Introduction

With the first Sapphire motherboard we looked at, we found ourselves really impressed with it. The X58 offering we tested performed well and offered great overclocking potential. When we got the P67 offering from them it was a good board as well, but in such a competitive market we found it just didn't really stand out from the competition.

Today, though, we look at their latest offering and it comes in the form of the Sapphire Pure Platinum A75. And as you can tell, it's of course based on the latest AMD chipset, the A75, which holds the Lynx APU that we've quickly grown to love.

So, the question is, can the Pure Platinum A75 stand out a bit more than the P67 board we looked at? The odds look good at the moment with having looked at only a few A75 boards. What worries me the most, though, is that while Sapphire did well with the X58 board we looked at, that was an old chipset. When it came to the newer P67, the performance wasn't as strong and it's a concern that after getting comfortable with a chipset they can create a good board, but at the launch of a new one they can't be as strong.

So the question we want to answer today is, can Sapphire create a motherboard that's able to stand out, or do they need more time with the A75 chipset before creating something we really want?

Well, before we find out for sure, let's first look at what's going on with the package. Once that's done we'll take a closer look at the board itself before moving on to the BIOS and then get into the overclocking side of things. Then we'll finally get into the performance and wrap everything up in our final thoughts.

The Package

The box looks pretty good and we've got a load of labels over it which tells us some of the features that are included. Turning over, we can start to see some pictures of the board and an explanation on some of the features that are present on the board.

Moving inside, we've got a manual, driver CD, four SATA cables, I/O shield along with a Dirt 3 coupon that you can use to grab the game off Steam by following the instructions on the back.

Along with these items, we've also got a USB 3.0 header that can be installed in the front of your case, or if you like, the back by simply changing the header. Sapphire have opted for a black solution which is good considering it's the color of most cases these days and with the little Sapphire logo and the blue ports, it's pretty sweet looking. This is the first A75 board we've seen offering us a USB 3.0 header, so it's looking good so far for Sapphire.