GA-MA69GM-S2H released yet?

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:57 am

This is my first post here

I am a reader of it about a year and now arrived the time to register!

Sorry for my english if are not so good...

BS[germany] wrote:Here you can see another review:

I knew why I chose the GA-MA69GM-S2H

I am in the search for a mobo for low power consumption. I allready have the asus pundit P1-AH2 (nvidia 6150/430) with a x2 4200EE. The idle power is 55 W (0,8V 1Ghz) and with a skystar2 card and a Liveview FlyDVB-T hybrid (+ 2x1GB kingston 667 running on 730Mhz - i have no oc, just the memory setting is strange on asus mobo and when set it to 667 as memory is for, it runs lower - about 600 - so i set it for 800 and runs at 730). In full load power is 95W at 1.15V - 2.2Ghz

I want the new mobo for a new system i'm going to build (i've already purchased the cpu - an 65w 65nm x2 3600+).

I'm attracted by this gigabyte mobo (most for S3 but in my country i cant find it) but looking at this latest review i got something (two things) bad:

1.
The idle power is 75W?? It is to much!! The cpu in review is 5200+ but it looks very high power still.

2.
The PCmark for integrated graphics is 990! My one year old pundit with 6150 after running the test gave me a score of 1285!
The newer and advertised 690G is lower than one year+ old 6150 on performance? I'm very confused on what to do. Maybe to get a 6150 or a 7050 mobo?
Help!

PS. I forgot to write that my main goal is low power! I use pcs 24/7.
I also want something like "dynamic overclocking" working undervolted and underclocked and to be system able on demand to oc!

austinbike · Post by **austinbike** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:50 am

New BIOS, new drivers and beta version of speedfan still don't show the right temps or system data.

Nice Marmot · Post by **Nice Marmot** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:30 am

For people worried about clearance for PCI-e, remember that PCI-e x1 will work in -any- sized PCI-e slot. x4 will work in any x4, x8, or x16 slot, etc.

colin2 · Post by **colin2** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:00 am

I'm not the smartest reader of these things, papakoo, but from reviews like this

http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/12872

the BE-2350 plus 690G chipset seems the most efficient current option (aside from VIA), and other reviews

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=43 ... ert&pid=12

seem to show all the 690G boards with similar efficiency -- note that the 75W reading you comment on is for the whole board.

But 7050s seem close e.g.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/0 ... f7050-m2/1

And as you can see on this forum the biostar TF7050-M2 has a following.

Anandtech is promising to review a bunch of boards soon

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3058

including 690Gs and 7050s. I wonder if Gigabyte has a 7050 on the way. So it may be a real alternative.

General question: if your case fits the GA-MA69G-S3H, is there any reason not to get it as opposed to the GA-MA69GM-S2H? The Gigabyte site stipulates different onboard audio but I won't use it; the S2H has both DVI and HDMI ports while the the S3H has only HDMI plus an adapter, but it's the same signal, right? Otherwise the SH has a little more room and allegedly works with the Thermalright HR-05...

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:38 am

@colin2

from your first link the lowest power is the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Energy Efficient not the Athlon X2 BE-2350 as you say , and i'm happy for this. I spent many many hours to go for x2 3600 EE 65nm. (even lower). There 3800 and 690G gets 52W idle but NOT with gigabyte mobo. Maybe other mobos are better in power consumption than gigabyte. The article does not name the mobo that they used.

2nd
The 75 W is for all system of course!
My system I use right now, a x2 4200 EE 90nm with asus-nvidia 6150 cs as i said before gets (without additional cards and without any untervoltage or underclocking to compare better) idle 52W from the WALL AC! (that means total system plus thermal looses from PSU) Including 320GB IDE seagate (13W) DVD-R optiarc 7170.
75 W idle for total system (and without any pci addon card!) is very high for me.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:08 pm

Perhaps they were not using C&Q and perhaps they were using an inefficient PSU to get their 75W?

tomato · Post by **tomato** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:29 pm

papakoo wrote:Hello to forum from Europe!

This is my first post here

I am a reader of it about a year and now arrived the time to register!

Sorry for my english if are not so good...

