CeBIT 2007: bit-tech Hardware Roundup

AMD's DTX form factor:

AMD was showing off its DTX form factor at the show, but only as a tech demo. As you can see from the image above, the northbridge is too far away from the memory slots for it to be used with Intel processors. It’s designed to fall somewhere between mini-ITX and mATX, but with a smaller footprint than mATX. Although it’s a specification that has a small footprint, DTX will still offer a decent real estate in comparison to mini-ITX.

There could be a lot potential applications for the new form factor, especially when you consider that it’s fully compatible with all mATX cases. In addition, it’s an entirely open platform for anyone to develop for (apart from Intel at the moment, it would seem).

However, it's possible that most cases will still be made to accommodate the larger and better established mATX market, which will negate the whole point of the smaller DTX standard unless DTX boards are considerably cheaper than mATX counterparts. AMD has almost the same problem Intel did with its BTX and mBTX range. Although unlike BTX, DTX is still fully ATX compatible.

AMD 690G mobos:

The most interesting AMD 690G board of the show actually came from Albatron. In a mini-ITX format the company’s engineers have managed to cramp DVI, VGA, HDMI, and Component video outputs on to the board’s rear I/O. In addition, the board supports 8-channel HD audio via either 3.5mm analogue jacks or coaxial and optical S/PDIF. Finally there is also Gigabit Ethernet, four SATA 3Gbps ports and two IEEE 1394a Firewire ports packed on. All of this and you still get to use a full flavoured AMD AM2 processor rather than go searching for an underpowered and overly expensive mobile version. Kickin’, you’d think...

The downsides: how does £180 suit your pocket? In addition, there isn’t room for a PCI-Express x16 slot and you’ll have to use DDR2-533 or DDR2-667 SO-DIMMs. This leaves a sudden bitter taste in your mouth. Add this to the fact that most AMD 690G boards will be exceptionally cheap mATX boards and Albatron has a potentially rather large problem on its hands.

In actual fact, after being told the price then helping me pick my jaw up from the floor, one of the directors asked me if it would be better suited to the barebones solution on display instead. So whether this board ships on its own or in a mini-ITX case with power brick, or even at all, is still up the air.

Foxconn’s A690GM2MA-8EKRS2H is based on the AMD 690G / SB600 combination too. It supports four SATA 3Gbps ports, one PCI-Express x16 and x1, two PCI slots, 8-channel HD audio, Gigabit Ethernet and the company’s TigerOne system and overclocking control chip.

Gigabyte showed off not one by two AMD RS690 boards at CeBIT, one full ATX and one mATX. The Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 is the mATX variant that uses the value 690V northbridge over the more expensive and slightly fuller-featured 690G. The board features both PCI-Express x16 and x4 slots, although don’t expect to use large cards in the x4 slot since the northbridge heatsink sits directly behind it.

On the other hand, the GA-MA69G-S3 uses the AMD 690G chipset on a full ATX board – this is the first fully fledged AMD 690G motherboard we’ve seen. Like the GA-MA69VM-S2, the GA-MA69G-S3 also has PCI-Express x16 and x4 slots but also adds three x1 slots into the mix as well. There is also support for both HDMI and VGA ports on-board, with pin outs for HDTV too.

Abit had its Fatal1ty F-I90HD HD on display - a board that we've briefly touched on in the past. It is the first board we’ve seen based around the Radeon X1250 graphics core (the same one used in the AMD 690G chipset), but unlike 690G, this board has support for Intel’s Core 2 processors. It uses the traditional black and red Fatal1ty colour scheme and includes a gold plated HDMI port on the rear I/O.

Asus was also displaying its AMD 690G solution at the show; this board includes an extra PCI-Express adapter for HDMI 1.3, S/PDIF and component video on top of the VGA and DVI ports on the rear I/O panel. It has both PCI-Express x16 and x1 slots, two PCI slots, four DDR2 sockets and four SATA 3Gbps.

AMD QuadFX

Asus showed off a live demo of the QuadFX system running for CeBIT goers. It’s certainly an impressive platform but it's questionable whether it still has a future once native quad-core Barcelona hits later this year. It will be interesting to compare numbers on this platform to the future single socket solution.