Post Cards from the Edge - AMD 780G, NVIDIA 790i, Gigabyte 680i
by Gary Key on April 5, 2008 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
For a bright-eyed teenager in 1976 that had high hopes of becoming a journalist one day, the satirical film Network was a revelation suggesting maybe choosing another profession would be a wise move. (Ed: Look at where that got you.) After years of intense investigative coverage of Watergate and the resulting rise in credibility of the journalistic profession, it seemed the right - maybe even honorable - field of study during the college years... until that fateful New Year’s Day in 1976.
In 1976, the country was celebrating its bicentennial, trying to put Watergate and the Vietnam War out of our minds, and looking forward to an election that would chart a new direction in American politics. (These subjects sound familiar 32 years later.) Top films of that year really did represent what we were going through, and to some degree what we would become in the near future.
Rocky found us in love with the underdog who never gave up. All the President’s Men gave us a short synopsis of the Watergate scandal from the perspective of the journalistic team (Bernstein/Woodward) that broke the story and proved that journalists were sexy, provided you resembled a young Robert Redford. The Bad News Bears allowed us to take a humorous look at sports obsessed parents realizing that winning at any cost had taken the joy out of playing the game for many kids (kids who would become today’s Soccer Moms and Dads).
I enjoyed many other movies that year with my friends, which more or less fit in with our very sarcastic yet humorous personalities. Some were dark like Taxi Driver, Marathon Man, The Omen, Obsession, and Carrie, while others were on the lighter side such as Silent Movie, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Silver Streak, and Mother, Jugs & Speed. Of course, we also had the breakout science fiction films, Logan’s Run and Futureworld. (Told you we were sarcastic.) All told, it was a decent year for film, and some thirty years later we still have Rocky, Pink Panther, and King Kong remakes.
However, there was one film that year that left a lasting impression on us; that film was the aforementioned and critically acclaimed Network. What All the President’s Men did to glorify the journalistic profession; Network succeeded in displaying the dark and seedy side of media. In retrospect, it also provided a fairly accurate glimpse of where TV/Print media was headed along with society. Sensationalism - some would say yellow journalism - sells and is what a large cross-section of society enjoys, whether they openly admit it or not.
In Network, Peter Finch played the aging news anchor, Howard Beale, who at one point in the film makes an impassioned speech that resulted in an extremely popular catch phrase of the time. He persuaded his watching audience to step outside and shout, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” This phrase struck a chord with mainstream America during that year and with us now.
It has been a couple of rough weeks for the motherboard team. Our best laid plans have been thwarted for a variety of reasons, most of which have us shouting the above phrase, and we are sure some of you feel the same way. Since the news and review sections are fairly quiet over the weekend, we thought it would be a good time to discuss those items that put a burr under our saddle - to address issues that our readership is having with the technology and companies that we cover on a periodic basis. Believe it or not, we rarely get to rant (and for very good reasons as you will see), but sometimes it's necessary to say what one thinks. So here is Rant Session #1 for your weekend enjoyment.
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haplo602 - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Geee thanks for the 780G board info. I was just heading into the same disaster with my next platform upgrade ... thanks for the warning .... I will watch the amd board compatibility list and not the manufacturers specs ...perzy - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Seems like power problems is THE mobo problem today.I recently bought a AMD 5000+ Black edition for my MSI K9N Neo.
It was supported said the MSI webpage.
But, the bios have no multplier! I'm guessing the mobo cant take the power increase.
This must have happened to a lot of ppl that bought some black edition CPU's.
Mr Fox - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
NVIDIA controls the content of the "COLATTERAL" that is put on these boxes this is another example of NVIDIA tieing their partners hands and insulating themself from the "Voice of the customer".Every NVIDIA Chipset that has been introduced has had Data Corruption Issues.
It amazes me that a Company can Engineer such fine video cards can put out such Fecal Matter when it comes to Core Logic Chipsets.
Now I'm beginning to belive that the Marketing Department has run Amok when they Re-PCB (G92)-400-A2 crank the price $150.00 and call it 9800 GTX.
Just another example how lost their leadership is when this kind of activity is perpetrated upon your customer base.
nRollo made the bold statement to me about a month ago that nVIDIA was making record profits, and I reminded him that so was AMD Three Years ago.
Never a Dull Moment !!!
nubie - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
Ouch, I just want to run a tri-core Phenom in my DFI Infinity II M2, I don't really know if that is going to happen now.I also was planning on running a heavy overclock on my P5N-E SLi with a 45nm Dual Core, I guess it should be fine for that. (currently it is hosting a Celeron430 @3.17Ghz 33°C stable Prime95 loaded, haven't got enough fans on the HR-05 chipset cooler yet to try going higher, and I honestly can't see how to with this Sycthe Infinity hogging all the space, but it was booting fine at around 3.6Ghz before the NB was too hot, it doesn't help that there is no mention of the stock NB voltage, just 4 settings :?, and no granularity :( )
KillaKittie - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
This is the first time ive heard of these problem's before and it sounds like your just mad and ranting which you are but let's keep it at that.Im running the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G motherboard with a 125w X2 6000+ just fine and have been for the last 2 month's with zero problem's. Not only that but im also running 2 hardrives and an 8800GT with 6 80mm fan's sometimes running at 100%.
Ive had no problem's with system instability and have had no crashes and i play games like Crysis for very long period's of time.
Zap - Monday, April 7, 2008 - link
KillaKittie writes:"Im running the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G motherboard with a 125w X2 6000+ just fine and have been for the last 2 month's with zero problem's."
In the article:
"Interestingly enough, Gigabyte has qualified the 125W TDP 6400/6000+ X2 processors on this board."
The review board died with a Phenom, not a 6000+ which according to Gigabyte is explicitly supported. Also, are you overclocking? That seemed to be what broke the Gigabyte board.
Glenn - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Perhaps Killa Kittie needs to let us know how much he has maxed out that configuration. After all it is an "Enthusiast" board! And BTW, I thought this was 2008, not 1998! Who has 6 80mm fans in one system nowadays?KillaKittie - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
I have no plan's to max any configuration i have here it's just fine how it sit's.I got the impression throwing any 120w processor will fry this board in minutes so im here to tell you mine has worked very well for what it is.2x 80mm on the PS
3x 80mm in the back with an adjust screw
1x 80mm in the front wired to adjust screw in back.
Jedi2155 - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
And, all those fans are powered through the motherboard headers?TrueSport - Sunday, April 6, 2008 - link
Re: KillaKittie,post it on the AT forum,
before anybody is going to trust you!