ECS A780GM-A Motherboard Review

The ECS A780GM-A Black Series motherboard features the recently released AMD 780G and SB700 chipset combination. The 780G chipset brings a new feature set to the platform, including DX10 graphics (supplied by the on-board HD3200 IGP), support For the Phenom Quad Core AMD processors and ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology. “ATI Hybrid Graphics allows both an AMD 780 Chipset graphics processor and a discrete graphics processor to communicate and work co-operatively yet independent of each other on an AMD-based system to help provide better performance, productivity and power efficiency. Additionally, in systems operating under Windows Vista, ATI Hybrid Graphics can provide the ability for an integrated graphics processor and a discrete graphics processor to work simultaneously for high performance or dynamically for additional power savings.” For additional information on the 780G chipset see PCPer’s very own 780G editorial here.

Specifications (from ECS.com)

CPU   AMD Phenom™ processor (Socket AM2+)   AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core/ Athlon™ 64 / Sempron processor   High-performance HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface   Support transfer rate up to 5200 mega-transfers per second   CHIPSET   AMD® 780G & AMD® SB700   North Bridge: AMD® 780G   South Bridge: AMD® SB700   GRAPHICS   On Chip (AMD 780G-based with ATI™ Radeon HD3200 graphics)   Integrated DirectX10 graphics processor   Max Dynamic Hyper Memory: 1920MB   MEMORY   Dual-channel DDR2 800 memory architecture   4 x 240-pin DDR2 DIMM socket support up to 32GB   Support DDR2 1066/800/667/533/400 DDR2 SDRAM   EXPANSION SLOT   1 x PCI Express x16 slot   2 x PCI Express x1 slots   3 x PCI slots   STORAGE   Support by AMD SB700    2 x Ultra DMA133/100/66 devices    5 x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s devices    RAID0, RAID1, RAID10 configuration   AUDIO   Compliant with HD specification   IDT 92HD206 8-channel audio CODEC   LAN   ATHEROS L1 Gigabit Fast Ethernet NIC   REAR PANEL I/O   1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors   1 x External SATA port   6 x USB ports   1 x Gigabit Ethernet Port   1 x Audio port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)   1 x VGA port   1 x HDMI Port   INTERNAL I/O CONNECTORS & HEADERS   1 x FDD connector   5 x Serial ATA connectors   1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector   1 x 4-pin ATX 12V connector   CPUFAN/PWRFAN/SYSFAN connectors   1 x IDE connector   1 x Speaker header   1 x Front panel switch/LED header   1 x Front panel audio header   1 x SPDIF out header   CD in header   3 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 6 USB ports   1 x COM1 header   SYSTEM BIOS   AMI BIOS with 8Mb SPI ROM   Supports Plug and Play, STR/STD, Hardware monitor, Multi Boot, DMI,HDCP   Supports ACPI revision 3.0 specification   FORM FACTOR   ATX Form Factor, 305*220mm

Unlike most of the 780G boards that are M-ATX form factor, the ECS A780GM-A Black Series motherboard is a full size ATX board. ECS engineers probably figured with an overabundance of M-ATX 780G boards already on the market, some users would prefer the additional flexibility that a larger number of expansion ports would provide.