Socket FM2 is (almost) there

[AMDave]

Smallest FM2 motherboard at the moment might be MSI A85IA-E53
http://www.pcper.com/news/Motherboar...t-Motherboards
" shallow in depth and is meant to be used in living room HTPCs."

[Dirk Broer]

This ITX board might be even smaller, or at least of the same size Zotac A75-ITX WiFi

And here another contender (2nd board from above) Sapphire Pure Platinum A75T -and look at the low-profile HD 7750 below!

[Dirk Broer]

Asrock FM2 Motherboard page. Fourteen(!) boards here, five A85 based.
ASUS motherboards page. Ten FM2 boards to be found, five A55 and five A85 boards.
Biostar FM2 motherboard page, with 11 boards, four Hi-Fi A85 boards amongst them Look at the CPU Support List!
ECS FM2 motherboard page, six boards, two per chipset, the A85 boards, A85F2-A DELUXE and even more classy A85F2-A GOLDEN
All quiet on the Foxconn front
Gigabyte FM2 motherboard page, with 10 boards: three A55, three A75 and four A85
Jetway FM2 Motherboard page. Three boards here, two A85.
MSI page with 5 boards: two A55, two A75 and one A85
Sapphire FM2 board page with one A85 board, PURE Platinum A85X, so far (But where can we get the Sapphire PGS with FirePro APU? Can we get it at all? It's supposed to be OEM)
Zotac split their mobo's not on sockets, but on chipsets. They have two FM2 ITX boards: ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi B Series and ZOTAC A55-ITX WiFi B Series

[Dirk Broer]

What makes a FM2 board a good board? From a cruncher's point of view I'd say that it's pretty much the same as the criteria I'd use for a FM1 board:

* Support for 4 sticks of RAM, so you do not run out of memory. Not now, never, even when doing 4 BURP WUs at a time.
* The most versatile chipset possible, here the A85 (where the A75 was the best choice for FM1), so you can e.g. have RAID5, USB3 and SATA3.
* At least two slots for discrete graphic cards, so you can go for triple crossfire, together with your APU or do SLI with two nVidia cards.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors, so that the board can even be used without discrete graphics and not be hampered by a missing connector.
* eSATA support, for them external goodies.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP, especially if you want to tinker around with nVidia cards.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer.

Si far the next boards made the cut, or did it almost:
Asrock: The FM2A85 Extreme 6 supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP. The power design has a 8+2 phase VRM.
Asus: The F2A85-V PRO supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP. The power design has a 6+2 phase VRM.
Biostar: The Hi-Fi A85X supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP. The power design has a 8+2 phase VRM.
ECS: It is unclear yet whether -but likely that- A85F2-A DELUXE and even more classy A85F2-A GOLDEN support LucidLogix Virtu MVP. The power design falls short though, as it only has a 4+1 phase VRM.
Foxconn: The A85AP also seems to fall short on the power design phases, having a 5+1 phase VRM.
Gigabyte: The GA-F2A85X-UP4 has a 6+2 phase digi VRM design. It also supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP.
Jetway: The Jetway HA20-85X has three PCIe x16 slots, and the power design has a 8+2 phase VRM. No mentioning of LucidLogix Virtu MVP though.
MSI: Unclear whether the FM2-A85XA-G65 supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP. It does have a 8+2 phase hybrid digital VRM.
Sapphire: Unclear whether the Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT supports LucidLogix Virtu MVP. It has a 8+2 phase VRM design.
Zotac: None yet.

[NeoGen]

I wish companies would produce consumer motherboards with more than 4 memory slots... I like that feature on server motherboards but I don't want to pay hundreds more for it and be locked in the server platform and components only. (and their outrageous prices!)
Part for part I have been slowly building myself a couple of home servers (Storage and VMware, neither one complete yet), but I am building them with standard components, micro ATX form factor and... I wish I wasn't capped at 32Gb of RAM.

[Dirk Broer]

Some FM1 boards do support 64 Gb, but you have to fill them with not-yet-existing 16 Gb sticks in order to get 64 Gb....
Some of those boards are micro ATX as well, such as the Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H (needs a BIOS Update to F5 though)

People who can afford it bought Socket 1366 mobo's (six memory slots) and are now buying Socket 2011 mobo's (eight memory slots)
It would indeed be nice if there were AM3+ boards that would also have six or eight slots...

[Dirk Broer]

The Asrock FM2A85X Extreme 6 gets favorably reviewed by Techwarelabs
AnandTech has posted (on 10-10 already) a review of the ASUS F2A85-V PRO, one of the FM2 boards of choice (able to support Quad CrossFireX). While not overly enthusiastic, the article nicely sums up all the specs of the board.
Biostar's Hi-Fi A85X is reviewed by OCWorkbench
ECS has their ECS A85F2-A Golden critically reviewed (say:clobbered) by AnandTech
The Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 got a review from the HiTechLegion and from Vortez
MSI's FM2-A85XA-G65 is reviewed by eTeknix
Sapphire's Pure Platinum A85XT also got reviewed by eTeknix

[Dirk Broer]

While I am a big fan of ATX boards, some prefer the more compact μATX format.

