ATI XPress 220? (RS482/SB450) Info?

FraZomBie · Apr 25, 2005, 07:41 AM

I'm getting mighty impatient waiting for the ATI "Grouper" Socket 939 enthusiast boards to appear. Way back at CeBit there were working test samples floating around:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=55734
http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMDUw

But its all gone very very quiet. I have an nForce2 MCP-T based motherboard right now and I am wanting to jump ship to one of these Grouper boards. Partly because I'm sick of nVidia's poor driver release frequency (and lack of info on what's fixed and when, etc). And partly because they look pretty interesting for overclocking. Actively cooled MosFets...sweeet!

Anyway, I'm thinking they might be delaying it because of Fudo/R520... because these new MoBo's (or a certain version of them) will reportedly support AMR (ATI's SLI implementation). So... any time now...

In the mean time has anyone seen any new info? This Sapphire board is the only example I have come across.

FraZomBie · Apr 25, 2005, 07:46 AM

I have just come across this:

http://freespace.virgin.net/m.warner/RoadmapQ205.htm

I don't know how true/reputable the source is but it indicates that the RS482 is the single display version of the chipset, the RX48# is the IGP version and the RD48# is the DUAL GFX version... it also indicates that the RD48# and RS482 will be released in June or Quater 2 of this year.

Damnit I need pictures and specs!

Lowfat · Apr 25, 2005, 01:57 PM

I am sick of waiting for the Sapphire board to be released. I've being delaying a mobo purchase for a while now because of it, and i can't wait much longer

FraZomBie · Apr 26, 2005, 03:40 AM

I know the feeling. Its a nice looking baord. I'm assumin/hoping there will release several models of it when it does come out. Hopefully one with AMR and a mATX version too.

I'd actually most like to see an mATX ATi Xpress 220 Motherboard with 2x 16xPCI-E (or 1x 16x and 1x 8x) and 1x 1x PCI-E and a PCI slot... with all the normal whistles and bells too. Don't need SATA RAID controller tho, just the normal 4 SATA is fine. That'd be perfect for me. I don't need a full size ATX.

A1A9C1 · May 6, 2005, 07:39 PM

Just picked up my venice, the sapphire 200 boards seem to be out in Germany.
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.asp?sku=307925&cks=PRL
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.asp?sku=307851&cks=PRL

Still got to get the new psu or case and psu so I'm waiting too. I hope the bios is as good or better than the reference board from last November.

***FraZomBie check this article: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day5/2
Look at the reset buttons at the bottom, they weren't mentioned in the Hexus article, also they're calling it the "gruper"

FraZomBie · May 7, 2005, 06:12 AM

Isn't Komplett.se based in Sweden? Anyway, those boards look to be the normal vanilla XPress 200 baords with the SB400 southbridge. I think the SB450 has SATA300 and Azalia HD audio, amoung other things. Still, its the first time I have seen those boards available.

Good find with the URL, those buttons look pretty useful. Strange how they clearly point out its spelt Gruper and not Grouper as every other site names it. Odd.

Cheers!

F

A1A9C1 · May 7, 2005, 12:45 PM

That was odd that it the name was stressed. Oops, well Sweedish and German do have that similar sound to them. Ich can zehr veineger??? (little) Deutsch gesprechen.
F let us know if an when you find it.
If i get the psu next month it will still be another before I can budget the money for an approximate $150 - $200 mb.
Thinking about an S12 430 or that modular thermaltake 500 psu. The thermaltake has much better amperage on it for just about the same price.
Deficit spending, I learned it from reading the paper about the politicians.

FraZomBie · May 9, 2005, 03:51 AM

LOL. I'm keeping 'em peeled my friend.

*ocztony* · May 26, 2005, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A1A9C1

Just picked up my venice, the sapphire 200 boards seem to be out in Germany.
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.asp?sku=307925&cks=PRL
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.asp?sku=307851&cks=PRL

Still got to get the new psu or case and psu so I'm waiting too. I hope the bios is as good or better than the reference board from last November.

***FraZomBie check this article: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day5/2
Look at the reset buttons at the bottom, they weren't mentioned in the Hexus article, also they're calling it the "gruper"

its not the one your waiting for....trust me

A1A9C1 · May 27, 2005, 03:07 PM

The ones at the Sweedish site? Yea I know those look vanilla to me. Those were the first non-micro motherboards I saw with the chipset. My 5/15 APAW is waiting on: http://www.sapphiretech.com/pressrelease/Pure.pdf
I pulled that info from the xtremesystems Grayskull thread.

jasonbourne · May 30, 2005, 02:08 PM

im seriously thinking bout getting this motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=90157

wot do u guys think???