BS[germany] wrote:Here you can see another review:

I knew why I chose the GA-MA69GM-S2H

I am in the search for a mobo for low power consumption. I allready have the asus pundit P1-AH2 (nvidia 6150/430) with a x2 4200EE. The idle power is 55 W (0,8V 1Ghz) and with a skystar2 card and a Liveview FlyDVB-T hybrid (+ 2x1GB kingston 667 running on 730Mhz - i have no oc, just the memory setting is strange on asus mobo and when set it to 667 as memory is for, it runs lower - about 600 - so i set it for 800 and runs at 730). In full load power is 95W at 1.15V - 2.2Ghz

I want the new mobo for a new system i'm going to build (i've already purchased the cpu - an 65w 65nm x2 3600+).

I'm attracted by this gigabyte mobo (most for S3 but in my country i cant find it) but looking at this latest review i got something (two things) bad:

1.
The idle power is 75W?? It is to much!! The cpu in review is 5200+ but it looks very high power still.

2.
The PCmark for integrated graphics is 990! My one year old pundit with 6150 after running the test gave me a score of 1285!
The newer and advertised 690G is lower than one year+ old 6150 on performance? I'm very confused on what to do. Maybe to get a 6150 or a 7050 mobo?
Help!

PS. I forgot to write that my main goal is low power! I use pcs 24/7.
I also want something like "dynamic overclocking" working undervolted and underclocked and to be system able on demand to oc!

hi
how you measure power of your system? by a current clamp on power cord? i think it is not correct to compare performance by different system setup...
i am using 65W x2 4000+ GA-MA690GM, in cpuz it shows stepping = 1, (but in the test that windsor shows stepping = 3) so this chip can't slow its speed to save power?

tomato · Post by **tomato** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:43 am

hi
how you measure power of your system? by a current clamp on power cord? i think it is not correct to compare performance by different system setup...
i am using 65W x2 4000+ GA-MA690GM, in cpuz it shows stepping = 1, (but in the test that windsor shows stepping = 3) so this chip can't slow its speed to save power?

just found out that stepping is not for the speed

tomato · Post by **tomato** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 7:03 am

GnatGoSplat wrote:
tomato wrote:but it is just turn off the monitor, turn off hard disk or go to system standby...but not step down the CPU speed to save energy...
It needs to be on "Minimal Power Savings", I think that is the only mode CnQ will work. Multiplier in BIOS also has to be set to Auto.

referring to the CnQ installation guide:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content ... Guide3.pdf

and check cpuz, it works and the speed will drop to ~ 1000MHz

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:04 am

I measure power with a digital (m)amperometer in AC cord. I have a current of 23mA

P=V*I=230V*0,023A=52,9W idle

Not comparing performance by different setup?
The only difference is mobo. So? Why not? The score of integrated graphics reflects how good the chipset is as we are speaking for graphics ON chipset. The memory was the same, cpu the same, so why not compare?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:33 am

papakoo wrote:I measure power with a digital (m)amperometer in AC cord.

What you're measuring is AC current. Multiply by the voltage and you get VA (voltamps), not power. For example, if the load is a pure capacitor, you'll get current all right, but zero power. A wattmeter corrects for the power factor of the load. A capacitor or (pure) inductor has zero power factor, a pure resistance has a power factor of 1.

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 12:46 pm

Thats right, so 52.9w is the maximum power if the load was clear resistance. SO it might be lower NOT higher.

jones_r · Post by **jones_r** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:41 pm

So is it possible to undervolt with this board ?

Can anyone with this board please see if CrystalCPUID works on it and enables voltage and multiplier changes ?, thanks!.

One thing that scares me about this board, is the inclusion of the ATI video card. This could totally screw up the idle power consumption.

Eric89GXL · Post by **Eric89GXL** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:12 am

jones_r wrote:Can anyone with this board please see if CrystalCPUID works on it and enables voltage and multiplier changes ?, thanks!

Here is a review that mentioned that voltage settings were made accessible via a bios update:

http www pcper com article.php?aid=439&type=expert&pid=12

(Sorry about the link. It won't let me post a URL until I have a post.) I did the update on my board and didn't find the voltage settings, but I didn't look all that hard. I could give it another shot when I get home.

