GA-MA69GM-S2H released yet?
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GA-MA69GM-S2H released yet?
Has anyone seen or used this board yet?
It seems to have a very nice feature set for a media center PC
It seems to have a very nice feature set for a media center PC
Ah, thanks. I hope that helps with undervolting.
Also, the review doesnt mention anything about voltage settings for ram.
Im looking at 2gb of OCZ ram for this board, but I think the voltage is 2.1v. I have heard some asus boards dont like it.
If the bios doesnt support setting the ram voltage manually, will the bios detect and set it to 2.1v automatically?
Also, the review doesnt mention anything about voltage settings for ram.
Im looking at 2gb of OCZ ram for this board, but I think the voltage is 2.1v. I have heard some asus boards dont like it.
If the bios doesnt support setting the ram voltage manually, will the bios detect and set it to 2.1v automatically?
Bad news for me, kinda.
My local shop came through with an RMA on my old board outside the warranty period. So I wont be getting this board after all.
My HTPC is going back an athlon XP 1800.
But it saves me cash for the next upgrade at least.
One thing though, a day after ordering the gigabyte from ncix, it was still at the "verifying stock" stage. They are either a little slow or they still dont have it yet. Was an easy cancellation.
My local shop came through with an RMA on my old board outside the warranty period. So I wont be getting this board after all.
My HTPC is going back an athlon XP 1800.
But it saves me cash for the next upgrade at least.
One thing though, a day after ordering the gigabyte from ncix, it was still at the "verifying stock" stage. They are either a little slow or they still dont have it yet. Was an easy cancellation.
any comparative thoughts on the MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital, another newish 690G mobo? It's the first full ATX 690G I've seen with a DVI port. The full ATX is maybe a little more spacious ... has anyone with the GA-MA69GM-S2H tried fitting aftermarket heatsinks on its CPU or NB? I'm worried about the closeness of those capacitors.
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If you want full ATX, there's always the Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H. It has one more PCI-E x1 slot than the MSI, a Toslink digital output, and parallel port (which some people don't have a use for, but I need it for my JP1 remote programmer). There is no DVI port on the back, but it comes with an HDMI to DVI adapter and works great via DVI with my LCD monitor.colin2 wrote:any comparative thoughts on the MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital, another newish 690G mobo? It's the first full ATX 690G I've seen with a DVI port. The full ATX is maybe a little more spacious ... has anyone with the GA-MA69GM-S2H tried fitting aftermarket heatsinks on its CPU or NB? I'm worried about the closeness of those capacitors.
I have the S3H and can confirm that at least for the last 3 weeks, it's been an excellent motherboard with quite extensive overclocking features in BIOS that can be uncovered by entering CTRL-F1.
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I just built one up this evening. Nice feature set. It does have a floppy, but the DVI port does not support a D-sub adapter for a standard 15-pin monitor.
I am going to play around with it more this weekend and get all the power settings right, but it seems real solid. I don't have a need for HD or HDMI at this point.
I am going to play around with it more this weekend and get all the power settings right, but it seems real solid. I don't have a need for HD or HDMI at this point.
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Post back on BIOS undervolting / fan control yeah?austinbike wrote:I just built one up this evening. Nice feature set. It does have a floppy, but the DVI port does not support a D-sub adapter for a standard 15-pin monitor.
I am going to play around with it more this weekend and get all the power settings right, but it seems real solid. I don't have a need for HD or HDMI at this point.
Hoping this has hidden advanced bios features, from above:frank2003 wrote:I don't own this board but from the manual it does not appear this board supports over/under clock/volt directly in the BIOS. However, it does support CnQ (a form of underclock/undervolt power scheme) which means you could run CrystalCPUID in Windows.
Also I would choose this board over the asus. The asus requires a pci-e addin card to get hdmi/svid/component video output. That means if you add in a higher performance video card of your own, these features would be unavailable. The gigabyte doesnt requre you use up the pci-e slot, and it also comes with optical audio output.I have the S3H and can confirm that at least for the last 3 weeks, it's been an excellent motherboard with quite extensive overclocking features in BIOS that can be uncovered by entering CTRL-F1.
