AM2 Crossfire?

[craeyon]

I have a question for the top notch Anandtech reviewers here (if they see this).

It is a very simple yet a very vague, ambigious or even stupid if you want to call it question. How do you ask companies to send you hardware to review?

 

[Tsuwamono]

Originally posted by: craeyon
I have a question for the top notch Anandtech reviewers here (if they see this).

It is a very simple yet a very vague, ambigious or even stupid if you want to call it question. How do you ask companies to send you hardware to review?

Thats actually quite a good question lol

 

[craeyon]

Like I don't mean to change the topic but I m just curious as to how.

 

[OBCT]

Good news, I got the drivers installed. I'm partitioning the rest of my hard drive right now, followed by a graphical test (probably Flatout), then it'll be time to OC.

Oh, for anyone buying the MSI K9A Platinum, you might have to Enable VGA Mode when booting Windows for the drivers to install correctly.

 

[Willardjuice]

Originally posted by: Willardjuice
What bios did it ship with?

Well?

 

[craeyon]

There goes my question...

 

[CreepieDeCrapper]

Originally posted by: craeyon
There goes my question...

I would imagine that it's like anything else that gets sent out for review (CD releases, new movies, etc). If the review is going to make it into a highly visible delivery source (i.e. well-known magazine or website), then you can probably contact the hardware mfg directly, and get in touch with their PR department. They'll probably want to know all kinds of statistics about how you will test their products and how many people will end up reading the review.

What they really want from it all is exposure of their company and product to the general market. Of course, they are also hoping for POSITIVE exposure too.

If you want some hard-answers, though, I would do some basic Googling and maybe contact a few PR departments to see where it takes you. Are you looking for free hardware or do you have a publication of some sort you'll put the reviews in?

 

[OBCT]

Originally posted by: Willardjuice

Originally posted by: Willardjuice
What bios did it ship with?

Well?

If you were talking to me, v1.1, the latest one. It comes with some options set differently than when you clear CMOS, so write them down.

Started OCing last night. The HT Link Speed thing is confusing as hell. Not sure what multiplier 'Standard' and 'For Overclocking' are, I just stick it on the latter. I got the HTT up to 273 before Windows wouldn't boot. So my max safe HTT (95%) is 259, and ironically at 260, things started acting weird (all lights in case turning off during restart).

I'll probably work on finding the max CPU speed today or tomorrow.

 

[craeyon]

Originally posted by: CreepieDeCrapper

Originally posted by: craeyon
There goes my question...

Are you looking for free hardware or do you have a publication of some sort you'll put the reviews in?

Possibly both but mostly free. I m in no intention to keep it however. Review and return thats how my theory goes. I need the reviews for my website and i will surely follow your instructions. Thanks!

 

[craeyon]

Whats the difference between the SB600 (Asus M2R32-MVP) and RD580 (DFI CDX3200-M2) I am pretty sure i m comapring 2 different things there. Ones a north bridge and the other is south..i think?

I am just thinking of waiting for the DFI CDX3200-M2. I don't know what when will that come out.

 

[Willardjuice]

Both motherboards use the RD580 (Northbridge) and SB600 (Southbridge).

 

[The Mailman]

any word on the MSI board yet? or Sapphire?

or any that I can buy as a Canadian?

 

[Willardjuice]

I think ewiz ships to Canada Not a bad price for the MSI board too.

 

[The Mailman]

bottom line

is the msi board a cheap alternative or is it just as good as the others?

any word on the sapphire? it has a cooler name and doesnt remind me of that ****** bad (msi)

 

[The Mailman]

ugh, ewiz....

they'll ship to canada...sure, for $60.....CHEATERS

i wanted to buy it and have it shipped to my USA address but they wont let me do that...b.s....

i might as well get it on ebay for $190....ill see if someone lists it for cheaper....

