Post Cards from the Edge - AMD 780G, NVIDIA 790i, Gigabyte 680i
by Gary Key on April 5, 2008 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
For a bright-eyed teenager in 1976 that had high hopes of becoming a journalist one day, the satirical film Network was a revelation suggesting maybe choosing another profession would be a wise move. (Ed: Look at where that got you.) After years of intense investigative coverage of Watergate and the resulting rise in credibility of the journalistic profession, it seemed the right - maybe even honorable - field of study during the college years... until that fateful New Year’s Day in 1976.
In 1976, the country was celebrating its bicentennial, trying to put Watergate and the Vietnam War out of our minds, and looking forward to an election that would chart a new direction in American politics. (These subjects sound familiar 32 years later.) Top films of that year really did represent what we were going through, and to some degree what we would become in the near future.
Rocky found us in love with the underdog who never gave up. All the President’s Men gave us a short synopsis of the Watergate scandal from the perspective of the journalistic team (Bernstein/Woodward) that broke the story and proved that journalists were sexy, provided you resembled a young Robert Redford. The Bad News Bears allowed us to take a humorous look at sports obsessed parents realizing that winning at any cost had taken the joy out of playing the game for many kids (kids who would become today’s Soccer Moms and Dads).
I enjoyed many other movies that year with my friends, which more or less fit in with our very sarcastic yet humorous personalities. Some were dark like Taxi Driver, Marathon Man, The Omen, Obsession, and Carrie, while others were on the lighter side such as Silent Movie, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Silver Streak, and Mother, Jugs & Speed. Of course, we also had the breakout science fiction films, Logan’s Run and Futureworld. (Told you we were sarcastic.) All told, it was a decent year for film, and some thirty years later we still have Rocky, Pink Panther, and King Kong remakes.
However, there was one film that year that left a lasting impression on us; that film was the aforementioned and critically acclaimed Network. What All the President’s Men did to glorify the journalistic profession; Network succeeded in displaying the dark and seedy side of media. In retrospect, it also provided a fairly accurate glimpse of where TV/Print media was headed along with society. Sensationalism - some would say yellow journalism - sells and is what a large cross-section of society enjoys, whether they openly admit it or not.
In Network, Peter Finch played the aging news anchor, Howard Beale, who at one point in the film makes an impassioned speech that resulted in an extremely popular catch phrase of the time. He persuaded his watching audience to step outside and shout, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” This phrase struck a chord with mainstream America during that year and with us now.
It has been a couple of rough weeks for the motherboard team. Our best laid plans have been thwarted for a variety of reasons, most of which have us shouting the above phrase, and we are sure some of you feel the same way. Since the news and review sections are fairly quiet over the weekend, we thought it would be a good time to discuss those items that put a burr under our saddle - to address issues that our readership is having with the technology and companies that we cover on a periodic basis. Believe it or not, we rarely get to rant (and for very good reasons as you will see), but sometimes it's necessary to say what one thinks. So here is Rant Session #1 for your weekend enjoyment.
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whatthehey - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Hard drives and GPUs and fans have nothing to do with the failures; it's all about overloading the CPU socket power distribution system. Considering Anandtech explicitly mentions the X2 6400+ and the Phenom X4 9900/9850BE, you might be safe. In fact, Mr. Key says something about the Gigabyte board working fine at stock settings with the 9900/9850BE, and it was only "after a short overclocking session" that the board failed.That's pretty critical information for enthusiasts to have. Okay, the board works at stock. +1 to Gigabyte. Even moderate attempts at overclocking on quad-core CPUs could fry the board. -1. That's still better than the other offerings, and I think it's safe to say an X2 6000+ won't stress things as much as the 9850BE. You're probably safe, but don't push things too much unless you don't mind the risk of a dead board.
Or you could try to verify the problem by, say, overclocking and over-volting your CPU a bit. Heh.
building - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Here I am again, a day late and a dollar short.I ordered the EVGA 790i Ultra board 3 days ago. Along with it a raptor 150 and an XFX 9800GX2, and I WAS planning to run vista 64 on it. Thanks for the good honest info in the article. Now I'm wondering if I should just RMA the EVGA board, and stick with th ASUS 680 I'm currently using. My main reasons for upgrading to the 790 were DDR3, and PCI-E 2.0, but if I can run that video card on a PCI-E 1 slot then maybe I'll just stick with the ASUS. DAMN IT!
Good article though, thanks.
n7 - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
This article is exactly the sort of honesty i like to see.Over the years, i've become less & less reliant on official reviews, because all too often they skip mentioning the issues (if they even keep eyes open for them at all) & just focus on the postives.
Going into forums to read user experiences tends to be a more reliable way of gathering information these days i find.
But with you Gary, you make an effort to always paint the whole picture, regardless of how ugly that can be.
Again, want to say a big thanx for this.
I've always loved your reviews; & this is such a shining example of why!
just4U - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Looking at this article I keep thinking to myself ... DAMN. I'd go out and pick up a Matx motherboard (if I was so inclined) and pair it up with a powerful cpu in a heartbeat. Never realizing that perhaps I shouldn't do that. It never would occur to me and I'd be surprised as hell when it popped.Killrose - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
So what is going to happen to my 690G chipset based AM2 Gigabyte board when I drop a Phenom into it?TrueSport - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
at least 4 problems I've experienced with the GA-MA78GM-S2H so far!! :1.) Badly attached Northbridge heatsink, overheated and either system reboot automatically or blue screen. DIY a heatsink solved the problem;
2.) Blue screen OR immediate system reboot when I played movies with PowerDVD v7.3;
3.) Incompatible with the Lite-on drive, LOL!!?, system reboot and reboot when accessing data from it, changed back to the old DVD drive and the problem gone;
4.) not working with the ADATA DDR2 800 memory, maybe it's ADATA's problem.
only problem (4) was solved by BIOS update.
Ages - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Trust & Integrity are two cornerstones that will be found supporting any successful business. At least any successful business that lasts the test of time. If you take away either of the two the business fails.Annandtech has taken a courageous step forward by revealing what is going on behind the scenes. Again they have shown that the "End User" matters most. I sincerely thank you for standing up and telling the truth.
It will be interesting to see if these companies have the integrity to do what is right.
TrueSport - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Well done anandtech!So glad to see you guys speaking up for the truths!
Forever supporting anandtech, especially for Gary Key!
TrueSport - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Well done anantech!So glad to see you guys speaking up for the truths!
Forever supporting anandtech, especially for Gary Key!
R3MF - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
who is going to provide the mATX crowd with a decent high-end Phenom motherboard?the whole situation is a disgrace, and i would not recommend AMD to any mATX'er until they sort it out.