When it comes to choosing a personal computer in a budget class, many potential buyers come to the conclusion that there is nothing cheaper in the market than a PC based on AMD with integrated graphics. In this article, the reader will get acquainted with the cheapest representative of the computer world - the AMD 760G chip and motherboards based on it. Specifications, description and feedback from the owners will help the buyer to draw their own conclusions and determine the need for acquisition.
Market positioning
The main advantage of a budget representative with system logic AMD 760G is a video card, the characteristics of which allow owners to run games that are undemanding to resources. The manufacturer provided the chip with an integrated accelerator IGP Radeon HD 3000. An affordable price (about 3000 rubles) and gaming capabilities will definitely appeal to all potential buyers.
An important advantage of the motherboard is the support of all modern AMD processors and the operation of the chip with the PCIex16 interface, thanks to which the budget representative, with the appropriate upgrade, can compete with the more expensive segment in the computer market.
Form factor and its features
The motherboard AMD 760G is made in micro-ATX format. As you know, in the market for computer devices, this form factor is popular only in the corporate segment. Along with low cost, the buyer gets a very economical device in terms of energy consumption. For installation in an office at the enterprise, this is welcomed, but for home use such a motherboard is not always acceptable.
The problem for all owners is hidden in the functionality, or rather, in the absence of opportunities for installing or connecting expansion cards. Before buying a chip based on AMD 760G, the user must prioritize what is more important to him: the cost or the ability to upgrade.
Computer heart
The support of all modern processors with the 760G chip from AMD can envy all the platforms of the competitor Intel. And given the presence of integrated graphics, the motherboard does not have a single competitor in the budget class. For the AMD 760G chipset, processors are available both in the low-cost segment and in the gaming class: AM3 +, FX, Phenom II, Athlon II and Semprion. The only limitation that the motherboard has is heat dissipation - the crystal should consume no more than 95 watts.
The owners will also like the installation of the socket, because on the processor site there are completely no capacitors and other batteries. This means that the user can install any radiator, including a passive cooling system. For lovers of silence, the AMD 760G platform offers great opportunities.
Spanning several generations
An interesting feature of this chip is the support of several types of RAM. On the market, the buyer can find motherboards that can work not only with DDR2 or DDR3, but also a kind of symbiosis: DDR2 + DDR3. True, there are not so many such devices on the market, because this functionality reduces the consumer ability in the market of computer parts.
Studying the description based on the AMD 760G chip, a potential buyer may find that all motherboards have support for dual-channel memory mode , but the number of slots for installing modules is limited to two connectors. The reason is the micro-ATX form factor, which limits the possibilities of expanding RAM.
Potential in gaming applications
Fans of resource-intensive games obviously will not like the power of the integrated video adapter. But the manufacturer worried about customers and installed one PCIex16 slot, which supports all existing graphics accelerators on the market that have this interface. However, for an AMD 760G chip, a video card whose specifications depend on serious power consumption (more than 150 watts) is not suitable. The south bridge, which is responsible at the hardware level for data transfer between the video adapter and the system board, is not designed to operate under extreme loads and may simply burn out due to overheating.
The presence of only one PCIex16 slot limits the owner in improving the performance in games due to the installation of several video cards. But the user may not worry that the cooling system of the video adapter will block the expansion cards. All manufacturers of motherboards based on AMD 760G placed popular slots (PCIex16 and PCI) at a great distance from each other (3 units).
Work with hard drives
The file system support in the AMD 760G motherboard is also well implemented. Technical characteristics of the chip provide work with four SATA III devices at the same time. An important factor for many office users is the availability of an integrated RAID controller that can combine hard drives into arrays of levels 0, 1, 10 and JBOD. Most budget devices have always had problems with this.
It is not clear what the manufacturer was guided by when he placed the IDE interface on the motherboards with DDR2 memory support, and on the updated systems with DDR3 he simply removed the slot popular among users. But there is a place on the motherboards for it, and many computer owners still have an internal DVD-drive or hard drive with an IDE interface.