 

[familyman1]

Originally posted by: craeyon
Whats the difference between the SB600 (Asus M2R32-MVP) and RD580 (DFI CDX3200-M2) I am pretty sure i m comapring 2 different things there. Ones a north bridge and the other is south..i think?

I am just thinking of waiting for the DFI CDX3200-M2. I don't know what when will that come out.

As Willard said, these are NB and SB chips. I have seen the DFI listed with the new SB650 (I'll try to find the link) though. They may have switched to the SB600 to get the board out earlier. As far as I can tell the only difference between SB600 and SB650 is the RAID 5 support in the latter, so unless you need a RAID 5 array these SB chips will effectively be the same. It's possible ATI added GB ethernet support to the SB650 but I haven't seen it officially. It's not that big of a deal for a mobo manufacturer to add a GB ethernet chip to the board - they already do this with the SB600 boards. It might be a good idea to look up the GB chip manufacturer for a given board if this is important to you.

No word on the Sapphire boards release date but Sapphire put out a press release on two AM2 boards - link

I believe the Asus M2R32-MVP will hit retail this week. I'm going to try to hold off until the DFI and Sapphire board hit the streets. I'd like to see how these three test out.

 

[The Mailman]

im holding off until i get the rest of my parts in. no more.

 

[quizzelsnatch]

it looks like the sapphire board will also be that same white as the Manta reference board by ATi. However, the sapphire board has some of the genius planning that ATi put into their board (8pin power connector inbetween some of the I/O slots, only 1 pci slot, 1 1x pcie slot)

 

[Tsuwamono]

Originally posted by: quizzelsnatch
it looks like the sapphire board will also be that same white as the Manta reference board by ATi. However, the sapphire board has some of the genius planning that ATi put into their board (8pin power connector inbetween some of the I/O slots, only 1 pci slot, 1 1x pcie slot)

Sweet.. that board is mad sexy

 

[OBCT]

Originally posted by: The Mailman
is the msi board a cheap alternative or is it just as good as the others?

I'm satisfied with it. I had major driver problems with the chipset and graphics card. A few Windows installs fixed it.

The MSI board likes to reboot. Before I got drivers installed, it would reboot when I tried to install the drivers (kind of a paradox there). It randomly rebooted once during Oblivion, and twice with AA turned on (at the same point in the game, might've been an Oblivion bug).

The board uses black PCB, which is something I like. No Asus brown for me!

If you really want a Crossfire mobo, get the MSI.

 

[quizzelsnatch]

Originally posted by: Tsuwamono

Originally posted by: quizzelsnatch
it looks like the sapphire board will also be that same white as the Manta reference board by ATi. However, the sapphire board has some of the genius planning that ATi put into their board (8pin power connector inbetween some of the I/O slots, only 1 pci slot, 1 1x pcie slot)

Sweet.. that board is mad sexy

Not as sexy as the Manta But I'll look into getting it.

 

[Tsuwamono]

Originally posted by: quizzelsnatch

Originally posted by: Tsuwamono

Originally posted by: quizzelsnatch
it looks like the sapphire board will also be that same white as the Manta reference board by ATi. However, the sapphire board has some of the genius planning that ATi put into their board (8pin power connector inbetween some of the I/O slots, only 1 pci slot, 1 1x pcie slot)

Sweet.. that board is mad sexy

Not as sexy as the Manta But I'll look into getting it.

*chokes*... Im getting that... Price is no problem... Im getting that lol

 

[OBCT]

Wow, that looks nice. I think I'll stick with my MSI until AM3 is well under way, though.

 

[The Mailman]

im gonna get the sapphire for sure. you cant even see the board in my setup but i dont care, thats just too rad.

 

[craeyon]

Alright I dunno but I am prolly the only canadian in a NDA (i might embarass myself here) for the sapphire board but you know what its hitting the canadian market soon we will have a review on DigitalDistrict.NET keep checking.. (not that websites don't have one) lol!

The price of this motherboard will be $290 CAD thats a given.