Blogs Roundup: Asus' latest AMD 8-series motherboards

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2010/05/03/asus-latest-amd-8-series-motherboards/

 

for a second it looked like a return of the ISA port with the brown PCI-E on the pictures on the right

 

like the look of the crosshair iv formula http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-398-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

 

Why does asus still use ide ports (and in such weird places) and why does asus not use 90dgr. sata ports on amd motherboards.

 

I agree on that, although in this case it's not a problem not having those 90 degree ports. Because the card won't obstruct them.
Unlike my P6T deluxe, amazing motherboard but really bad sata port layout, now I can't run SLI because I'm using all 6 ports

 

I still use an IDE port for an old HDD of mine. The HDD still works so no reason to bin it. I just use it to store .torrent files and backup my music and store a complete folder with all the programs I would need for a fresh install.

 

Good Job so far it seems Now for Gigabyte and MSI's offerings.

 

Is it the lighting in the photos or is there really that much brown?
It's like playing Quake!

I really don't think the few-and-far-between examples of situations where an IDE port are useful in this day and age justify its inclusion in modern motherboards.

They could free up so much space on the board both in terms of traces and the socket itself and thus improve layouts with the extra space.
Why oh why do companies insist on including IDE?

On low-end motherboards, fine - But if I pay a few hundred for a high-end motherboard it's a safe bet I'll be pairing it with high-end components, not decades-old IDE drives!

 

I thought that the C4F would also be part of this article. In AMD's motherboards, only the high-end get the 90º sata ports. The IDE is completely unecessary for such mobo - medium to high-end. Someone who invests on such parts has the money and desire to buy something new and fast, not a slouch.

One question that has been annoying me: Is it possible to use a x1 PCI-E card on a PCI-E x16 slot?

 

@farfalho: Yes, in fact Bit sometimes does it (like for the USB3 cards review) so that they can be sure there's the maximum bandwidth available.
I seriously hope the PCB isn't that awful shade, I thought that went out of fashion about 5 years ago (I think my old board with ISA slots was a kind of beige/khaki)

 

For ~80 squid the matx board looks like pretty good value, shame Im not in the market really as my current build is only a year old roughly. I agree on the IDE being redundant these days- if you really have to use an IDE HDD or optical drive you can buy IDE-USB2/ Sata adaptors for a fiver; no more origami IDE cable folding required...

 

So out of all the 890fx boards which is best? Was gonna get the m4a89dt pro but it looks badly layed out so I just went for the crosshair iv instead which is pretty much the same price and looks like someone really thought about the layout

 

Crosshair 4 Extreme

 

Asus really need to make some mATX AMD gaming boards.