A1A9C1 · May 30, 2005, 10:38 PM

The specs don't come up for that board, can't tell about it. Newegg looks like they've had a few atx Xpress200's in stock for the past week here in the states.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ubmit=Property
I read somewhere that the uli sb didn't oc well. I'll try to dig that up again. If it was from a legit reviewer it might be true. Still gonna hold out for the 450 southbridge here, plus a couple trustworthy positive reviews. The previews for the chipset were all good.
*** Found it, but it wasn't about overclocking.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2.../index.x?pg=14

FraZomBie · May 31, 2005, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ocztony

its not the one your waiting for....trust me

So what one(s) are we waiting for?

A1A9C1 · May 31, 2005, 08:44 AM

This is what I'm talkin' about ***

This is the version that made it to Computex today, deleted the red prototype pics that hit the www like 3 months ago

Lowfat · May 31, 2005, 09:18 AM

That board is taking way too long to be released. ATI's multi videocard chipsets should be released here soon, and Sapphire hasnt even released thier enthusiast single videocard bored.

A1A9C1 · May 31, 2005, 09:32 AM

That motherboard is a pre-production test model.

Maybe the reason it isn't out yet is because it's morphed into a crossfire version?? Something similar with a good southbridge is sure to be available after Computex next month.

FraZomBie · Jun 1, 2005, 04:16 AM

Unless I am completely mistaken the black crossifre reference board is the same as that white one from sapphire, apart from the dual PCI-E 16x vs the single 16x + 2:2x of course. E.g.: (from T-Break):

There are a few differences on the white one. At first glance: the VIA (Firewire?) controller placement, 2 extra SATA connectors, the VGA/DVI ports (IGP obviousl on whitey), no molex connector behind auidio ports and it has a BGA chip and extra firmware chip moint below the last PCI slot (for IGP?). Other than that they are the same so I'm kinda assuming that the corssfire board (or probably the reference design) is made by Sapphire much like Sapphire did for a lot of the Radeon 9x00 series.

A1A9C1 · Jun 1, 2005, 08:29 AM

Looks close, the red intel version is similar. I'd like to know what the jumper on the white one fixes. The high resolution picture of it at the xtremesystems thread is widescreen ready, won't fit on my crt. DFI and Asus have mb's in Taipei too. Hope there are a few rtm's soon so they go retail.
http://techreport.com/ja.zz?comments=8390

A1A9C1 · Jun 12, 2005, 11:17 AM

Newegg has a selector for the ATI RS480 on their page for amd motherboards now.

It goes to another micro, a Jetway. Their site actually shows a full sized mb with the chipset.
If my monthly budget had commas in it, I'd have gone another route already.

A1A9C1 · Jul 30, 2005, 07:23 PM

No_Style has more info in the news section.
Something about August 5th in that Anandtech article!!

Lowfat · Jul 31, 2005, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A1A9C1

Newegg has a selector for the ATI RS480 on their page for amd motherboards now.

It goes to another micro, a Jetway. Their site actually shows a full sized mb with the chipset.
If my monthly budget had commas in it, I'd have gone another route already.

The Jetway board isn't actually that bad, I've heard its a pretty decent OC'er for the price.

FraZomBie · Aug 1, 2005, 06:11 AM

I'm glad there's finally more info. I'm not seeing any availability dates tho. And I'm dissapointed that the USB performance is still not great and SATA2 still isn't supported on the southbridge. Still its a nice chipset. The HD audio is very welcome for my wait for the X-Fi. I suppose some of the mobo manufacturers could use a seperate USB chip (like they do for the Sil SATA) to provide better USB. I mean, it wouldn't cost much. I'd happily give up Firewire for that, as I have no Firewire devices, nor do I think I ever will. Firewire doesn't seem to be very popular in the UK. I'm also interested to see what DFI produce with this chipset. Now my only question is what happens with R520, as that will dictate whether I go for nVidia SLI or ATi Crossfire.

A1A9C1 · Dec 5, 2005, 02:03 PM

check this out buds-----
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813154006
I read somewhere a couple months ago there was trouble with the power regulator setup. That could have been the Venice a64 low cpu E (voltage), high mem E thing caused by the processor though.