TweakTown and Motherboards.org both reviewed the ECS AMD690GM-M2, an AMD Socket AM2 (940) mini-ATX motherboard that features the AMD 690G / ATI SB600 chipset, ATI Radeon 1200 IGP, Athlon 64 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor support, 2000/1600 MT/s front side bus, dual channel DDR2 memory (up to 8GB max), PCI Express x16 external graphics, 8-channel audio, 3.0 GB/s SATA support w/ 0, 1, 0+1 RAID, Gb LAN, and DVI-D & D-sub video connectors.
"It's surely not a motherboard for gamers and enthusiasts but with fairly decent onboard graphics through the Radeon X1250 and an affordable price tag, it will make a great basis for a basic budget or office system. Mate it with an AMD Sempron CPU and you'll have a capable performing PC without costing a bomb. It misses the mark at being a true home theatre capable motherboard, skipping features such as HDMI, HDCP and any form of digital audio output but it could make for a low-end and simple HTPC." [TweakTown]
"The ECS board is in many respects similar to the ASUS board I reviewed at the AMD launch of the 690G chipset. The motherboard comes with the most bare of essentials in terms of bundle, as the board comes with a single SATA cable and a single IDE cable. Unfortunately, ECS also decided to limit the memory slots on the board, making this board a value board at best. Performance is in the same class as the previous 690G board as well, but the choice has to be nudged to the other board as this board is lacking on memory modules and accessories. The one bothersome aspect of the board is the location of the SATA ports. Any long video card like the upcoming R600 or 8800GTX may block more than one or two SATA ports making installing a SATA RAID array problematic." [Motherboards.org]
If you are interested in a mobo with HDMI video support, it would be best to wait for the other manufacturers to release their 690G offering. The inclusion of a DVI and D-Sub video connector is cool, though. This chipset is a welcome replacement for the GeForce 6100 chipset line.
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