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The Verdict
Right, again this is a mainboard from Jetway that didn't fail to surprise me. Honestly, what can you expect for 56 EUR ? Well I expected a lot less so with that pricing level in mind, Jetway hit a soft-spot for me personally. The M2A692-GDG is just loaded with features; I mean ... pop some memory, a HD and a CPU on there and you are good to go. You could literally build a PC for 200 USD and still have an excellent experience.
Gigabit Ethernet, excellent integrated graphics unit for media and desktop usage, four DIMM slots, integrated HD audio, 4x SATA, even raid compatible and supporting the latest AM2 processors for this money? That's not a bad deal at all.
There are two very minor points I like to address though, integration of the Debug LED is fantastic, yet without the meaning of debug-codes mentioned in the manual it's pretty much useless. So if the mainboard runs into an error and displays the error-code you'll have no reference. That's just silly.
Second no-no is the installation CD. As insignificant as it may sound, the installer looks like it's been designed by a kid. It works okay yes, but Jetway, please. Let's try and make that look a bit more professional; that design does not suit the build quality you represent in hardware at all.
Anyway, possessing native DVI/HDMI, an Avivo video-processing engine, multi-monitor support and a competent Southbridge, 690G holds a lot of promise as a low-cost chipset looking to tap into the lucrative IGP market as far as Guru3D is concerned.
When it comes to gaming, forget about the integrated graphics solution, you'll still need a real graphics card. For multimedia playback however the ball changes. I did a HQV test with Avivo enabled. And out of a 110 point we still scored 48 points. Noise reduction and the jaggiest part 2 test is where the integrated solution had a hard time. But it definitely improves your media decoding, good stuff for DVD playback for example. if you want it perfect, you'll need to get a better graphics card and use that one though. Small hint; this board uses a DVI interface, if you intend to playback HD videos on a HD screen, you can get a DVI-HDMI cable and hook it up to your LCD TV. Audio won't be channeled through the DVI port though.
Performance wise the cheapo mobo was slightly below a 200 EUR NFORCE 590 based mainboard, I find that impressive as that performance difference was just too tiny to even notice in a real-work game or application.
Throughout our review the mainboard did not have any stability issues whatsoever. If you want to build a very decent performing yet budget minded PC or HTPC. Then by all means please do keep this little minx in mind. This mainboard is all about value for you money and it is worth every penny.
For 56 bucks combined with this amount of features and performance, we have to give this little marble an editor's choice.
Jetway M2A692-GDGManufacturer info & support: Jetway
Price: 56 EUR / 59 USD
Distributor: dollarshops.eu
