AMD A85X Mobo Roundup: ASRock, Gigabyte, Asus
Asus F2A85-V Pro
At $140, the Asus F2A85-V Pro is the most expensive of the three motherboards in our roundup. Does it have the features to match its price?
The F2A85-V Pro has a black PCB and follows the same dark blue/light blue/black color scheme as the rest of Asus’ mainstream motherboards. It has the full complement of rear panel ports: PS/2, two USB 2, four USB 3.0, DisplayPort, HDMI, SPDIF, VGA, DVI, eSATA, Ethernet, and HD audio. It has three physical x16 slots, two x1 slots, and a PCI slot.
One feature overclockers will appreciate is the DirectKey, which when pressed makes your next reboot go into the UEFI automatically. The ASRock board has a similar, software-based feature, but having a dedicated button for that really helps the Asus board stand out for overclockers. All the fan headers on the motherboard are four-pin PWM headers, which work with Asus’ Fan Xpert 2 to allow fan tuning from within the UEFI and with a software utility. Asus also includes AI Suite II, of course, as well as a disc full of other utilities (plus a little bit of bloatware). Another useful feature is BIOS flashback, which allows BIOS flashing without a CPU or RAM installed, just the PSU. No question about it, this is one full featured motherboard.
The F2A85-V Pro has a black PCB and follows the same dark blue/light blue/black color scheme as the rest of Asus’ mainstream motherboards. It has the full complement of rear panel ports: PS/2, two USB 2, four USB 3.0, DisplayPort, HDMI, SPDIF, VGA, DVI, eSATA, Ethernet, and HD audio. It has three physical x16 slots, two x1 slots, and a PCI slot.
 |
|
| CPU: | Supports AMD Socket FM2 100W Processors Supports CPUs up to 4 cores Supports AMD Turbo Core 3.0 Technology |
| Chipset: | AMD A85X (Hudson-D4) |
| Memory: | Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots Supports DDR3 2400(O.C.) / 2250(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) and AMD Memory Profile (AMP) |
| Graphics: | Integrated AMD Radeon™ HD 7000 Series Graphics in A-series APU Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DVI/RGB/DisplayPort ports Supports HDMI with max. resolution 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz Supports DVI with max. resolution 2560 x 1600 @ Hz Supports RGB with max. resolution 1920 x 1600 @ 60 Hz Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 60 Hz Maximum shared memory of 2048 MB AMD® Dual Graphics technology support *1 Supports DirectX 11 Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX Technology Supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP Technology |
| Audio: | Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC Supports Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel |
| LAN: | Realtek® 8111F, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s) |
| Slots: | 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode) 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 2 x PCI |
| SATA3: | 7 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD |
| USB 3.0: | ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller : 2 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue) AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4) chipset : 4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board) AMD A85X FCH(Hudson D4) chipset : 10 x USB 2.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 8 at mid-board) |
| Rear Panel: | 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s) 1 x DVI 1 x D-Sub 1 x DisplayPort 1 x HDMI 1 x eSATA 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s) 4 x USB 3.0 (blue) 2 x USB 2.0 1 x Optical S/PDIF out 6 x Audio jack(s) |
| Form Factor: | ATX Form Factor |
;)
One feature overclockers will appreciate is the DirectKey, which when pressed makes your next reboot go into the UEFI automatically. The ASRock board has a similar, software-based feature, but having a dedicated button for that really helps the Asus board stand out for overclockers. All the fan headers on the motherboard are four-pin PWM headers, which work with Asus’ Fan Xpert 2 to allow fan tuning from within the UEFI and with a software utility. Asus also includes AI Suite II, of course, as well as a disc full of other utilities (plus a little bit of bloatware). Another useful feature is BIOS flashback, which allows BIOS flashing without a CPU or RAM installed, just the PSU. No question about it, this is one full featured motherboard.