What were the criteria for a good FM2 board?
* Support for 4 sticks of RAM, so you do not run out of memory. Not now, never, even when doing 4 BURP WUs at a time.
* The most versatile chipset possible, here the A85 (where the A75 was the best choice for FM1), so you can e.g. have RAID5, USB3 and SATA3.
* At least two slots for discrete graphic cards, so you can go for triple crossfire, together with your APU or do SLI with two nVidia cards.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors, so that the board can even be used without discrete graphics and not be hampered by a missing connector.
* eSATA support, for them external goodies.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP, especially if you want to tinker around with nVidia cards.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer.

Which mobo's will pass these criteria?
Asrock: FM2A85X Extreme4-M
* Four RAM slots? Yes, up to 64 Gb (4x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? Yes.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks Displayport.
* eSATA support? Yes.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? No.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Comes with 4+2 Power Phase Design.

ASUS: F2A85-M PRO
* Four RAM slots? Yes, up to 64 Gb (4x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? Yes.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Yes.
* eSATA support? Yes.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? Yes.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Comes with 4+2 Power Phase Design.

BioStar: Hi-Fi A85S3
* Four RAM slots? No, two with up to 32 Gb (2x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? Yes.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks DVI and Displayport.
* eSATA support? No.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? No.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Comes with 4+1 Power Phase Design.

ECS: no A85 μATX board, and their A75 μATX board only supports two sticks of RAM.

Foxconn: To the best of my knowledge not a single FM2 board ready to be bought.

Gigabyte: GA-F2A85XM-D3H
* Four RAM slots? Yes, up to 64 Gb (4x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? Yes.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks Displayport.
* eSATA support? No.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? No.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? unclear.

Jetway: They have two FM2 μATX boards, the A75 equipped HZ07-85 being their best offer.

MSI: no A85 μATX board. They do have a A75 FM2 board though, the FM2-A75MA-E35.

Sapphire: no A85 μATX board, the name Sapphire Pure White A55 says it all for this μATX board.

Zotac: To the best of my knowledge not a single μATX FM2 board ready to be bought. Zotac are real ITX specialists.

Based upon these specs, I declare the ASUS board the winner of this review. If the various brands of motherboards want a more extensive review, they can send their boards to me in order to be properly tested.

[Dirk Broer]

And what to expect in the ITX format? Suppose you want to build a HTPC set and you think the afore mentioned μATX boards are too big for the casing you have in mind. What can you find on the net/in the store?

Asrock: FM2A85X ITX
* Four RAM slots? What do you think? On an ITX board? Two is all you get, for a maximum memory of 32Gb (2x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? Yes.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks DVI and Displayport.
* eSATA support? Yes.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? Don't think so.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Unclear, but I'd expect at most a 4+1 power design on any ITX board.
You can ask yourself whether an ITX board setup really needs a A85 chipset. If the A75 suits you equally well Asrock has the similairly equipped FM2A75M-ITX for you.

ASUS: No A85 ITX yet, nor any other FM2 ITX board.

Biostar: No A85 ITX yet, nor any other FM2 ITX board.

ECS: No A85 ITX yet, nor any other FM2 ITX board.

Foxconn: To the best of my knowledge not a single FM2 board ready to be bought.

Gigabyte: No A85 ITX yet, nor any other FM2 ITX board.

Jetway: To the best of my knowledge no ITX FM2 board.

MSI: no A85 ITX board (the MSI A85IA-E53) yet, but the A75 equipped FM2-A75IA-E53
* Four RAM slots? Two is all you get, for a maximum memory of 32Gb (2x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? No, the A75.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks DVI and Displayport.
* eSATA support? Yes.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? Don't think so.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Unclear, but I'd expect at most a 4+1 power design on any ITX board.
BTW: this mobo has both Bluetooth and WiFi!

Sapphire: no A85 ITX yet, nor any other FM2 ITX board (e.g. the Sapphire Pure Platinum A75T).

Zotac: no A85 ITX, but the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi B is ready to be bought.
* Four RAM slots? Two is all you get, for a maximum memory of 32Gb (2x16Gb).
* A85 chipset? No, the A75.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors? Lacks Displayport.
* eSATA support? No.
* Support for LucidLogix Virtu MVP? Don't think so.
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 8 (6 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer? Unclear, but I'd expect here too at most a 4+1 power design.
BTW: this mobo has also both Bluetooth and WiFi!

To quote Kevin Bruce Francisco & Kenny Yeo "Although FM2 motherboards have been spotted aplenty at Computex, it will be some time yet before we get to see AMD's desktop Trinity APUs in the market."

Based upon the specs MSI and Zotac have a winner with their Bluetooth and WiFi equipped MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 (with eSATA support) and the ZOTAC A75-ITX WiFi B (with HDMI).

[Nflight]

Impressive Reporting there Dirk, Thank You