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Albatron fleshes out mix-and-match K3780E mainboard

by Parm Mann on 6 July 2009, 11:12

Tags: K3780E, Albatron (5386.TWO)

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We see just about every manufacturer trying to differentiate its boards by offering a couple of unique features, but Albatron's really going out on a limb with its all-new K3780E - a board that literally comes in two parts.

According to the Taiwanese manufacturer, many of its customers have their own requests when it comes to an I/O interface, and a board's design is rarely a one-size-fits-all scenario. What customers really want - and system integrators in particular - is a board where the I/O interface can be adjusted as needed.

That board is the K3780E. Pictured below, Albatron's unique offering comes as a combination of two boards - one featuring all the I/O parts, and another system board sitting on top.

The K3780E's system board, pictured above on top of the larger I/O board, makes use of AMD's 780E north bridge - complete with ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics - and an SB710 south bridge. There's support for a single or dual-core AMD ASB1-series embedded processor, and the board measures 146mm x 102mm.

That system board then clips on to a larger I/O board. Albatron's reference I/O board measures an unusual 170mm x 147mm, but given the flexibility of the design, it can be resized to suit mini-ITX, ATX or literally any form factor.

Albatron reckons changing only the I/O board can save time and costs, and it's K3780E reference design features the following specification:

Model K3780E
Chipset AMD 780E/SB710
Processor Support Onboard ASB1 Series Processor
HTT Hyper Transport 800 MHz to 1.6GHz
Memory 2 x DDR2 SO-DIMM 667/533/400 MHz (Dual Channel)
Onboard Graphics ATI M72-based Graphics Engine (HDMI / D-Sub / LVDS)
Slot 1 x PCI-E 2.0 x 16 slot (8X)
Storage 4 x SATA II 3Gb/s Channels,1*ATA 100 Channel
RAID SATA RAID 0, 1,10
COM Port 6 x COM Port (6 ports by optional cable)
Audio Realtek 5.1 Channel HD Audio
LAN Realtek Gbit Dual LAN
USB 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 Ports
Form Factor (System Board) 3.5”(146mm*102 mm)
Form Factor (I/O Board) 170mm*147mm
Application POS, Digital Signage, NAS, Gaming, Media Center

The K3780E's certainly unique, and it'll be interesting to see if Albatron's initiative gathers much interest. What do you think, readers? Is splitting the I/O and system components a logical step forward? Share your thoughts in the HEXUS.community forums.



HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

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They could extend this philosphy and decrease the system board area by moving more I/O onto the main I/O board. What kind of carrier are they using for I/O anyway?.. Need more details.
mmmm, love it :) Finally a very small form 780G-based board. It'd be very interesting if you could get “flying” outputs rather than having to buy an additional board - it'llmake all sorts of stuff possible in the SFF market. Nice piece of innovation, I think…