Yes, this board supports Crystal 'n Quiet, as it's called. I got my power consumption from 0.62A @ 120V to 0.40A @120V by underclocking/volting my X2 3800 65W from 2Ghz/1.2V to 1Ghz 0.9V using CrystalCPUID. It seemed like it might have even been stable at 0.8V, but I haven't done any rigorous testing. The built in AMD Cool 'n Quiet made power consumption go down to 0.50A @ 120V at idle, which isn't bad. All measurements were taken with an Ammeter, /not/ a wattmeter.

System: GA-MA69GM-S2H, AMD 3800+ 65W, 1GB PC6400 800Mhz, old Maxtor 250GB IDE, generic DVDRW, Antec EarthWatts 430 80+, Silverstone LC10 case.

frank2003 · Post by **frank2003** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:21 pm

I have the latest BIOS and I don't see the voltage control, either. I recall reading somewhere that Gigabyte has this Easy Tune program that allows you to OC in Windows, thus eliminating the need for BIOS level overvoltage control.

Eric89GXL · Post by **Eric89GXL** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:00 pm

Yeah, I tried both iCool and EasyTune5, but the overclocking settings were disabled on both. They could only be used as monitoring programs. At least CrystalCPUID works well.

AndrewD · Post by **AndrewD** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:22 pm

Has anyone tried fitting a PCI-E card in this board? I haven't been able to find anything definite on whether that 4x slot can actually be used???

I've already ordered an Asus M2A-VM, but would have gone with the Gigabyte if I thought a PCI-E tuner would fit

.

Eric89GXL · Post by **Eric89GXL** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 6:06 am

I have a Gigbyte 7600GT in a PCI-E slot that works just fine...

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:05 pm

Eric89GXL wrote:I have a Gigbyte 7600GT in a PCI-E slot that works just fine...

Is it in the x4 slot? What have you got in the x16 slot?

AndrewD · Post by **AndrewD** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 11:27 pm

Yes, I meant the 4x slot as the position/height of the NB heatsink looks like it would be a problem.

But why would they bother putting a slot there if its unusable??

FireTech - have you decided on a board? I've seen your posts over at the AT forums. I got tired of waiting on the round-up reviews after however many mths its been now, so settled on the Asus for the moment. Waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully it will be ok in the short term, and I plan to replace it with a 790G board once they're available.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 6:36 pm

AndrewD wrote:FireTech - have you decided on a board? I've seen your posts over at the AT forums. I got tired of waiting on the round-up reviews after however many mths its been now, so settled on the Asus for the moment. Waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully it will be ok in the short term, and I plan to replace it with a 790G board once they're available.

At this stage, it's on hold.
The AT reviews have at least started - 5 odd months late- but real life has now closed my current window of purchasing opportunity.
We're moving house next month and #2 child is due a month or so after that, therefore it looks like it'll be a late 2007/early 2008 project now...

Kreed · Post by **Kreed** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:51 am

Firetech wrote:
AndrewD wrote:FireTech - have you decided on a board? I've seen your posts over at the AT forums. I got tired of waiting on the round-up reviews after however many mths its been now, so settled on the Asus for the moment. Waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully it will be ok in the short term, and I plan to replace it with a 790G board once they're available.
At this stage, it's on hold.
The AT reviews have at least started - 5 odd months late- but real life has now closed my current window of purchasing opportunity.
We're moving house next month and #2 child is due a month or so after that, therefore it looks like it'll be a late 2007/early 2008 project now...

In that case, you can now wait for the next generation of IGP mATX boards. Spec wise, they seem to be quite promising.

Firetech · Post by **Firetech** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 2:04 am

Kreed wrote:In that case, you can now wait for the next generation of IGP mATX boards. Spec wise, they seem to be quite promising.

I know, there's always something better around the corner, which also means the current tech will drop in price - win:win

At the moment Wife Approval Factor will play a large part. I've got orders to unload 3 PC's I have lying around before we move (still leaves a couple to play with though)

yoitsmeremember · Post by **yoitsmeremember** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:31 am

I've had my S2H for a little over a week now, and I noticed something interesting in the BIOS (current running F3a). If you go into the "Standard" features, and do an autodetect on a SATA port w/o a drive there, you get some funky letters and the BIOS locks up.

Here's a pic I took: BIOS Pic (warning, high res)

Can anyone else confirm this (so I know it's not just my motherboard)? If it's a BIOS issue I'd like to let GB know about it ^^

Thanks.

papakoo · Post by **papakoo** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 6:28 am

do you have a lcd hot pixel?

yoitsmeremember · Post by **yoitsmeremember** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 1:41 pm

papakoo wrote:do you have a lcd hot pixel?

