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Gigabyte adds USB 3.0, 6Gbps SATA to AMD boards
Complementing its recently announced P55A branded series featuring third generation SATA and USB connectivity, Gigabyte has followed up with three new boards that claim the same perks and support different variations of AMD's latest hardware. The GA-790FXTA-UD5 will cover the high-end market, while the GA-790XTA-UD4 and GA-770TA-UD3 should bring 6Gbps SATA and USB 3.0 to a more affordable price point.
As the name suggests they are based on AMD's 790FX, 790X, and 770 chipsets, respectively. All three boards feature AM3 sockets and DDR3 memory slots, as well as an 8+2 CPU VRM power phase design that allows maximum overclockability and compatibility with 140W Phenom II processors. Just like their Intel counterparts, these rely on NEC's uPD720200 chip for USB 3.0, and Marvell's 88SE9128 controller for 6Gbps SATA.
No detailed specifications are available for the 790X and 770 models, but according slides posted by The Tech Report, the enthusiast-grade GA-790FXTA-UD5 has three PCI Express x16 slots (capable of running in a x16, x8, x8 lane configuration), eight internal SATA ports, two eSATA/USB combo connectors, and Gigabyte's Precision OV to ensure precise voltage control and fine stepping for the CPU, memory and chipset.
As the name suggests they are based on AMD's 790FX, 790X, and 770 chipsets, respectively. All three boards feature AM3 sockets and DDR3 memory slots, as well as an 8+2 CPU VRM power phase design that allows maximum overclockability and compatibility with 140W Phenom II processors. Just like their Intel counterparts, these rely on NEC's uPD720200 chip for USB 3.0, and Marvell's 88SE9128 controller for 6Gbps SATA.
No detailed specifications are available for the 790X and 770 models, but according slides posted by The Tech Report, the enthusiast-grade GA-790FXTA-UD5 has three PCI Express x16 slots (capable of running in a x16, x8, x8 lane configuration), eight internal SATA ports, two eSATA/USB combo connectors, and Gigabyte's Precision OV to ensure precise voltage control and fine stepping for the CPU, memory and chipset.
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User Comments (48)
Post a comment| Kibaruk on November 24, 2009 10:31 AM | Nice! I thought we weren't going to see motherboards with USB 3.0 until 2011, if I don't recall one of the news I read from here. |
| Guest on November 24, 2009 10:34 AM | I'm as surprised as you are. |
| BlindObject on November 24, 2009 10:58 AM | More and more choices for my next build, man, I gotta start working. |
| Afenix on November 24, 2009 11:09 AM | I'm not surprised. USB 3.0 was already on his way to the market about half a year ago, and it finally made it. Haven't heard any info about the new sata though.. I hope it comes soon to the intel motherboards. |
| Deso on November 24, 2009 11:15 AM | more amd boards...? how about making a version of UD6 that can have USB 3.0 and 6gbps sata without having to disable the slot 2,3 PCI-E graphics card slots? I mean seriously, its a 250 dollar board, people who spend that much money on a board are probably gonna spend a lot on graphics cards too since it has 3 PCI-E slots, and it only use the 3.0 usb and the new sata when *ONE* graphics card is used. anyone with me? |
| swilllx2p on November 24, 2009 11:19 AM | I'm just happy to see USB 3.0 on hardware this quickly. I really hope that all the hype of it comes true, and you can use it on as many things as they predict because it could really make a lot of cabling efficient fast and easy. |
| Adhmuz on November 24, 2009 11:22 AM | If what Deso said is to be true than these boards are not at all a high end option, for the price you would expect not to be nuking your PCI-E slots to use next gen connectivity. Also going with AMD CPU is kinda a hard thing to do right now with Intel currently offering the top CPUs, I'm personally looking forward to Light Peak more than USB 3.0 and SATA 3, current SATA 2 isn't limiting hardware by bandwidth yet and USB 2.0 I find also still needs devices to catch up. |
| realxboxmaster on November 24, 2009 11:30 AM | Gigabyte is a very high reputable, reliable motherboard manufacture. Their MB are packed with features that you won't even know what to do with. They are the ONLY MB manufacture that has whats called "Duel BIOS" .and also thier driver support is excellent. Me personally , I highly recommend Gigabyte motherbords to anyone who's on a budget, excellent performance and overall value. |
| realxboxmaster on November 24, 2009 11:31 AM | Gigabyte is a very high reputable, reliable motherboard manufacture. Their MB are packed with features that you won't even know what to do with. They are the ONLY MB manufacture that has whats called "Duel BIOS" .and also thier driver support is excellent. Me personally , I highly recommend Gigabyte motherbords to anyone who's on a budget, excellent performance and overall value. |
