Review: Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT (PT-F2A85X)

Final thoughts and rating

AMD can be cautiously optimistic about the potential success of its second-generation 'Trinity' APUs. They offer a decent all-round package for users looking to build an inexpensive, feature-rich PC.

But these APUs ship with a new form factor, FM2, requiring the purchase of a motherboard at the same time. Sapphire's £100 Pure Platinum A85XT is an enthusiast-orientated board that sits near the top-end of AMD FM2 pricing and it offers a couple of features not normally seen on APU-supporting boards: Bluetooth and an mSATA slot.

Benchmark results and overclocking potential are both good while the BIOS is reasonable, but our biggest hurdle in recommending any £100 A85X-based motherboard is the near-identical performance pushed out by half-priced A75 models. AMD's FM2 platform puts value above all-out performance, we feel, so Sapphire's Pure Platinum A85XT pricing needs to drop by around £20 for it to offer mass-market appeal.

Bottom line: a decent board if you need to pull every last MHz out of an AMD FM2 chip.

The Good

Solid performance
Decent expansion-slot layout
Overclocks well

The Bad

£100 AMD FM2 boards don't make a lot of implicit sense
BIOS is bettered by competing boards

HEXUS Rating

Sapphire Pure Platinum A85XT

HEXUS Where2Buy

The reviewed motherboard is available here.

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