Sapphire Shows Radeon Xpress 200 Enthusiast Board @ CeBit

**LowRun** · 03-13-2005, 04:04 PM

This is the teasing part of the new marketing scheme

**situman** · 03-13-2005, 04:20 PM

true, then the guinea pigs will buy the boards and tell the rest of us how it is.

**Vapor** · 03-13-2005, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by zoom314

Nice pics, Although on the 3rd one I could only read ATi and the rest is blurry, Possibly needed a better camera or just adjust the one You've got if possible that is. Was that 3rd one of the Northbridge or the Southbridge?

If you look hard enough, it also says RS480 in the first line of small print...definitely the NB.

**SLaY3r07** · 03-13-2005, 05:10 PM

Hexus has a little article on the Sapphire GROUPER

**zoom314** · 03-13-2005, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by 3FFeX

heres some pics ive found searching around the web for more info .

You got those pics from Hexus.net It looks like, I say that as They have the same pics. I won't direct link from there as It's a long way off.

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMDUw

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:08 PM

The feedback is a little overwhelming so I'll try to keep up with this thread and answer some questions...

There seems to be recurring questions regarding the ROM sockets. One is for system bios, the other two are SATA option roms for the SI3132s. The option roms may not be required on production boards. They are provisioned for testing but may be removed. If they are no longer required as option ROMs we might consider converting them to secondary sbios sockets.

Originally Posted by jjcom

yeah, thats a feature I've always liked about those giga boards, a second BIOS chip. But three...whoa! Could be nice, for those who like to try out new BIOS'es. That way you've got your stock, your modded, and your whatever BIOS ready to go

but who knows (other than ATI) if those are all for BIOS chips.

jjcom

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:18 PM

Actually yes, and pretty significantly if you are running a water cooled system. Many boards mount passive heatsinks on the MOSFETs and they rely on some amount of airflow coming from CPU heatsink to dissipate the heat. On an overvoltaged system, without any airflow from the CPU HSF (like in a system where the CPU is watercooled or vapochilled) the water cooled FETs really brings down the temperature in that area of the motherboard.

The board is provisioned however for various cooling solutions in that area, completely passive, heatsink and fan, heastsink and fan with external ducting and watercooling. It's a very flexible design.

Originally Posted by =[PULSAR]=

Are we really going to be benefiting from watercooled mosfets?

**Dissolved** · 03-13-2005, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Grayskull

Actually yes, and pretty significantly if you are running a water cooled system. Many boards mount passive heatsinks on the MOSFETs and they rely on some amount of airflow coming from CPU heatsink to dissipate the heat. On an overvoltaged system, without any airflow from the CPU HSF (like in a system where the CPU is watercooled or vapochilled) the water cooled FETs really brings down the temperature in that area of the motherboard.

The board is provisioned however for various cooling solutions in that area, completely passive, heatsink and fan, heastsink and fan with external ducting and watercooling. It's a very flexible design.

Fets get HOT! the ones on my OCZ booster at 2.8v get 90c in a standard case, with a fan they are around 40-70c

I love the Fets area. i think thats one of the BEST mobo features ive seen on a new mobo. Goes to show how kick.. ati and sapphire are

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:30 PM

A common misconception is that onboard graphics somehow detracts from overclocking. In our architecture, there is no reason to believe this. The only thing that onboard graphics does is thrash the system memory a little harder. If the system fails with onboard graphics because of this, it only means it's not totally stable. Also, if you are running an external graphics card, the onboard graphics can be totally disabled and it's as if it was never there.

As for the waterblocks, since there has also been some questions regarding them...they are going to be offered as aftermarket components from Danger Den. They will look exactly as shown. I didn't measure the fittings but I believe they were 3/8" fittings. Feel free to ask Danger Den directly.

Originally Posted by Nanobot

Simply awesome !

Why do I suddenly feel the urge to sing the Canadian national anthem ?

I'm a little worried tho overclocking and onboard graphics chipsets usually don't mix well.

Grayskull do you know if the optional DD waterblock's fittings are 3/8" or 1/2" ?

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:40 PM

I would like to address some of your comments...

All pricing, availability and motherboard color scheme questions will need to go to Sapphire as it's their board. I can tell you this though, there are a lot more than a couple of these boards in white/red. As far as I know, ALL existing boards look exactly the same.

As for the initial Anandtech review, that was for our initial ATI Radeon Xpress 200 technology launch. It was very obvious at that time and still is today that those were reference boards. This is not.

Originally Posted by btomasie

As numerous othes have already asked.... WHEN will this mobo be available to the public!!?? Anandtech had their "review" of the sample board the first week on November...that was over 4 months ago.

Also, I don't think in a million years that motherboard will come out with the white/red color scheme nor do I think the 6"x8" gaudy ATi logo will be on the back of it either. This was probably just a one-off done for shows, much like GM and Ford do with some of their vehicles.

As long as the specs are there, and we can get one without integrated video, there are going to be a LOT of used DFI nF4 Ultra's on Ebay in a couple of months!!!

Brian

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:47 PM

There is NOT and will NOT be any battles between ATI and any motherboard vendors. ATI supplies core logic technology to all the motherboard vendors and does not actively participate in selling motherboards.