It would be nice if someone could test CTRL+F1 on the S2H and report what it reveals.
Some questions to austinbike and Max:
* Does the board support AC'97-type audio connectors on the front panel?
* How good is the Realtek 889 audio if you're using the analog ports?
* Does the Northbridge run too hot to the touch under 3D load? Which aftermarket heatsinks would fit there?
Some questions to austinbike and Max:
* Does the board support AC'97-type audio connectors on the front panel?
* How good is the Realtek 889 audio if you're using the analog ports?
* Does the Northbridge run too hot to the touch under 3D load? Which aftermarket heatsinks would fit there?
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Surely, the HP video card you would fit instead would have these features too, otherwise why on earth would you bother to upgrade it? e.g. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA ... uctID=2433 It is an HTPC type MB after all.prod wrote:Also I would choose this board over the asus. The asus requires a pci-e addin card to get hdmi/svid/component video output. That means if you add in a higher performance video card of your own, these features would be unavailable. The gigabyte doesnt requre you use up the pci-e slot, and it also comes with optical audio output.
EDIT: I'd also like to know if the relative position and height of the NB cooler to the PCI-e x1 slot makes fitment of x1 cards impossible/impractical?
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austinbike, thanks for the images. Sorry but I'm not sure about SpeedFan.
Looking at the PC Health section in your BIOS, CPU fan at >2000 RPM seems a somewhat on the high side for a speed-controlled fan. Is it always this high or does it get lower after POST? Does it matter if you set Smart Fan Ctrl Mode to either Legacy or PWM?
Looking at the PC Health section in your BIOS, CPU fan at >2000 RPM seems a somewhat on the high side for a speed-controlled fan. Is it always this high or does it get lower after POST? Does it matter if you set Smart Fan Ctrl Mode to either Legacy or PWM?
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FWIW, the S3H (full ATX version) does do undervolting. It's not a hidden option, it's in the "M.I.B. Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker" menu option which seems to be absent on the S2H.
Some strange things I noticed about the S3H NB... EasyTune5 (Gigabytes tweaking/health monitor program) says "System" temp is between 41C and 44C. It stays at 44C pretty much all the time. It seems too warm to be ambient air temp since the CPU runs cooler than that, so I guess it's NB temp? That seems a bit low to me considering the NB is hot enough to burn flesh, but that temperature doesn't change when idle or under 3D load.
EasyTune5 is a cheesy looking program with poorly done, grainy graphics, but it works very well to control fan speed. My Brisbane X2 4400+ idles around 26C and I have the fan set to 0RPM below 38C so it's extremely quiet at idle. It seems to adjust fan speed proportionate to what you set the minimum RPM and temperature as. It's significantly quieter than the Asus M2N that I replaced.
Some strange things I noticed about the S3H NB... EasyTune5 (Gigabytes tweaking/health monitor program) says "System" temp is between 41C and 44C. It stays at 44C pretty much all the time. It seems too warm to be ambient air temp since the CPU runs cooler than that, so I guess it's NB temp? That seems a bit low to me considering the NB is hot enough to burn flesh, but that temperature doesn't change when idle or under 3D load.
EasyTune5 is a cheesy looking program with poorly done, grainy graphics, but it works very well to control fan speed. My Brisbane X2 4400+ idles around 26C and I have the fan set to 0RPM below 38C so it's extremely quiet at idle. It seems to adjust fan speed proportionate to what you set the minimum RPM and temperature as. It's significantly quieter than the Asus M2N that I replaced.
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The NB cooler is slightly higher than the slot, so it is not really usable unless you have a special card.Firetech wrote:Have you fitted an x1 PCI-e card and if not, does it look like it will fit with the NB cooler being where it isaustinbike wrote:Post up all of your questions and I will play around with it tonight
How hot is the NB cooler running?
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Cheers Austin.
Hmmm, a very bad design given that tuner cards are arriving in x1 format now.austinbike wrote:The NB cooler is slightly higher than the slot, so it is not really usable unless you have a special card.
Looks like the Asus will be getting my $$s after all....