AMD’s Llano is not a new product; it is one that has been out on the market for long enough that all of the major hype and press has already been written. We recently wrapped up our long term testing of an AMD A6-3650 combined with a Gigabyte A75 motherboard. We were rather impressed with the performance that we saw, even if the numbers did not match up to the overall feel. Now we are taking a look at the same CPU, but taking a step down the ladder to the A55 chipset. This time the victim is the A55M-DS2 motherboard. You are losing a few items with this shift like USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 and a PCIe slot, but we wonder if that will really impact performance. So let’s take a look at the design and the features that you can expect to get when you pick up one of these.
The Box and Goodies -As you might expect with an entry level product the packaging and accessories that ship with the A55M-DS2 reflect the lower retail price. Now that does not mean that the marketing guys have not had their way with the box. Looking at the front it actually looks like they might have put in some overtime to make sure that every feature that the A55M-DS2 has to offer is listed somewhere on the box. The front of the box has a nice list of items that make the A55M-DS2 stand out. All of these features are very much geared toward a system that needs to run on a 24/7 basis. These are things like humidity protection from a new PCB material, ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) protection, Anti-Surge protections and high heat protection. With this list it looks like Gigabyte is expecting you to stuff this into a tiny little case, turn the power on and go.The back of the box takes these items and expands on them to make sure that the importance of these features is not lost on the consumer. You also get a few other features thrown in for good measure. Once you do get the A55M-DS2 home you might be a little disappointed by what is inside the box. You only get an installation DVD, a manual, two SATA cables and an I/O shield. Like we said not much, but then again this is meant as an entry level product and has a price to match the level of accessories in the box.
