you have room for additional video cards, in the case you want to boost your gaming performance by adding a second or even third card in CrossFireX mode in the future.

Motherboards from ECS usually come to market at a terrific price. Although this particular motherboard isn’t available yet, the A890GXM-A can be found today for USD 110, and we guess the A90GXM-A2 will be offered a little bit above that due to its USB 3.0 ports, bringing a terrific cost/benefit ratios for users in the situations described above.