ECS A85F2-A Motherboard Review

[News Team]

With the release of AMD's Trinity APU, we are starting to see more and more manufacturers releasing this new FM2 Socket series of motherboards. If you are not familiar with AMD's APU systems, it's a processor that has an on-die graphics processing unit embedded into the CPU. AMD started its APU line just over a year ago with the Zacate series processors which carried the FM1 Socket. AMD released this as their "Fusion" technology, which is designed to combine the CPU with the raw processing power of on-die graphics at an affordable price-point.AMD recently took this "Fusion" technology a little further with its recent release of Trinity, and incorporated its new processing architecture of Piledriver to the new FM2 Socket series chips. In fact, today we will be using the AMD Trinity A10-5800k that offers this new architecture, and takes its graphics processing power to the next level with the on-die 7660D graphics.When it comes to using this new processing power, it's also important to choose the right motherboard that fits the bill. The APU line of motherboards were designed to be affordable, but also offer high performance standards. Today we are going to be looking at a new motherboard from ECS: the A85F2-A Golden Motherboard. This motherboard will follow its A85X (hudson D4) chipset. ECS doesn't call this board the "Golden" board for no reason, and, as we take a closer look, you will see why.

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[Doctor_Death]

Good job on the review Kenny !

[Cyberburnout]

Outstanding review Kenny! I love the Fm2 platform. So much you can do with it.

[Solara2xb]

Thanks! Yea for the price of these FM2 board and the A10 price, you really get allot for performance with little money. You can get a decent gaming rig going even if you buy a GTX660ti for under $500 bucks if you price hunt. This ECS board was a decent Overclocker as well, at 4.8ghz, it did better then my original FX 8120 with allot less time..

[SamCR3]

Great review as always. Very nice board for a great price. BTW, I'd use a PowerColor 7870 Myst Tahiti LE instead of the 660Ti with this chip/mobo for a low cost, high performing gaming rig. The Tahiti LE has consistently beat the 660Ti in every review I've seen and it cost less money.

[Solara2xb]

Great review as always. Very nice board for a great price. BTW, I'd use a PowerColor 7870 Myst Tahiti LE instead of the 660Ti with this chip/mobo for a low cost, high performing gaming rig. The Tahiti LE has consistently beat the 660Ti in every review I've seen and it cost less money.

Thanks Sam, the 7870 is def. a good card. I was just throwing that as a example out there as to what kind of power housings these APU series chips can be with very little money compared to the other monster rigs were use to seeing..with the 7870 being more cost efficient.. def. the way to go..

[SamCR3]

Thanks Sam, the 7870 is def. a good card. I was just throwing that as a example out there as to what kind of power housings these APU series chips can be with very little money compared to the other monster rigs were use to seeing..with the 7870 being more cost efficient.. def. the way to go..

Yep. The APU's are a really great bang for the buck. Just so there is no confusion, the card Kenny and I are talking about is a limited production 7870 that is actually a Tahiti card. It should have been named the 7930 because it's based on the same architecture as the 7950 and 7970. Here is the card: Newegg.com - PowerColor PCS+ AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPPV3E Radeon HD 7870 MYST. Edition (Tahiti LE) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (UEFI Ready). Here is a review where they call the card a "660Ti killer." HARDOCP - Conclusion - PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 MYST Edition Review

[TeeBlack]

nice review Kenny

[xelosia]

Nice review Kenny and the board looks to be an outstanding budget board thanks for posting

[JamesLT3]

Great review Kenny, you doing great with the mobo reviews!!

[vinman]

Awesome Job great in dept review and great pics to go with it
I believe with this review your golden