Installation, Impressions, and Setup
Installation and Impressions
The board was a breeze to install. Updating the BIOS was again very easy within the BIOS. Downloading the BIOS image to a USB flash stick is all it takes anymore. Even if a user somehow destroys the BIOS image being copied over, Gigabyte has been using dual BIOS solutions to make sure that a bad flash is easy to recover from.
We see the Realtek audio codec somewhat isolated and surrounded by solid caps. It features sound that is good enough for most users, but certainly is not audiophile quality.
Hardware placement was also very easy. Once the board was attached to the case, it was easy to route all cables where needed and any other video card installation went without problem. There is adequate space around the CPU socket, but it is a little tight when considering how close the memory is. This is a universal problem with both AMD and Intel processors, and the cooling guys have figured out ways to get around tight spacing constraints.
The four fan headers are strategically placed around the board so they can service the different fans throughout the case. In terms of components, all of the hardware is really top quality. They advertise Japanese polymer caps and other high end components which make up the “Ultra Durable 5” specification.
Setup
The FM2 socket supports the latest AMD Trinity based processors. This particular board can handle every current Trinity processor from the A4 to the A10 series. The top end processor is the A10-5800K, but we can safely assume that the upcoming “Richland” APUs will work perfectly fine in this particular board with a BIOS update.
Here we have the primary I/O area. The seventh SATA 6G port is at the bottom, which keeps it from being covered by graphics cards. Note as well the USB 3.0 front panel header.
I did all tests without a standalone video card. The graphics portion of the Trinity APU is pretty robust and can handle a wide variety of games at medium quality and playable resolutions. I left the native resolution at 1280×1024, and it was able to handle quite a few games at high quality levels at that resolution.
I compared the Gigabyte board against the Asus F2A85M-Pro. Both parts are A85X based and are around the same overall price. The A10-5800K was used for performance testing and overclocking.
We see the three buttons on the baord very clearly here. These are more handy for open air test benches than when installed in a case. There is a fair amount of space around the memory slots and CPU socket.
Common Components
AMD A10-5800K APU @ 3.8 GHz
Corsair TX750W Rev. 2 Power Supply
2 x 4GB GSkill DDR-3 1866 @ 9.10.9.28 timings
1TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM HD
Lite-On DVD R/RW
Coolermaster CM690 II Advanced Case
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit Edition
Catalyst 13.1 WHQL Drivers
Nice board for FM2. One of
Nice board for FM2. One of the best I have seen. Good job Gigabyte. No AMD you need to make a monster chip for the FM2 socket. Maybe drop the Gpu part and pack more cores. a 6 core fm2 would be sweet
I think a Matx version with
I think a Matx version with similar features and a slightly lower price tag would have made more sense.
Full Atx for an apu is hard to understand.
But I do like it overall, just too bad Trinity really can’t take advantage of anything in the OC department.
nice board, hopefully it will
nice board, hopefully it will work with kaveri.
Looks like a good and solid
Looks like a good and solid motherboard but i lean more towards Asus plus if you get the F2A85-V PRO FM2 AMD A85X you also receive a bonus Razer Kraken pro headset ! id say thats a sweet deal :)http://event.asus.com/au/2013/FM2/
If your work depends on it,
If your work depends on it, learn to check just three times.
If you want to get into reselling of used printer cartridges, yyou
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operated on Symbian OS series 60 with 5th edition, is
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This is what I plan on using
This is what I plan on using on my next build. Love Gigabyte…
Gorden Web Design
No numbers? That makes this a
No numbers? That makes this a sort of “general opinion” review?
Kind of like.. well…I like this one sort of better than that one?
Very strange.
I “kind of” wish I had the 5 minutes back.
I see multiple benchmark
I see multiple benchmark pages in the review… are you not seeing them?
I recently purchased one of
I recently purchased one of these boards. The POST screen that is supposed to show on boot up is not visible. All we see is a black screen until the the message “Starting Windows” come on. After several attempts at entering the Bios program I did a bad thing. I tried to reset the bios using the bios reset button. The computer will not boot at all. So I wound up contacting the vendor. They sent me a new board. This one does the same thing. The screen that prompts to hit Del to enter setup never shows up.
Has anyone else experienced this ? If so what can I do?
as seen on a forum, just use
as seen on a forum, just use a VGA cable to enter the bios, it appears that with hdmi the bios is not visible sometimes.
but i didn’t test it myself.
a french guy trying to speak english 😉
I have this board with a A8
I have this board with a A8 5600K APU, 3.6 GHz, 3.9GHz stock…im running rock solid stable @ 4.1GHz, 4.7GHz. i have a corsair H60 water cooler and 12GGB od corsair DDR3 1333MHz, radeon HD 7770 GHz edition, win7 HP x64, 1TB HDD, havent had any problems with it, been putting it thru the ringer for almost a year now, the board’s bullet proof…the apu isnt bad either…awesome buy, and a new found love for gigabyte products
Stopped by to check it out
Stopped by to check it out and found the aricle infomative enough for me to get the mb. Unfortunately some of the people commenting sound like they are as old as I am and quit learning a few years back. Thanks for rhe info.
David Leo Rice
Just bought GA-F2A85X-UP4
Just bought GA-F2A85X-UP4 mobo. What memory should I buy for it? Anybody recommend where I should buy it?
Just bought GA-F2A85X-UP4
Just bought GA-F2A85X-UP4 mobo. What memory should I buy for it? Anybody recommend where I should buy it? Thank you
@bgchip
use 2x4GB Kingston
@bgchip
use 2x4GB Kingston Memory with Clock of 1833Mhz
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