No...

Something is really strange with the BIOS. I just want to make sure it's not just _my_ BIOS, and it's actually the firmware for the BIOS that's doing it.

tarvoke · Post by **tarvoke** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 1:38 pm

got my board last week, thanks to all the helpful comments in this thread so far.

scnj-1100p arrived today, it just barely squeaks in. pushes on the capacitors at back of socket a little, and pushes on ram at front of socket a little (if you have heatsink dealies on the ram, which it seems most do these days) -- moved the ram to sockets 3 and 4 just to be safe (gigabyte recommends against this, is there some particular reason? longer traces? different tuning of slots vs mmu?)

one problem I didn't consider is that my case has a clever (read: annoying) circular indentation w/vent on the side. if not for this, the side would fit just nicely with a mm to spare. grrrr. time for the power tools.

did not attach the 120mm fan (no room!) but instead put the rear chassis 92mm fan to the cpu fan header and turned on q-fan. damn that's quiet, now I can see I'll really have to do something about the noise from the seagate 7200.10. heh.

idle, the cores (90mm windsor 5200) are 17-19dC. well, that's at the lowest level of k8 powernowd: 1000mhz. idle/2600mhz is 20-23dC. at load/2600mhz they are 24-26dC.

hr-05 also arrived today. guess I should have trusted that s2h wasn't on the compatibility list even tho s3h was. I didn't care about blocking the x4 slot, but the capacitors around the nb mean that the hr05 WILL NOT FIT. the sli version might, but I'm probably not going to try it.

with the stock nb sink, slowing down the chassis fan may not be the smartest thing to do, but I'll see how it goes. at least until I can slap on an unused zalman nb sink if I can find the silly thing.

finally: did anyone else notice that when the cpu sink is locked down, the board flexes alarmingly? this is my first am2 board but I never saw that with 939.

Flandry · Post by **Flandry** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:12 pm

tarvoke wrote:idle, the cores (90mm windsor 5200) are 17-19dC. well, that's at the lowest level of k8 powernowd: 1000mhz. idle/2600mhz is 20-23dC. at load/2600mhz they are 24-26dC.

I know it's getting chilly in our neck of the woods, but i have my doubts those temperatures are correct. 17C is 63F...

Nice to have reports on what fits/does not fit!

tarvoke · Post by **tarvoke** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:48 pm

erg, good point. wasn't thinking: this is from linux acpi thermal device after all, not exactly accurate. not that i2c/smbus chips can be trusted much either without some independent calibration, I know. mea culpa.

it may be more useful then, to say this: idle and load temps are from 3-5dC lower than with the stock amd cooler (then again, the retail sink for this cpu is not so great; at least the opteron 165 I used to have came with a fairly decent heatpipe / copper cylinder dealie...)

oh and I do have space to fit the 12cm fan after all, will give it a shot later today or tomorrow. the case btw is this, nothing special:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811108025

(technically it could be possible (but unlikely I agree) ... outside ambient here is 21dC, and the bottom half of our house is partially embedded in a 45 degree slope. then again the fact that I have nicknamed the nb sink "mr. burny" does imply the ambient inside the case is well above that, ha ha)

tarvoke · Post by **tarvoke** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:18 pm

put the squinja fan on the front of the sink like it sez, blowing toward back of case. it fits, barely -- have to be v.careful with drive cables. fan is a little pushed up by ram, but the top of it is no higher than the tops of the hex nuts atop the sink.

I still really wish it was possible to rotate the ninja 90 degrees, it would just fit so much better that way. bleh. ya I saw the other threads about lga775 and mounting kits and such; scythe's responses seem rather halfhearted.

with the 12cm fan hooked to cpu fan header, I am seeing ~750rpm (w/bios q-fan thingy) and the idle/2600mhz is now the same temps as the idle/1000mhz was with no fan. champion.

btw is it in any wise bad that the metal clips of the fan are touching the ram sinks and (possibly) grounding them to the cpu heatsink? I can't think of any likely way that it could be bad (random stray unlikely static or other arcing??!?) but it still worries me a little.

GA-MA69GM-S2H released yet?

ninja good, hr05 bad

Re: ninja good, hr05 bad