Published in Reviews

Four 780G and one GeForce 8200 tested

by on01 July 2008

Index

 

While AMD might not be the gaming platform of choice, it is a good choice for HTPC. Geforce 8200 consumes less power compared to 780G, but AMD still has the superior graphics-power and the better multimedia support. Using a 45W TDP CPU such as the AMD Athlon X2 4850e, this configuration is the best possibility to go for. J&W will introduce an ITX solution soon that we plan to review as soon as it's available.

The 4850e uses about 50W less compared to an Phenom X4 9600, the only problem which the industry needs to fix are proper power supplies. You see, even with an Phenom we reach only about 150W, but the smallest PSUs you can buy are about 330W/350W, which is quite irritating.

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Conclusion:

Overall, the 780G is a great choice for quite cheap HTPC (Home Theater PC) configurations. The GeForce 8200 is no competition to the 780G, as it runs far slower. While it does save a few Watts with an Phenom CPU, the graphics power is way below compared to AMD. ASUS M3A-H/HDMI and MSI K9A2GM-FIH battled quite close for the performance win, but due the lack of solid capacitors MSI is no choice for us, considering the J&W solution is only about €3,- more expensive, but has superior features.

J&W RS780UVD-AM2+:

With its unique features such as 64MB sideband-memory and Port 80 on-board diagnostic and quite decent power-consumptions this is a clear winner. There is still some headroom to optimize the BIOS but the gap to ASUS is quite small. The board is available for about €59,- but quite hard to find in Europe.

ASUS M3A-H/HDMI:

The only ATX board in our roundup that had a decent design and even lacking sideband-memory, the design and BIOS gives you quite close scores. With CPU and memory intensive applications such our x264 bench its shows solid performance. The board is available for about €63,- which is quite cheap for an all solid capacitor ATX board and only a few bucks more compared to other µATX solutions.

 

We can recommend both boards.

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Last modified on 02 July 2008
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