Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H NEW mATX AMD motherboard

[MikeODanyurs]

Gigabyte MA78GPM-DS2H

Ordered one of these boards this morning from mwave (Newegg is out of stock already) that came out a couple weeks ago. Seems to be the best mATX AMD board out there now. Didn't find a thread on it here.

Was hoping ASRock would come out with the same board that added their WiFi to it, but it never showed (thankfully I waited and this one with SidePort memory showed).

Wanted to get opinions from anyone that might have it already?
I'll probably eventually upgrade to a 5000+ Black (and set it at 2.7-3.0GHz) or 9850 Black CPU.

The official Gigabyte site:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...ew.aspx?ProductID=2859

Here's a bunch of close up pics.
http://www.hkepc.com/?id=1427&fs=c1h

 

[MikeODanyurs]

By the way, finding the optional Gigabyte S/PDIF in and out cable ( 12CR1-1SPINO-11/R ) is a bit difficult to locate if you need it, I foudn a seller on eBay Australia that has them here for $13 plus $9 shipping here:
http://stores.ebay.com.my/e-speedy

 

[MikeODanyurs]

I was thinking about getting the AMD 9350e when available, but the article got me thinking, for the same money or less I could get the 9850 Black Edition and just underclock it to the 9350 speed of 2000 (but have the 4000, not 3600 bus and the 2.0GHz, not 1.8 NB and HT frequency) and can boost to full or OC to 2.7-3.0GHz, if I want in another MB later on. But wondering if there is a way to measure the watts if running the 125w CPU (which defaults at 2.5GHz) is run at 2.0GHz to know who much power it'll use (will it be close to 65w or closer to 125w?) before I actually buy it and test it?

Wonder if and what to I can drop the CPU core voltage to on the 9850 Black Edition and have it run at 2.0GHz? What's the default on the voltage for the 9850 (I've read anywhere from 1.25v to 1.35v)? The 9350e core voltage is 1.12v.

 

[Winterpool]

What advantages does this board offer to punters who don't intend to instal 125 W cpus? I've already built a Gigabyte 780G system with their GA-MA78G-DS3H (and an Athlon X2 4800+), which I bought principally because I didn't trust the shallow Northbridge heatsink on the GA-MA78GM-S2H. I'm going to build another AMD 780G system soon, this time intended as an HTPC, so I need a micro-ATX board. I'd probably get the GA-MA78GM-S2H if I knew ZipZoomFly or Newegg were selling the rev 1.1 (with improved heatsink).

Does 'SidePort' memory make for much of a difference in performance? Both the GA-MA78GPM-DS2H and the GA-MA78GM-S2H have ALC889A audio; how does the MA78GPM-DS2H offer 'Dolby Home Theatre'? I don't know if I want to pay an additional $20 for a few cm more heatsink.