Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 & AMD A10 5800K Review (w/ discrete)

The Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 motherboard ships in a white box with the name of the product on the front, along with some specifications. The A85X chipset is based on the FM2 socket and has Crossfire support, and 8x SATA 6 GB/s ports. It is worth pointing out that the Crossfire support is x16 bandwidth in single mode or x8 bandwidth if two cards are used. The A85x is designed to support 4 USB 3.0 ports and 10 USB 2.0 ports.

The bundle includes several SATA connectors, a software disc, user manual, quick start guide and I/O backplate.

This is Gigabyte's flagship FM2 motherboard. It is based around the latest Ultra durable 5 motherboard construction, which includes 2 oz copper PCB layers, humidity proof glass fabric layers, solid state capacitors, new high current ferrite core chokes and PowIRstage IE3550 driver MOFSETs. The FM2 socket is powered by an 8 phase VRM.

The board is ATX form factor, measuring 30.5cm x 24.4cm.

We love the board colour scheme, the dark greys and blacks give an ominous appearance which looks fantastic. There are several heatsinks across the PCB to help with VRM cooling.

The four memory slots support up to 64GB of DDR3 with speeds of 1066/1333/1600/1866mhz.

Gigabyte have included a handy power button on the board, as well as a CMOS_SW button. This is positioned ideally for easy access, and not underneath a discrete graphics card.

There are six SATA ports on the port, all coloured black, and all SATA 6Gbps capable. Next to the SATA ports are the dual bios chips, in case of emergency. Next to the Dual Bios chips is a diagnostic readout for troubleshooting.

The Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 has three PCI Express x16 slots. The top slot runs at x16, the middle slot x8 and the bottom slot x4. While Crossfire is supported, the top slot with downgrade to x8. There are also 3 PCI Express x1 slots and a single PCI slot.

The CPU power connector is close by the small heatsinks between the CPU socket and the I/O panel.

The back panel connectors are:

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
• 1 x D-Sub port
• 1 x DVI-D port
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
• 1 x HDMI port
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s connector
• 1 x RJ-45 port
• 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out/Rear Speaker Out/Side Speaker Out/Line In/Line Out/Microphone)

The Internal I/O connectors are:

• 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
• 7 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
• 1 x APU fan header
• 4 x system fan headers
• 1 x front panel header
• 1 x front panel audio header
• 1 x S/PDIF Out header
• 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
• 1 x serial port header
• 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
• 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header
• 1 x power button
• 1 x reset button
• 1 x Clear CMOS button

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