Jetway M2A480VP (AMD 480X) Review Intro 1/5
Bluetooth 9 Jan 2007

Pricing of ATi RD480 >>>

Introduction

Last year, we reviewed the Jetway's M2A481-OG board and was quite impressed by its overclockability and expandability. Today, we take a look at its little brother, the M2A480VP mainboard.

On first sight, you would have noticed that the M2A480VP board does not have 2 PCIe  x16 full length slots. This came as a surprise because the chipset is CrossFire capable but M2A480 only supports a single PCIex16 for graphics. The M2A480VP also has 2 DIMM slots instead of 4. Another major difference between the boards is that the M2A480VP Do not have GbE LAN and HD Audio. It only supports AC97 6 ch audio and Fast Ethernet.

The north bridge used is the ATi RD480 also known as AMD 480X. The South bridge used is the AMD SB600 which supporst 1 IDE channel and 4 SATAII ports for RAID 0,1,5 or 10 and 10 USB ports. The package also comes with “IMAGE IT!” System Backup Software and “ProMagicPLUS!” System Recovery System.

Although it is a lower spec board, it still has the specs of the bigger brother 481. For overclockers, you will be delighted to see that the BIOS comes with a lot of BIOS options for you to tweak. The Vcore can be adjusted up to 1.55v + 1.35% (offset). This feature is part of the CPU Vcore 7 Shift feature which gives higher voltage levels especially useful for the extreme overclockers. For example, I set vcore to 1.4v and Vcore 7Shift to 1.15%, the final voltage is 1.6v for vcore. That is to say, if you apply 1.55v for Vcore and +1.35% for your 7-Shift, you will be getting the MAX of 2.0925v. Final CPU Voltage = Vcore X 7-Shift.

If you notice, the board's LPT1 and COM1 are not mounted on the PCB. This empty slot is meant for DIY COOL. Users can mount an optional fan to cool the capacitors. According to Jetway, it can help to extend the MTBF of the capacitors of up to 30% and increase stability during high frequencies.

Specifications

CPU
Socket AM2 HTT 1000 MHz AMD® Athlon™64 With HyperTransport Technology
Compatible with 64-bit Dual Core AMD® Athlon™64 X2 Processor

Chipset
AMD™ 480X Chipset + AMD™ SB600 Chipset .

Memory
2 * 240-pin DIMM Sockets for unbuffered Dual DDR2 800 SDRAM up to 4 GB

Expansion Slot
3 * 32-bit PCI Slots / 1 * PCI EXPRESS x1 / 1 * PCI EXPRESS x16

Storage
2 * Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66 IDE Devices Support
Embedded AMD™ SB600 Southbridge Chipset Supports 4 Serial ATA2 HDDs with RAID 0 . 1 . 5 . 10 Functions.

Audio
Realtek ALC655 6-Channel AC 97' Audio CODEC

Ethernet LAN
Realtek RT88101E -GR PCI 10 / 100 LAN PHY.

USB
Embedded 10 * High Speed USB @ 480 Mbit / s

Special Features
Advanced Power Design that supports the latest Socket-AM2 K8 CPU
IMAGE IT!” System Backup Software and “ProMagicPLUS!” System Recovery System

Rear Panel I / O
4 * High Speed USB Connectors @ 480 Mbit / s
1 * PS / 2 Mouse & 1 * PS / 2 Keyboard .
1 * RJ45 Over USB2.0 Cpmmectpr .
1 * Audio I / O .

Internal I / O
3 * High Speed USB Connectors @ 480 Mbit / s for 6 USB 2.0 Ports
CPU / Chassis Fan Connectors.
1 * 12V 8 -pin ATX Power Connector and 1 * 24-pin ATX Power Connector .
1 * Serial Port 9-pin Block .
1 * Parallel Port 25-Pin Block .
1 * SPDIF 9-pin Block / 1 * IR of 5-pin Block .
CD / AUX Aubio in.
1 * Floppy Connector.

BIOS
Award 4 MB Flash ROM

Form Factor
ATX Form Factor

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