Gigabyte MA790FX-DS5 Review

Support for Socket AM2+/ AM2 processors:
AMD Phenom™FX processor/ AMD Phenom™ processor/ AMD Athlon™ 64 FX processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 processor/AMD Sempron™ processor

North Bridge: AMD 790FX  South Bridge: AMD SB600

1. 4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 16 GB of system memory (Note 1)
2. Dual channel memory architecture
3. Support for DDR2 1066(Note 2)/800/667 MHz memory modules

1. Realtek ALC889A codec
2. High Definition Audio
3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
4. Support for DTS (dts NEO:PC)
5. Support for S/PDIF In/Out
6. Support for CD In

1. 2 x PCI Express x16 slots supporting ATI CrossFireX™ technology (The PCI Express x16 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
2. 3 x PCI Express x1 slot
3. 2 x PCI slots

South Bridge:

1. 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices

1. 4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATAII0, SATAII1, SATAII2, SATAII3) supporting up to 4 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 0+1

1. 2 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (GSATAII_1, GSATAII_2) supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2. 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s ports on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 3Gb/s devices
3. Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, and JBOD

1. 1 x floppy disk drive connector supporting up to 1 floppy disk drive

Up to 3 IEEE 1394a ports (2 on the back panel, 1 via the IEEE 1394a bracket connected to the internal IEEE 1394a headers)

integrated in the South Bridge

1. Up to 10 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the back panel, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
3. 1 x 4-pin PCIe 12V power connector
4. 1 x floppy disk drive connector
5. 1 x IDE connector
6. 6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors
7. 1 x CPU fan header
8. 2 x system fan headers
9. 1 x power fan header
10. 1 x North Bridge fan header
11. 1 x front panel header
12. 1 x front panel audio header
13. 1 x CD In connector
14. 1 x S/PDIF In header
15. 1 x S/PDIF Out header
16. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
17. 1 x IEEE 1394a headers
18. 1 x parallel port header
19. 1 x power LED header
20. 1 x chassis intrusion header

1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
2. 1 x PS/2 mouse port
3. 1 x serial port
4. 1 x coaxial S/PDIF Out connector
5. 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
6. 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
7. 2 x IEEE 1394a ports
8. 1 x RJ-45 port
9. 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s ports
10. 6 audio jacks (Line In / Line Out / MIC In/Surround Speaker Out (Rear Speaker Out) / Center / Subwoofer Speaker Out / Side Speaker Out)

· CPU/System temperature detection

· CPU overheating warning

· CPUfan speed control

1. 2 x 4 Mbit flash
2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
3. Support for Dual BIOS™
4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 1.0b

1. Support for @BIOS
2. Support for Download Center
3. Support for Q-Flash
4. Support for EasyTune (Note 3)
5. Support for Xpress Install
6. Support for Xpress Recovery2
7. Support for Virtual Dual BIOS

Voltage adjustments in BIOS Setup (CPU/DDR2/Chipset/PCIE/FSB/HTT/HTR) allow you to:

1. Increase CPU voltage (Note 4)
2. Increase DDR2 voltage by 0.05V to 0.50V with 0.05V increment
3. Increase Chipset voltage by 0.05V to 0.40V with 0.05V increment
4. Increase PCI Express voltage by 0.05V to 0.45V with 0.05V increment
5. Increase FSB voltage by 0.05V to 0.35V with 0.05V increment
6. Increase HTT voltage by 0.05V to 0.40V with 0.05V increment
7. Increase HTR voltage by 0.05V to 0.45V with 0.05V increment

Frequency adjustments in BIOS Setup (CPU/HT Link/PCIE/DDR2) allow you to:

1. Adjust CPU host frequency from 200 MHz to 500 MHz with 1 MHz increment
2. Adjust HT Link frequency
3. Adjust PCI Express frequency from 100 MHz to 200 MHz with 1 MHz increment
4. Adjust DDR2 frequency

(Note 1) Due to Windows XP 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB.
(Note 2) Whether 1066 MHz memory speed is supported depends on the CPU being used.
(Note 3) Available functions in Easytune may differ by motherboard model.
(Note 4) The adjustable CPU voltage range depends on the CPU being used

1. Due to different Linux support condition provided by chipset vendors, please download Linux driver from chipset vendors' website or 3rd party website.
2. Due to most hardware/software vendors no longer offer support for Win9X/ME. If some vendors still has Win9X/ME drivers available, we will publish on website.