Coaxial S/PDIF And Dual Gigabit Lan On The 990 Series AMD Boards

[Night Gyr]

Hello guys!

I'd like to ask a question about the latest 990 Series AMD motherboards. Those models that have S/PDIF on the rear I/O panel seem to have only Optical S/PDIF available, not both Optical and Coaxial, as can be found in the Gigabyte Intel motherboards. Why is that? Is this:

a)a limitation of the AMD platform
b)a part of some Gigabyte strategy to make AMD boards second-class citizens to force people to buy Intel boards
c)Gigabyte's perception of the Coaxial S/PDIF output as a legacy and unnecessary interface?

And my second question is, why doesn't the GA-990FXA-UD5 have Dual Gigabit LAN? All the UD5 boards seemed to have such a network solution. Is this again a part of the "Cripple AMD boards strategy"?

Thank you,
--Night Gyr

[Aussie Allan]

  Night Gyr  Welcome!.......... and lets see if we can brighten up your day! 

     You seem to have your mind made up about a conspiracy theory engineered and Driven by Intel

  To UN-qualify myself ,... I do not work for or receive any financial gains from Gigabyte in any way, shape or form.

 To be fair, Gigabyte understands both AMD and Intel followers sell motherboards.....In my view Gigabyte do a pretty fair job supplying a multitude of boards to cater to the diverse cross section of required specs and price range

   Personally I research rather heavily before making a main board purchase so I know exactly what I'm getting for my money and a post such as yours  becomes........... not really necessary.

 It's just a fact of life that some of the things/features Intel followers enjoy are just not available on AMD boards.....But this goes both ways!

 The reasons can be cost, compatibility of technology,....and even architecture come into the equation.

 I'm afraid having the right board to begin with through research would have saved you a lot of perceived grief your having now!

                                                      Although this is only one persons opinion.

 Aussie Allan

[Ripshod]

For no specific reason, in most cases, features such as dual LAN and other 'extra' features are included in later releases.

[Dark Mantis]

For no specific reason, in most cases, features such as dual LAN and other 'extra' features are included in later releases.

Quite correct. This is often because when a new platform appears it will sell anyway just because it is new, as it becomes more standard in the market the manufacturer has to try to add extra value to make the board stand out from the competition. This is when you tend to see all the little extras like Dual LAN, Fast Charge etc.

[Night Gyr]

For no specific reason, in most cases, features such as dual LAN and other 'extra' features are included in later releases.

What exactly is a "later release"? Do you mean the "X.1" versions of the boards? That would be really nice.

Re the first answer:

Well could you give me any technical reason (think logically why a sound output jack would depend on the chipset or the CPU? They are completely unrelated, as we don't have sound in the chipset nor the CPU (yet). There are additional audio controllers (aka codecs) for that purpose. So this must be a part of Gigabyte's strategy, I think.

BTW, I don't own an AMD nor Gigabyte board at the moment. I was exactly doing what you had proposed there - researching the available options and doing so, I've come to a (seemingly silly) limitation. So I want to find out the reason for it.

[Night Gyr]

Now I've checked the 890FX and 790FX motherboards, there seem to be only the UD5 and the UD7 models available. All four of these have Dual LAN available. What is more interesting, there is a UD5 for the 890FX chipset with AM3+ support (Black Socket), and it has both features. Now that seems to be crazy, eh?

[Aussie Allan]

 Sometimes people have very strict criteria to be met, some times there's not a board on the planet that fit such strict criteria, this is when add-on cards/and/or third party equipment can to be implemented to complete the list on a single platform, with this sort of strategy, Absolutely anything is possible.

  Aussie Allan

[Night Gyr]

Well sure you can, but I'm trying to find logic in Gigabute's actions. They had it all on similar boards in the past, why not keep including it?

[Aussie Allan]

  Night Gyr

 My Crystal Ball unfortunately runs on Quadruple "A" battery's.... And being Saturday leaves me stuck till Monday.

 The only people qualified to answer such a question IS Gigabyte......You may be able to get this information from the Gigabyte free information office in Oslo....it's on the corner of "Notahope" and Inyadreams"

 P.S...........  If you ever DO get this information we ALL would love to know as well ....Personally , I have no idea

 Aussie Allan

[Night Gyr]

Sir, I appreciate your sense of humour and the practical approach to life

But I'll be waiting for a GB rep to answer. Hope they do read the forums and can clarify the situation.

P.S. I've been positively astonished to find IPMI on this board. Fantastic, what else can I say.
P.S.S. They've removed the power/reset/ClrCMOS buttons as well. What a pity. Dear GB reps, if it's possible, could you explain why that has been done and if they will come back in a later revision? Thank you for the answer.

[Aussie Allan]

  No problems Night Gyr  and I appreciate your understanding it was actually an attempt at light hearted humour whiling away the early hours of the morning......you sound like you want answers to specific questions.....although this forum is loosely associated with Gigabyte via Moderators , the administrator (runn3R) is the only one employed by Gigabyte and carries any real clout , ...a direct PM to this person or a direct contact to  support may be the only way forward failing any worthwhile responses from members

  Hope this helps

  Regards Aussie Allan

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

As Allan has already said I doubt that you wil find the answers you are looking for on this site. I would suggest asking GGTS for their input.


Just enter your email address and click on the language of choice.
GGTS   http://ggts.gigabyte.com/

Please expect several days for a reply

[Aussie Allan]

 Thanks DM for your constant vigilance.....did you see all the fun and game on the discussion page  !

 Aussie Allan

[Night Gyr]

Well thank you guys I'll probably go that way.

See, I'm an EVGA guy, so kinda used to their approach to the problem, which is "the forum is both for the community and for the reps". OK I see GB has a different approach. Let's see how that goes.

[Aussie Allan]

 Did you expect it to go any other way to a competitors probes

 Aussie Allan