VR-Zone

 The Contenders

For this experiment, we shall be using the new range of AMD’s 785G chipset board recently released by J&W. J&W, one of the leading motherboard manufacturers, is also one of the pioneers in making Mini-ITX solution, which was once only exclusive to the industry partners, available to the general consumers.


 
 J&W recently released three motherboards under the AMD’s 785G + SB710 chipset, mainly the JW-A785GM-D3 (ATX), JW-A785GMT-EXTREME (MATX), and MINIX™ 785G-SP128MB (MITX).  We shall be using the JW-A785GMT-EXTREME and the MINIX™ 785G-SP128MB for comparison.

The 785G chipset, with the ATI Radeon™ HD 4200 Graphics, is the latest from AMD to provide power-efficient, features and performance platform at incredible value.

Motherboard Comparison

	JW-A785GMT-EXTREME	MINIX™ 785G-SP128MB
Processor	1.    Socket AM3 for AMD Phenom™ II x4/ Phenom™ II x3/ Phenom™ II x2/ Athlon™ II x4/ Athlon™ II x3/ Athlon™ II x2/ Athlon™ II/ Sempron™ 1xx series processors 2.    Support 140W TDP 3.    Support AMD Cool'n'Quiet!™ Technology	1.    Socket AM3/AM2+/AM2 for AMD Phenom™ II */ Athlon™ II / AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 / Sempron™ processors (*Please note: This board support max. 65W TDP processors.)
Chipset	1.    AMD® 785G + SB710 (Built in Radeon™ HD 4200 Graphics, DirectX® 10.1 and UVD 2.0 Ready, with 128MB DDR3 side-port memory onboard) 2.    J-Micron® JMB381 PCI-Express 1394a controller 3.    Realtek® RTL8111DL Gigabit Ethernet controller 4.    Super I/O: Winbond W83627DHG chip 5.    Realtek ALC888 8-Channel HD Audio Codec 6.    Dual 8M bit flash ROMs (One main bios, one backup bios)	1.    AMD® 785G + SB710 (Built in Radeon™ HD 4200 Graphics, DirectX® 10.1 Ready, with 128MB side-port DDR2 memory onboard) 2.    Marvell® 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.    Super I/O: Winbond W83627EHG chip 4.    Realtek ALC 885 HD Audio Codec 5.    8M bit flash ROM
HyperTransport™	1.    HyperTransport™ 3.0, 5200 MT/s	1.    HyperTransport™ 3.0/1.0, 5200/2000 MT/s
Memory	1.    128-bit Dual-channel memory architecture 2.    Dual Channel DDR3 1666(OC)/1333/1066/800 3.    Max capacity: 16 GB DDR3 4.    DIMM slots: 4 x DDR3	1.    2 SODIMMs, Dual Channel DDR2 1066/800/667/533 support (DDR2 1066 support is dependent on CPU and market supply of DDR2 1066 SODIMMs) 2.    Max capacity: 8 GB 3.    DIMM slots: 2
Internal I/O Connectors	1.    1 x 24-pin ATX power connector 2.    1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector (compatible with 4-pin connector) 3.    1 x Floppy drive connector 4.    1 x IDE connector (for 2 PATA devices) 5.    6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (Support RAID 0, 1, 10, JBOD) 6.    1 x CPU fan connector 7.    2 x System fan connectors 8.    1 x Front panel header 9.    1 x Front audio header 10.    1 x 1394a header 11.    3 x USB 2.0 header for additional 6 USB 2.0 ports (by cables) 12.    1 x Buzzer connector 13.    1 x IRDA connector 14.    1 x CD-In connector 15.    1 x Serial port header 16.    1 x SPDIF In/Out header	1.    1 x 24-pin ATX power connector 2.    1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector 3.    1 x IDE connector (for 2 PATA devices) 4.    4 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (Support RAID 0,1,0+1) 5.    1 x CPU fan connector 6.    1 x chipset fan connector 7.    1 x system fan connector 8.    1 x front panel connector 9.    1 x front audio connector 10.    2 x USB 2.0 header for additional 4 USB 2.0 ports (by cables) 11.    1 x buzzer connector 12.    1 x COM header 13.    1 x IR connector
Expansion Slots	1.    1 x PCIe x16 Gen. 2 slot 2.    1 x PCIe x1 Gen. 2 slot 3.    2 x PCI slots	1.    1 x PCI-E x16 Gen.2 slot (support up to x4)
Rear Panel I/O	1.    1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard port 2.    1 x HDMI port 3.    1 x Coaxial S/PDIF In port 4.    1 x Optical S/PDIF Out port 5.    1 x DVI port 6.    1 x D-Sub port 7.    1 x 1394a port 8.    1 x e-SATA port 9.    6 x USB 2.0 ports 10.    1 x RJ-45 Giga-LAN port 11.    6 x Audio ports (Line In / Line Out / MIC In / Rear Speaker Out / Center-Subwoofer Speaker Out / Side Speaker Out)	1.    1 x PS/2 Keyboard port 2.    1 x HDMI port 3.    1 x DVI port 4.    1 x VGA port 5.    1 x e-SATA port 6.    2 x S/PDIF ports (Coaxial In, Optical Out) 7.    6 x USB 2.0 ports 8.    1 x RJ45 GigaLAN port 9.    6 x Audio ports (Line In / Line Out / MIC In/ Rear Speaker Out / Center-Subwoofer Speaker Out / Side Speaker Out)
Form Factor	1.    Micro-ATX 2.    243mm x 243mm	1.    Mini-ITX 2.    170 x 170mm