Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H (AMD 690G) mainboard review

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Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H (AMD 690G) mainboard review - Conclusion
Bluetooth 22 May 2007

Conclusion

At last, we see another HDMI board based on the AMD 690G chipset. This mainboard, as we have already seen it packed with features that none of us has thought of. Being the first board to support CrossFire makes this board stand out from the rest. Not only that, you get the HDMI connector or you could use the provided bracket to connect via component video to your large screen LCD TV. On top of all these, you still get your D-SUB, 1 x GbE LAN port, 1 HDMI, 1 1394 and 8 ch audio ports. There is also a S/PDIF digital out.

Performance wise, this board did not disappoint us. With Catalyst 7.4, we can see some improvement in scores. This is due to driver optimisation. Overclocking wise, the board has plenty of options for you to meddle with. In fact, you won't see any other AMD 690G board that comes so complete with an o/c BIOS. We managed to o/c a X2 4000+ to 2.85GHz. For a view of BIOS options please see here.

The only regret is that the board does not come with a DVI-D interface. If you want to connect it up to your existing LCD monitors, you would need to purchase a seperate HDMI->DVI converter. Otherwise, you would need to use the D-SUB which definitely degrades the image quality.

Overall, the Gigabyte MA69G-S3H is something that differs in design. It is innovative and one of the better 690G boards out in the market.

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Pros

7.1 HD audio
GbE
1394
S/PDIF
HDMI
Dual PCIe slot for CrossFire Support
Surround View

Cons

On board labels are not clearcut
No DVI-D interface

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.

Category	Score
Performance	9 / 10
Features	10 / 10
Ease Of Installation	9 / 10
Overclocking Features	9 / 10
Documentation	9 / 10
Packaging	9 / 10
Cost/Performance	8 / 10
Overall Rating :	9 / 10

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