Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H AMD A88X

For those in the market for an AMD Kaveri compatible motherboard that is micro-ATX and not too expensive, the Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H is a board worth considering that works well with Linux.

After the January launch of AMD's Kaveri APUs that work well with Linux in having an extra A10-7850K APU I ended up buying the Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H as an extra Kaveri-compatible board for use as running within the new automated open-source test farm. The F2A88XM-D3H sports AMD's A88X chipset and features Gigabyte Ultra Durable 4 Plus Technology, UEFI Dual BIOS, 2-way CrossFire support, all-solid capacitors, and other extra Gigabyte features. At the time of writing this micro-ATX Kaveri-compatible motherboard is selling for about $80 USD.

Specifications:

APU FM2+ Socket Support
- AMD A series processors
- AMD Athlon series processors

Chipset
- AMD A88X

Memory
- 4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory
- Dual channel memory architecture
- Support for DDR3 2400(OC)/2133/1866/1600/1333 MHz memory modules
- Support for AMD Memory Profile (AMP)/Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules

Onboard Graphics
- APU with integrated AMD Radeon HD 8000/7000 series graphics

Audio
- Realtek ALC887 codec
- High Definition Audio
- 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel
- Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN
- Realtek GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit)

Expansion Slots
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)
- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
- 1 x PCI slot

Multi-Graphics Technology
- Support for AMD CrossFire technology
- Support for AMD Dual Graphics technology

Storage Interface
- 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, and JBOD

USB
- 4 USB 3.0/2.0 ports
- 8 USB 2.0/1.1 ports

Internal I/O Connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector
8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
1 x APU fan header
2 x System fan headers
1 x Front panel header
1 x Front panel audio header
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers
1 x Serial port header
1 x Parallel port header
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header

I/O Controller
- iTE I/O Controller Chip

BIOS
- 2 x 64 Mbit flash
- Use of licensed AMI EFI BIOS
- Support for DualBIOS
- PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a

Unique Features
- Support for @BIOS
- Support for Q-Flash
- Support for Xpress Install
- Support for EasyTune
- Support for Smart Recovery 2
- Support for ON/OFF Charge

Form Factor
- Micro ATX Form Factor; 24.4cm x 24.4cm

Contents:

Included with the Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H were four Serial ATA cables, an I/O back panel, user's manual, multilingual installation guidebook, and Windows driver CD. It's a normal collection of accessories. The motherboard box and Gigabyte web site continue to only advertise Microsoft Windows as the only supported operating system. Of course, we have long known Gigabyte recommends Windows to fix Linux problems.