BIOS:

Main Screen	CMOS	Advanced BIOS
Advanced Chipset	Integrated Peripherals	PWR Management
PnP/PCI Config	PC Health	Freq/Volt Control

    The Phoenix - Award Workstation BIOS is used on the Sapphire PI-AM2RS690MHD motherboard. I also grabbed the latest BIOS release from the Sapphire website. The Award BIOS is very user friendly and easy to work with. The BIOS offer some adjustability to the CPU and RAM. Although these setting are limited mostly on the RAM side, it is still possible to get a decent overclock.
 

    Here are the settings for the Voltage and Frequency settings.

DRAM Config	RAM Settings	MEM Voltage
Chipset Voltage	CPU Fid Control	CPU Vid Control

Installation and Testing:

    This sums up about 90% of the board layout and the BIOS; now it's time to install the motherboard on my HSPC Tech Station and run some benchmarks. I ran a few simple benchmarks to test the onboard video graphics, along with system performance in both stock and overclock modes.

3DMark2006:

Scores

CPU SCORES

Results

Fill Rate

Pixel Shader

Triangles

Vertex Shader

CPU-Z 1.39:

Mobo Info

CPU Stock

RAM Stock

CPU OC

RAM OC

    CPU-Z v1.39 was used to read the current system configuration in stock and overclocked configurations. In these results, the system was benched with the onboard graphic processor, and the system in stock and overclocked mode. A slight overclocked advantaged was achieved with the RAM settings.

CineBench9.5:

Stock

OC

    CINEBENCH is the free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS, based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D. Consequently, the results of tests conducted using CINEBENCH 9.5 carry significant weight when analyzing a computer’s performance in everyday use, especially when a system’s CPU and the OpenGL capabilities of its graphics card are put through their paces (even multiprocessor systems with up to 16 dedicated CPUs or processor cores.) During the testing procedure, all relevant data is gathered, and is used to compare the performance of different computers, regardless of their operating systems. CINEBENCH includes render tasks that test the performance of up to 16 multiprocessors on the same computer, as well as software-only shading tests and OpenGL shading tests on huge numbers of animated polygons that will push any computer to its limits.

SiSoftware Sandra Professional XI:

CPU Stock	MEM LAT Stock	MEM BW Stock
CPU OC	MEM LAT OC	MEM BW OC

OverClocking:

    Plenty of CPU HT adjustments from 200 to 400 are available, and CPU FID control from x5 to x11 which gives a lot of control on overclocking just the CPU. Now what is lacking, like on most of the budget boards on the market, are the RAM adjustments - mainly the voltage adjustments. The voltage is limited to just four options of 1.80, 1.90, 2.0 and 2.10. This doesn't offer too much flexibility to the wide variety of RAM on the market, and that's not even considering that some RAM when overclocked likes to run over 2.10 volts. Although overclocking is possible, it's just not going to be as user friendly as some other motherboards on the market that have more advanced features.

Conclusion:

    This motherboard is not intended to be a serious overclocker, but instead to be an asset to the digital home environment. What I mean by that is it's better suited as a possible HTPC or as a medium to get digital content to a device with a HDMI connection. The onboard graphics with Avivo allows for the output of video to a TV with Video and S-Video connections.

    My test system was limited to a single core AM2 processor, which I feel hampered my results in some tests on the CPU end. The comparison between the other motherboards may seem unfair, but again that is due to a single core CPU versus a dual core CPU. The memory tests, however, were rock solid and fast with the 2GB of PC6400 RAM. The video card tests are acceptable and not too bad for onboard graphics. Anyone wanting to game with this motherboard will, of course, need to go with a PCI-E card.

    Overall, I liked the performance of the Sapphire PURE Innovation HDMI PI-AM2RS690MHD motherboard,. It has a ton of new features and can be slightly overclocked without too much of a headache. And to boot, it can be had for under $120. I would like to thank Sapphire for sending the PURE Innovation HDMI PI-AM2RS690MHD motherboard out to VH for review.