- AMD A88X (Bolton D4)
- A- Series (FM2+) / Athlon Series
- DDR3 2133/1866/1600/1333
Terrible Customer Support
03/06/2014
This review is from: GIGABYTE GA-F2A88XN-WIFI FM2+ / FM2 AMD A88X (Bolton D4) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Mini ITX AMD Motherboard
Pros:
At default settings, the board works fine. I knew that I needed a FM2 processor to use the motherboard before hand, so I was ready for it not to be FM2+ ready, which it wasn't. So all was well on that end. It has a nice VRM heatsink and plenty of connectivity options. A fairly decent motherboard.
Built in Wifi is great with Intel's latest drivers, and the magnet on the antennae is a cool idea, but doesn't work with my aluminum case :(
This isn't a bad board, first and foremost I want to get that across, it just has very early BIOS with bad feature support and worse tech support standing behind it.
If you use default settings, the AMD stock heatsink and never go into the BIOS, please consider it, this is a great motherboard.
Cons:
Terrible support from both Intel and Gigabyte.
The Intel 7260-AC wifi that is built into this board had many issues with the initial Windows 7 driver. It would frequently disconnect and need the PC restarted to get connectivity back. Weeks of tech support with Intel (or really, waiting for them to get around to answering and my questions) and I had no solution. Then the released an updated driver and everything from there was peachy. No thanks to tech support, but hooray for their driver team getting the lead out.
Now, Gigabyte's issues. I'm STILL troubleshooting issues with their board. Their turn-around time is terrible and when I had two separate concerns, they ignored BOTH to tell me to group my questions together. I had to wait 5 days for them to snub me and ask me to group my questions together??? OH HAR HAR VERY FUNNY, GIGABYTE.
The only program that will read my A10-7850k's temps properly is their Easy Tune 6 (AIDA, HWmonitor, CoreTemp and Open Hardware monitor all fail) but it frequently crashes with "GUI MFC" errors. I contacted their customer support about that too (a week ago) and am still waiting for answers.
If you try to set a lower Vcore to undervolt your APU, it will fix the Vcore to that value and it won't go down to idle voltages anymore. I tried contacting customer service about it and they fed me some "Oh, our default settings have no problem with that!" bullcrap and I had to REMIND THEM I was NOT using default settings. Still waiting for a proper answer on that too!
Voltages are shaky, too. You want 1.5v ram? Too bad, it's 1.54 now. You have to pick 1.48 or 1.46v to get 1.5v in Windows. It doesn't let you set RAM voltage to 1.65, but gives you 1.64 and 1.66, but picking either one gives you higher voltages in Window's, as Easy Tune 6 reports 1.67 when you pick 1.64 and 1.69 when you pick 1.66.
As another customer said, the APU's temps in BIOS skyrocket to the high 70's (See Steven S.). I'm not sure why, but an AMD A10-7850k has a max temp of 72.4 according to AMD's support. This means just browsing the BIOS can make your APU hot enough to fry it. That is unacceptable. Again, contacted Gigabyte about it, haven't gotten a straight answer yet.
If it wasn't for the fact that Gigabyte's tech support didn't take so long to reply, I would have returned this board within the 30 days Newegg gives you. Hindsight is 20/20, I won't be getting Gigabyte boards and expect any customer service anymore- if i don't like anything with the board, I will return it promptly.
THIS IS NOT A MOTHERBOARD FOR OVERCLOCKING, UNDERVOLTING OR TWEAKING. ONLY BUY IT IF YOU INTEND TO USE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS.
Overall Review:
These aren't issues, but things you should be aware of: The CPU socket is placed awkwardly, it is very close to the PCIe and ram slots and severely limits options for aftermarket cooling. Coolermaster's Gemini II M4 will block the first RAM slot and the PCIe slot.
The Tech Report uses a Noctua NH-L9a on this exact same motherboard (pictured in "A quick look at Mantle on AMD's Kaveri APU") and it doesn't block the PCIe slot or the ram, I've considered using it in the future.
Manufacturer Response:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your comments. We apologize for your difficulty with your GIGABYTE product. Please contact us at newegg-support@gigabyteusa.com with the case number 107138 in the e-mail subject line. We will provide personalized service and analysis to help solve your issue ASAP. If the matter is urgent, please send us your contact number, and we will contact you.
GIGABYTE VIP Support Team
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- JARRED I.
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Verified Owner
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Owned For:
1 month to 1 year
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