Originally Posted by mdzcpa

As far as I see it, the battle will be between DFI and ATI on this one. Abit, although I have no concern about them financially, I do thnk they have slipped. They have resorted to plastic gimmicks for the kiddies instead of true enthusiast features. The DFI NF4 is currently the cutting edge in terms of voltage options and the ability to handle heavy duty OCing. This new ATI mobo could be a great challenger.

That said, I'll reserve my final judgement when I put one through its paces with my own two hands.

**Grayskull** · 03-13-2005, 08:56 PM

Right on the money.

Originally Posted by Dissolved

i bet there Busy, the ati show & new products..

**situman** · 03-13-2005, 09:10 PM

So in the Hexus article I read tat the design of the mobo is 6 layer pcb. arent most designs 4 layers? Maybe Hexus has it wrong. Btw any estimated date of arrival?

**pershoot** · 03-13-2005, 09:51 PM

subscribin to thread.

great lookin board!

**thebluesgnr** · 03-13-2005, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by situman

So in the Hexus article I read tat the design of the mobo is 6 layer pcb. arent most designs 4 layers? Maybe Hexus has it wrong. Btw any estimated date of arrival?

Most designs are 4-layers, but 6 is not that uncommon. The ECS KV2 Extreme and some of the recent DFI's LANPARTY (for Intel only) have 6-layer PCB.

**Gokou** · 03-14-2005, 06:04 AM

6 Layer PCB's are quite a bit more expencive... ala Opteron boards IIRC...

So is the mosfet area exactly the size of the NB? Cos i think a nice zalman chipset cooler would do nicely. I dont want to watercool 4 components on my rig, but dont want fans.... so a decent passive cooler would be ace.

**situman** · 03-14-2005, 06:07 AM

If it is indeed a 6 layer PCB, the chances of it being a real killer board is much higher. I mean does OEM really need a 6 layer PCB board? How much strain does it produce running things at stock. Still wondering when it will come out.

**AvIOn** · 03-14-2005, 07:09 AM

can't wait until this hits the streets... I have to wait for my next upgrade until this one comes out. Ati MoBo and Ati GFX

weeeeeeee

If this performs well, this will be my next mobo, FOR SURE! when can i buy it? june/juli? August ? may ?

**HARDCORECLOCKER** · 03-14-2005, 08:12 AM

Hm, I agree..........very nice looking board, but how will the ATI chipset clock compared to NF4 ?

Only looking cool is not enough.............

Heard rumours from CBIT that the 3 BIOS chips are caused by a totally new BIOS system - independent circuits for RAM, CPU and GPU maybe.........

And what about the onboard video? Only way to use this or is it possible to add a GPU ?

All in all we need ClockGen ATI soon....................

**HaLDoL** · 03-14-2005, 08:20 AM

Weren't these the boards OPP, macci and FUGGER used in Vegas? The same boards that didn't clock so well?

**nosferatu** · 03-14-2005, 08:45 AM

*subscribing*

If one decides to use the full watercooling kit; wouldn't the extra heat from the mosfets added to the loop cancel out any potential OC-gain? Or is this system designed for separate cooling loops?

**dippyskoodlez** · 03-14-2005, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by HARDCORECLOCKER

Hm, I agree..........very nice looking board, but how will the ATI chipset clock compared to NF4 ?

Only looking cool is not enough.............

Heard rumours from CBIT that the 3 BIOS chips are caused by a totally new BIOS system - independent circuits for RAM, CPU and GPU maybe.........

And what about the onboard video? Only way to use this or is it possible to add a GPU ?

All in all we need ClockGen ATI soon....................

greyskull has already stated what the bios sockets are for. hopefully they will make one of them a second bios.

onboard video? greyskull stated that also...

I think it was the ati chipset that was already out (maybe engineering sample) that was compared to an engineering sample of the nvidia board, and they either tied, or werent slightly apart from eachother.

**G0DZILLA** · 03-14-2005, 10:59 AM

Yah...maybe they squeezed some more performance out of it, if we are lucky its always nice to have competition, and this board looks so cool to. Would like to hear some pricing on this sucker tho.

**HARDCORECLOCKER** · 03-14-2005, 11:01 AM

Originally Posted by dippyskoodlez

greyskull has already stated what the bios sockets are for. hopefully they will make one of them a second bios.

onboard video? greyskull stated that also...

I think it was the ati chipset that was already out (maybe engineering sample) that was compared to an engineering sample of the nvidia board, and they either tied, or werent slightly apart from eachother.

I see, THX. All in all they start a good business, I'm thinking of all the sold coolers there, it is a good idea to sell a board and to have the equipment for it in Ya own house............

**dippyskoodlez** · 03-14-2005, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by G0DZILLA

Yah...maybe they squeezed some more performance out of it, if we are lucky its always nice to have competition, and this board looks so cool to. Would like to hear some pricing on this sucker tho.

If it has complete support for the rev E's and dual cores, and the "rumors" about nforce 4 and E rev's having problems is true.. **IF**, it'll be a no-brainer for most.

I dont think the Nforce 4 will have too many issues with the rev E tho.. I bet most just freaked out early.

Thread: Sapphire Shows Radeon Xpress 200 Enthusiast Board @ CeBit

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