Gigabyte K8S760M is an excellent board to start off with. Its performance is exceptionally good considering it is designed to be integrated solution with an external VGA slot. In our tests, we didn't face any problems running the board with Corsair DDR module running CAS 2, 5-2-2 at 2.7v. In most cases, we see that the board is on the top of the charts in various tests done using an external VGA Radeon 9700Pro card..

This board only provides the necessary features including USB 2.0, Firewire, Ethernet, 6 channel audio with audio sensing, SATA RAID 0/1/JBOD via 964. It definitely fits the bill if you are looking for a board for your multimedia needs. Installation of this board is straightforward as it is all well documented on board or in the manual. Coloured front panel connectors is useful for connecting to the on board casing connectors.

In our tests, we also noticed that the north bridge is installed without thermal paste. It didn't get warm at all while we used an external VGA card. It gets HOT when we used the integrated on board video and hung on our first test. We decided to apply thermal paste on it and everything is rock stable.

In terms of overclocking, this board has a FSB range of up to 250Mhz. We were surprised that the board came with overclocking options like Vdimm, Vagp, Vcore. This is a surprising move of Gigabyte to have all these options in the BIOS. The only option that is missing is the multiplier control.

In our overclocking tests, we used our Corsair XMS3500C2 module running at CAS 2.5, 8-4-4. We managed to POST up to 220MHz FSB. Unfortunately, we can only get it to run well at 220MHz FSB steadily with 3DMark2001SE/2003 at CPU:DRAM = 1:1 SYNC mode. Next, we tested it using ASync mode running CPU:DRAM 200:166 and we managed to get it to POST up to 230 but unstable.

Overall, if you are waiting for an integrated solution that performs at levels of SiS 755. This board from Gigabyte is definitely a rock stable board to consider. The only disappointment is that it seems like a difficult board to overclock. Could this be because of the tight timings set in the registers. Well that could be possible.

I would highly recommend this board to those into 64 bits computing !

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Discuss & read more

Pros 好处:

• 6 Channel audio
• USB 2.0 
• SATA RAID 0/1
• Firewire
• Vdimm, Vagp, Vcore adjustments
• Local frame buffer

Cons 坏处:

• No multiplier adjustments
• Accessories - USB brackets not in package

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.

Product Excellence