First FM2+ (A88X) board @ NEgg

[Daveburt714]

It's not a top model, but it's the first I've seen for sale...
I wonder if the new chipset offers any benefit for Richland APU's.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813132045

[MacClipper]

Extreme6+...

[Daveburt714]

Looks like a nice board Mac!
One good thing about ASRock is that they always seem to offer a decent PWM section on their boards...

OTOH, I have a 990FX EX9 board and it took them almost a year to release a viable (OC) bios for it.
They finally fixed it, and bios 1.40 solved a lot of problems but it took them along time in my opinion.

I know Kaveri (Steamroller) APU's are still kind of up in the air as far as release dates go, but have you tested this new board with Richland ?
Have you seen any real world benefits with current FM2 chips?

[donitsi]

Three FM2+ mobos have been a while on sale on Germany as well

Sniper
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_in...il_932388.html Previously was 94 €. And Yes that's the intel version in the pictures.

Extreme 6+
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_in...il_932761.html

A88XM-A
http://www.mindfactory.de/product_in...il_932390.html

Pretty competive prices on these mobos

[zir_blazer]

And we still don't know the actual difference between A88X and A85X. Shame.

[AbortRetryFail?]

I saw the mobo at the Egg last Sunday ... and linked over to the Asus website to see if they mistakenly listed any Kaveri APUs under CPU support ... hoping to find any leaked models and clocks. No such luck.

AMD and Asus could have conspired together on a strategic leak

[massman]

Played around with the Extrem6+ at an overclocking event in China just today. Looks pretty solid

http://hwbot.org/submission/2428435_...0k_5.67_points

And we still don't know the actual difference between A88X and A85X. Shame.

- Kaveri support
- official USB3 support
- official PCIe support

A88X = A85X + support for Kaveri + official licenses. Not that special, I guess.

[Yeroon]

A75 had USB3.0. That was back in Llano days. They've all supported PCIe...?
Now the PCIe3 support is new.

[zir_blazer]

- Kaveri support
- official USB3 support
- official PCIe support

A88X = A85X + support for Kaveri + official licenses. Not that special, I guess.

But...

- You don't need a new Chipset to support Kaveri. There are FM2+ Motherboards with A55 (Released along FM1 Llano), like this one, which should be Kaveri compatible.
- USB3 support was already available on A75 and A85X
- Chipset is STILL PCIe 2.0, PCIe 3.0 depends on Kaveri's own integrated PCIe controller, and that's why the above Motherboard says this:

*2: Only FM2+ Processors can support PCIe3.0.

Other lanes are 2.0.


I still fail to see even a single new feature, or whatever, that makes A88X different from A85X.

[massman]

But...

- You don't need a new Chipset to support Kaveri. There are FM2+ Motherboards with A55 (Released along FM1 Llano), like this one, which should be Kaveri compatible.
- USB3 support was already available on A75 and A85X
- Chipset is STILL PCIe 2.0, PCIe 3.0 depends on Kaveri's own integrated PCIe controller, and that's why the above Motherboard says this:

Other lanes are 2.0.

I still fail to see even a single new feature, or whatever, that makes A88X different from A85X.

Hah, you are very right . The keyword is "official" here. Certification stuff. Apart from that, there is no difference between chipsets.

[FlanK3r]

6700+ R1.5 = pure nice ...Seems FM2+ better thank FM2 for OC?

[massman]

Just a very strong chip, I think. I could finish 85% at 7G actually

[The Stilt]

ASUS A88X-PRO will be here tomorrow...

And ASRock Extreme6+ & MSI boards are inbound too

[Ace123]

Im way more interested in this one
GIGABYTE GA-G1 SNIPER A88X Socket FM2+ AMD A88X
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...368&CatId=7703

[Daveburt714]

ASUS A88X-PRO will be here tomorrow...

And ASRock Extreme6+ & MSI boards are inbound too

Awesome! I'll be watching to see your opinions of them Stilt!

In general, I'm a fan of Asus boards on the AMD side, but I have to admit the EX6/6600 combo worked out really well!
It's not like I need new hardware, but I do still have an FM1 BioStar/3500 combo in the game room that could use replacing...
Not that it doesn't do the job, it's just that I really need new gear to torture!!!

From what I've seen so far the EX6+ looks like it might have better potential when Kaveri is released.

A comparison between the ASRock EX6+ and the Asus A88X-Pro board would be greatly appreciated.

[The Stilt]

Some initial impressions on ASUS A88X-PRO:

- The capacitors

While the previous F2A85-M and -V PRO models featured APAQ polymers all over the board (the only exception being the 12V input bulk), on A88X-PRO they are all gone now. While APAQ makes some very high quality polymer capacitors, there was a reason to replace them with another solution.

