ASUS M4A89GTD Pro - A Core Unlocking 890GX for $140
by Rajinder Gill on March 10, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Board Layout
Board layout is good, with most slots and connectors placed for easy access. It looks like ASUS have not skimped on the CPU VRM for this board as it's rated for 180 amps, which is good news with Thuban on the horizon.
The IGP and CPU FET heatsinks are connected via a heatpipe, which provides the GPU a little extra mass to dissipate heat. The CPU FET portion of the heatsink is attached to the board with push-pins; it’s a long assembly so a back plate with screw fittings would ensure better contact for the central FETs when the PCB bows from the pressure of some CPU coolers. Operating temperatures are good though, needing little cross-flow when overclocking to keep things cool.
There’s always a design oddity somewhere on a motherboard and the picture above is the M4A89GTD Pro’s unsightly wart. ASUS have not used PCIe lane switches on this board, which means you have to insert that little PCB to enjoy 16x bandwidth to the central PEG slot. The top (white) PEG slot runs on an 8x lane allocation at all times, regardless of slot loading.
Underneath the lone DIL socket-mounted BIOS chip, four SATA ports are placed “head-on” in the bottom right corner of the board, the other two are ports right angled and situated at the bottom right hand corner. The BIOS jumper is located between the forward facing SATA ports and the USB headers. While there is the possibility of access to this jumper within a cramped PC case, we’d have preferred placement somewhere along the rear I/O panel.
The action zone on this board is near the DIMM slots; hardware level core unlocking at the flick of a switch. To the right you’ve got a Turbo switch which applies an instant overclock much like MSI’s OC Genie.
The rear I/O panel contains all audio/visual outputs, six USB ports (two are USB 3.0), 1 x RJ45, 1x eSATA, 1x 1394 and PS/2 for Keyboards.
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Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
Should clarify - I do not add GPU PCIe power draw because that is a separate entity from board consumption really. It's drawn from ATX 12v on most boards so is easy for me to factor out.later
Raja
strikeback03 - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
You might want to do a writeup on what exactly you are including, as I was wondering how the CPU, chipset, and GPU all totaled only 29W at idle.Rajinder Gill - Thursday, March 11, 2010 - link
In hindsight I should have - I'll be sure to do so in future.later
Raja
Kibbles - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
For a second there I though the sticker ontop of the USB3 ports were an additional 2 internal USB ports. I was thinking "oh cool, that's nifty, don't know what I'd use it for (wifi?) but it's still nifty." Then I saw a closer picture and realized it was just a sticker lolFoggg - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
The blue header with the yellow sticker by the SATA's must be a PATA 133 IDE connector. It doesn't appear on your spec sheet on page 3.strikeback03 - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
I thought all AMD motherboards had the cage to mount a cooler to around the CPU socket. I don't remember the CPUs coming with this, is it included but not mounted? Do some coolers not use it?Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
Hi,They still come with the cage, I uninstalled it to mount the Corsair H50 cooler. So yes, some coolers do not use AMD's mounting plate..
regards
Raja
DigitalFreak - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
WTF is up with the PCI-E switch card? They couldn't swing for automatic switching on a $150 motherboard?xeopherith - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
I wish all the motherboard reviews were this detailed.. Good Job!Most don't have a bunch of "new" features to try out really but I really think you set a new standard by including all the BIOS screens and such.
sampoerna - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
does anyone know if the heatpipe below the chipset heatsink directly touches the HD 4290 IGP core?thnx.