A small step into the future
The AMD 760G chipset supports working with PCIex1 - all motherboards are equipped with this newly demanded slot. However, for some unknown reason, some manufacturers placed it directly under the PCIex16 bus. After all, any discrete video adapter simply closes the desired port with its cooling system. The AMD 760G chipset has full support (at the BIOS level) for all SSD drives existing on the market that are implemented for connection via the PCIex1 interface.
Stepping into the future, AMD technologists have lost sight of the ability of the chip to work with high-capacity hard drives. The user will not be able to enjoy working at a computer with a hard drive having a capacity of more than three terabytes. Updating the motherboard firmware does not fix the problem, which spoils the general idea of the AMD 760G chip.
Sound subsystem
Special attention to the potential buyer deserves an integrated sound card. In the media, many owners claim that for the budget representative of the computer market, the Realtek ALC887 chip looks too expensive. Thanks to such a gift from the manufacturer, the AMD 760G baseboard supports working with a full 7.1 system. The user can easily connect 7-channel speakers and enjoy surround sound.
In the budget segment, a good audio system looks unusual, but it is this feature that attracts many music lovers who know a lot about high-quality sound. The board has an excellent power reserve, and the chip is protected by noise-suppressing insulation from interference from other devices in the system unit. As the owners note in their reviews, for complete happiness, only gold-plated contacts and an optical output are not enough.
System Board Weak Link
The limitation of processors and video adapters in terms of heat dissipation will definitely lead a potential buyer to the idea that there are some problems with the power management system of the AMD 760G device. Owner reviews contain a lot of negative about this, because manufacturers install the cheapest electrolytic capacitors, which have the ability to swell and fail literally in the first year of operation (of course, this happens when the processor is overclocked).
Apparently, AMD decided to reduce the cost of the motherboard in this way in this way, but this approach is not welcomed by many buyers. In the media, many owners claim that they were ready to overpay the manufacturer for the product, if only he installed solid-state capacities on the system board.
Interfaces & Connectors
For an AMD 760G-based chip, the specifications describing the capabilities of the motherboard are more like an advertising booklet. The manufacturer describes the superiority over competitors in the speed of memory, processor support, the presence of an integrated video adapter, but is silent about the interfaces. But many potential buyers are more interested in knowing which peripherals it can connect to a computer.
External connectors on the motherboard are unlikely to surprise demanding users. Firstly, two PS / 2 ports for connecting a keyboard and mouse are not particularly popular in the domestic market. The second negative concerns 4 USB 2.0 ports. They are not only few, but they are also ancient - where is the support for USB 3.0? The integrated video adapter only outputs via the analog VGA interface. No DVI or HDMI is provided. In general, it is not clear what the manufacturer was thinking about, launching a modern chip on the market.
Budget segment for end consumers
For the production of motherboards based on AMD 760G, the characteristics of which, as it turned out, do not go beyond the framework of an inexpensive segment, many well-known brands took up. And they need to be given credit, because the product clearly needed to be finalized. ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and AsRock have taken responsibility and improved the motherboard in their laboratories. The changes affected primarily the batteries - the replacement of electrolytic capacitors with ferrite storage removed the limitation on the heat emission of processors.
At Foxconn, technologists have added an expansion card for USB ports. True, they all work only with the 2.0 interface, but their number has doubled. Biostar and ECS excelled in the market - the addition of digital video output in the form of DVI will definitely appeal to users who want to connect a computer to a widescreen TV.
Finally
The cheapest chip on the market with the AMD 760G marking is uniquely capable of attracting customer attention with its low cost. 3000 rubles for a multi-functional motherboard with great potential is not much. Support for all processors based on AMD logic is undoubtedly a virtue, even despite some restrictions on heat dissipation. Integrated graphics and the ability to install a discrete video adapter should attract buyers from the gaming segment. And the presence of a RAID controller and high-quality sound will appeal to music lovers and office workers.
The negatives include work with multimedia and peripherals. The 21st century is in the yard, and on the motherboard there is no HDMI output and the number of USB ports is limited! There are also problems in working with memory modules - just two DDR2 / DDR3 connectors do not allow the owner to increase system performance, limiting the amount of RAM to 8 gigabytes. In any case, the buyer should decide what is more important to him: price or performance in the future.