During the 32nm APU era I spent nearly 120 hours in total running the Trinity and Richland APUs on liquid nitrogen.
Most of it was done on ASUS F2A85 -series boards so naturally I learnt few things about their behavior under extreme conditions. I noticed that while the APAQ polymers perform extremely well in normal and high temperature conditions, they don't seem to like the cold too much. In sub zero temperatures the loss in capacitance is quite steep. A 820uF polymer measuring over 850uF in ambient temperatures lost nearly 40% of its capacitance in sub zero temperatures.

This is the reason why they were replaced with equivalent capacitors...
The very same you can find on e.g. Crosshair and Sabertooth series motherboards: Nichicon FPCAP 5K (5K stands for 5000 hours life time).
Since the loss in capacitance on FPCAP 5Ks under sub zero temperatures is virtually non existent, this minor change should provide at least a bit extra to the "upper end" under extreme running conditions. All of my F2A85 -series boards were FPCAP'ed prior the record runs

- The VRM

While the A88X-PRO fully shares the VRM cirquits (VDD_CR, VDD_UNB, VDD_DRAM, etc) with the F2A85-V PRO motherboard, there is still a minor improvement in Core / UNB cirquitry: The OnSemi 4955N fets (rated to 48A IdMax) have been replaced with OnSemi 4C09N fets (rated to 52A IdMax). Other than the slighty higher IdMax value the newer 4C09Ns are also a bit more efficient.

- The VRM / FCH cooling

While the combined FCH / CPU VRM heatpipe cooling element is similar to the one found on F2A85-V PRO, there are changes which make it significantly better in my opinion. The heatsinks for both the FCH and the CPU VRM have been re-shaped and their surface area and mass has increased a bit. The separate heatsink for the UNB VRM has gone thru a more major overhaul. It is roughly 2.5 times as big as on F2A85-V PRO and the surface area / mass has grown in similar proportion.
This is a good thing as the UNB VRM on F2A85-V PRO ran extremely hot when the iGPU was pushed to extremes.

Most importantly the plastic push-pins which held down the heatsinks on F2A85-V PRO are gone now. They have been replaced with spring loaded screws which are able to apply a more sufficient and equal pressure on the heatsink and make the attachment much more solid than before. The whole board actually feels much more solid because of this minor change and the increased weight of course. The thermal transfer has been improved without a doubt. Which is a extremely good thing on a ultra high performance iGPU such as the "Spectre"

- A "Port 80" segment display

The stuff can't get much more legacy than this, yet it is definitely one of the best changes on A88X-PRO.
Based on the diagnostic code displayed by the segment display you will immediately be able to tell the reason why your system does not
post after the changes you made. You will need to have some basic experience on the platform to be able to interprete the codes properly, but it is a real time saver as soon as you learn the basic code ranges.

- Other

Realtek Gigabit LAN upgraded from 8111F to 8111GR.
Realtek ALC892 audio upgraded to ALC1150.
Nuvoton EC / LPCIO NCT6779D upgraded to NCT6791D

- Cons

Still no power and reset buttons on board.

[STEvil]

How about the auto-overclock profiles, do they send retarded voltages to the CPU still?

[The Stilt]

How about the auto-overclock profiles, do they send retarded voltages to the CPU still?

Haven't tried yet, but they probably do.
I have asked ASUS to remove or atleast to reduce the automatic overvoltaging when the voltages are set to auto.
In some cases on the APUs the automaticallly adjusted voltages exceeded the absolute maximum limits of the APU...

This is the reason why you never should leave the voltages to "Auto". Use the "Offset Mode" with either +0.00625V or -0.00625V offset instead. That prevents the board from automatically calibrating the voltages.

In any case I will be re-writing (partitially) the A88X-PRO bios based on my own preferences at some point.

[STEvil]

Wish reviewers would make some noise on the issue..

[The Stilt]

Wish reviewers would make some noise on the issue..

I don't think many of them notice that happening.
It does not happen until you overclock (raise CPU/NB/DRAM multiplier above the stock).

[STEvil]

And its potentially dangerous to a low level overclocker who doesnt notice it.

[The Stilt]

And its potentially dangerous to a low level overclocker who doesnt notice it.

Overclocking will void the warranty, doesn't it?
Every single killed piece of hardware good for the common economy

Anyway, I'll urge ASUS to remove it.

[FlanK3r]

http://www.hwbot.org/submission/2439586

iGPU WR with Richland, wow score...

[freeloader]

I have the Asrock FM2A88X Extreme 6+ board with an A10 6800K. Excellent board and by far the best UEFI Bios I've used.

[imamage]

I don't think many of them notice that happening.
It does not happen until you overclock (raise CPU/NB/DRAM multiplier above the stock).

I notice this when I was "lazy" when building my FM2 rig with A8-5600K and ASUSA F2A85-M PRO

The "AUTO" VCore set it up to 1.4125V , when Turbo activate it push to 1.4625V ....
which makes my SG-02 run pretty hot (when compare to old A8-3870K with F1A75-M rig in the same case before )

I figure out in the end by offset -0.1V VCore of my A8-5600K and now the rig run very stable and not getting hot even under heavy load like Battlefield 4 Beta