The Motherboard
Contents
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