| danteoz on November 24, 2009 11:33 AM | the usb 3.0 not til 2011 is intel not making their own chipset supporting usb 3.0 til 2011, hope that clears it up a little. The board manufacturers are using NEC's chips for the usb 3.0. |
| slh28 on November 24, 2009 11:36 AM | I wonder what the "affordable" price point mentioned above is... but it's nice to see new mobos with USB 3.0 come out, even though there's not many devices you can actually plug into those ports lol. |
| tigerf117 on November 24, 2009 11:47 AM | I don't see much of a need for USB 3.0 now. I'm trying to think of a single device that even pushes USB 2.0's bandwidth? Even the faster SSD drives can't sustain throughput high enough to stress USB 2.0, unless I'm mistaken. Not that it's a bad thing, but anyone know something that could truly benefit from USB 3.0? (maybe webcams?) Also the same with Sata |
| dextersh on November 24, 2009 12:06 PM | @tigerf117 Don't worry, USB 3.0 devices will soon emerge. Maybe even devices that no one thought could be done with USB interface. And about Gigabyte all I can say is that in the moment they are truly my favorites. And only few years ago I had no respect for them at all. |
| timljh on November 24, 2009 12:13 PM | I wonder in the end will USB 3.0 really replaces the USB 2.0 or the LightPeak? |
| fref on November 24, 2009 12:32 PM | I'm glad to see new USB 3.0 motherboards being announced on
a regular basis. I hope it catches on quickly. Maybe Intel
will realize it's making a mistake and integrate it in it's
chipsets earlier than 2011, as they've said
before. Anyway, NEC must be really happy about all this... |
| paynetrain007 on November 24, 2009 1:26 PM | Sounds promising but I think I'll wait till Asus supports these. I've heard to many horror stories from newegg about Gigabyte motherboards "catching fire" |
| ColdPreacher on November 24, 2009 1:46 PM | Im happy USB 3.0 is coming soon, 2.0 was a great technology that has its boundaries, even more happy about SATA going 6Gbps, |
| Guest on November 24, 2009 1:50 PM | I don't know about these 'horror stories' about GB main
boards... I have both a asus and a GB board and I need
update the Asus bios almost every couple of months as
something isn't working right... the GM is still using the
stock bios, seeing as it's giving me no reason to update it
so I won't... This is good. GB will likely be in the next 2 computers I build for my friends in april. but we'll see what asus has then as well. |
| AfricanTech on November 24, 2009 1:57 PM | USB 3.0 will definitely be useful for external storage -
especially for image backups. At the moment I'm backing up a
60 GiG partition and it's going to take a little over two
hours via USB2. Not sure I'm ready to leap to a full mboard change yet though - I'm waiting for the add-on cards and will go USB 3.0 via that route first. |
| Puiu on November 24, 2009 1:59 PM | I don't like the fact that they use 333 in their marketing
scheme. They mention usb 3.0 2 times. If they used let's say
DDR3 then it would have been good enough for a "333" (usb3,
ddr3, sata3). @tigerf117 USB 2.0 has a max bandwith of 60MBps (480Mbps). With SSD's pushing speeds of over 200MBps (USB 3.0=400MBps) i think it saturates USB 2.0. Also USB 3.0 has some other good features and tweaks. It's too much to write so just wiki it. |
| afroaggie on November 24, 2009 2:05 PM | Well it is nice to see that someone is pushing the usb 3.0 ball. We need companies like this that are willing to take the plunge into a new technology and see where it goes. |
| Xinthran on November 24, 2009 2:17 PM | I love all the new things coming out so fast...but I am also so tired of having to think about upgrading ALL THE TIME. |
| lupinnktp on November 24, 2009 2:24 PM | Nice!! but when would we be able to get our hands on (common) USB 3.0 devices? |
| BlindObject on November 24, 2009 3:01 PM | They should make a new cup warmer for the USB 3.0. =D |
| Vicenarian on November 24, 2009 3:10 PM | ...So when USB 6.0 comes out, will they use 666 to advertise
their products? With the amount of digital media devices (digital camcorders, external hard drives, etc) in use today by the general public, this should gain widespread acceptance. Right now, most devices are stick with USB 2.0, which, in a real life scenario, really only transfers data at 20-30 MBps in my experience. (or maybe I just have too many USB devices hogging my USB bus width). Basically, it just takes too long to transfer 50 or so GB of files to your USB 2.0 HDD. I thought eSATA would be more popular than it is today, as it seems it hasn't gained that great a share of the consumer electronics market other than a few select external hard drives. Sure, a few laptops come with eSATA interfaces, and you could always buy an extension card for your desktop, but really, what consumer electronics devices readily come with eSATA interfaces other than external HDDs (and then only a select few)? That leads me even more to believe that USB 3.0 will be the standard interface in the area of digital media and external storage for the next few years. |
