ASMedia’s ASM1042 controller adds an additional pair of USB 3.0 ports to the rear panel of Asus' F2A85-V Pro, while a set of PCIe 2.0 pathway switches contributes a second graphics card slot for converting x16-x0 configurations to x8-x8. Asus uses the CPU’s remaining four lanes to add a third PCI Express 2.0 slot with lower bandwidth.
Though its layout appears familiar, a closer look at the F2A85-V Pro reveals better CPU power connector and front panel audio header placement. An even closer look reveals a few tiny buttons for the Asus-exclusive features MemOK, USB BIOS Flashback, and Asus DirectKey.
MemOK automatically underclocks poorly-programmed memory to at least facilitate boot-up into the UEFI for adjustment. USB BIOS Flashback gives you the ability to update the board's firmware with no other hardware installed. Finally, Asus DirectKey allows users to enter the UEFI at any time during motherboard initialization.
Asus is particularly proud of its Fan Xpert 2 feature, which facilitates control over and monitoring of the motherboard's fan headers. Attached coolers can be set to spin up or down automatically, or configured to operate at fixed speeds.
USB BIOS Flashback is particularly useful when purchasing a newer CPU and older motherboard simultaneously, since it circumvents the issue of hardware compatibility and a firmware mismatch. Previously, that might have required you to buy an older APU just to update the board's UEFI to properly recognize the new chip. On this platform in particular, BIOS Flashback isn't as necessary, though, since Socket FM2 and Socket FM2-compatible APUs are both new. This could change in the future if AMD maintains backward-compatibility with its next-gen architecture.
The secondary function of Asus DirectKey is that of a power button. Touching the DirectKey button when the system is already up and running in an operating system triggers a shut-down, and touching it while the system is off causes it to boot directly to UEFI. That function is increasingly practical as the window for hitting the Del key to enter the UEFI gets shorter with each new motherboard generation (and even more so with Windows 8).
We’ve noticed that AMD fans are more likely to be frugal, but perhaps the time has come to quit being frugal about cases? While a good case can last through several builds, many older designs lack space to connect SATA cables to the forward-facing ports common on modern motherboards. The F2A85-V Pro can be counted among these modern designs, with six of its seven internal SATA ports facing forward to allow increased card clearence.

The F2A85-V Pro has seven internal and one external SATA connector, but users will only be able to connect half of those out of the box. The installation kit includes four internal cables, though Asus also adds a pair of its quick-connecting cable extenders.
- AMD's Answer To Ivy Bridge-Based Core i3
- ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6
- FM2A85X Extreme6 Firmware
- Asus F2A85-V Pro
- F2A85-V Pro Firmware
- ECS A85F2-A Golden
- A85F2-A Golden Firmware
- Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4
- F2A85X-UP4 Firmware
- MSI FM2-A85XA-G65
- FM2-A85XA-G65 Firmware
- Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT
- Pure Platinum A85XT Firmware
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: F1 2012
- Benchmark Results: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking
- Of Six Socket FM2 Boards, Two Rise To The Top


These sound like great ideas for a platform-oriented story. In fact, Thomas and I have discussed doing a piece on memory and Trinity. Maybe we could expand that to include an exploration of graphics and processor bottlenecks, too. Thanks for the feedback!
You still have never posted your 1GHz+ clocked GPU results.
I am also upset that you didn't run the gaming benches with the OCed RAM. I want to know how a PROPERLY configured setup like this could perform.
8% gains approx from going to 1866 over 1600, does higher clocks after this have any effect?
How does OCing the GPU part limit your CPU clock OCs? or is the heat not too bad ?
So many questions unanswered....
Sneaky, lol. Now he's going to be downvoted.
Penalizing a company over a PCB's color is asinine and petty. Even if you have a case with an acrylic window, do you stare into your PC all day and night? If so, that is trend I don't care for.
There are much more important things to worry about, like quality, price, and features, to name a few...
"Adoby Creative Suite"
just one?
who cares, good job to crash and the rest of the crew . . .
edit: i had to fix a typo . .oh karma!
Heh, apparently, editing motherboard round-ups in a Thanksgiving food coma is not conducive to catching typos. Got that one as well--thanks looniam!
You still have never posted your 1GHz+ clocked GPU results.
I am also upset that you didn't run the gaming benches with the OCed RAM. I want to know how a PROPERLY configured setup like this could perform.
8% gains approx from going to 1866 over 1600, does higher clocks after this have any effect?
How does OCing the GPU part limit your CPU clock OCs? or is the heat not too bad ?
So many questions unanswered....
These sound like great ideas for a platform-oriented story. In fact, Thomas and I have discussed doing a piece on memory and Trinity. Maybe we could expand that to include an exploration of graphics and processor bottlenecks, too. Thanks for the feedback!
Well, in days gone by we'd have had green or gold boards. To be perfectly honest though, unless you're going to have a side window, you're not likely to care about the PCB colour. I'm far more interested in features and performance than the aesthetics, personally.
I thought that the brown PCB meshed decently with the black and grey color scheme utilized by most of the rest of the board. Hey, at least it doesn't look like those ugly low end FoxConn boards
Here is a relevant quote from a randomly-googled article:
Longtime Elder Scrolls fans hoping Skryim would take full advantage of the PC's strengths: unfortunately we have to disappoint you. Game director Todd Howard says besides higher quality textures and bigger resolutions, it "looks the same" as on consoles, and it's "mostly a DirectX 9 game in terms of how the shaders work."
He does note DirectX 11 support is a possibility down the line, however: "When it comes to DirectX 11 there are things they get us for free, like performance gains. You’re going to get performance gains out of it versus an older version. But the specifics DX11 does, like tessellation and all that kinda stuff, we aren’t taking advantage of that right now. That doesn’t mean we won’t in the future. We aren’t right now because we want to author it so it looks great.”
On the bright side, the new engine means Skyrim looks quite lovely as is, just nothing mind-blowing, which it could be. No doubt the modding community will improve the situation before long, though.
He wasn't asking for proof of what DX is utilized by Skyrim, he was asking where in the article was it claimed that Skyrim used DX11.
As far as performance goes, there doesn't appear to be any difference worth noting (which I'd expect).