In the land of affordable PCs, the integrated motherboard is king. Naturally, an inexpensive, integrated computing solution is ideal for the small/home office – they’re not only affordable but also deliver performance where you need it. Sometimes though, depending on the office environment they’re used in, additional horsepower may be required. For example, if your business tends to use a lot of graphics heavy media content, or your work computer doubles as your home computer (although we’d suggest not going this route unless absolutely necessary) more performance may be required.

Finding a fully integrated motherboard with decent graphics performance is definitely a challenge. Along with driving up cost, a lot of times even the best onboard video is still weak. Enter Sapphire’s 780G-based, Pure PI-AM2RS780G, a motherboard with integrated DX10-capable graphics hardware and enough room for expansion to allow a more than adequate upgrade path, should the need arise.

Combining AMD’s 780G Northbridge with their SB700 Southbridge gives the PI-AM2RS780G great performance and support for all of the latest technologies. Utilizing an AM2/AM2+ CPU socket means the AM2RS780G can run even the fastest available AMD processors, while the four DIMMs can house up to 16GB of DDR2-800MHz in Dual Channel.

Built-in connectivity includes a whopping 10 USB2.0 ports (four of which are located on the back I/O panel, while the remaining six can be attached to the mobo), four SATA2 ports, and a standard E-IDE and floppy drive connector. With two traditional PCI ports and a single PCI-e x16 port, you’ll also be able to install a number of different discrete add-in boards if you need to. That said, with integrated eight-channel audio, built-in DX10 graphics hardware, and Gigabit Ethernet, chances are it already has everything you need.

The only problem I have with onboard/integrated graphics solutions is that, even at their best, they’re still entry-level. It’s a harsh truth, but an honest one. So even though the Sapphire Pure 780G has one of the most advanced integrated GPUs available, it’s still an onboard solution. What does this mean for the average user? Not much. However it’s worth mentioning to those who plan on using their system for something like CAD or 3D animation – it’s not that 780G IGP couldn’t handle these kinds of applications, just that professional graphics hardware would be more up to the task.

For average PC users — the ones that not only make up the vast majority, but also tend to be the most price cautious buyers in the market — the 780G has more graphics power than you’ll ever need. The AM2RS780G is especially potent because of Vista’s rather hefty video card requirements; the 780G IGP can easily run aero-glass, shadows, and any other of Vista’s visual tweaks. Furthermore, because the 780G IGP is effectively an AMD HD3200 graphics chip (built on the RV610 core) it has great hardware assistance for HD video playback, meaning you could smoothly run 1080p video (from Blu-Ray or HD video file) with even an entry-level AMD Sempron CPU.

One of the Sapphire 780G’s biggest selling features is its Hybrid Crossfire support, allowing you to install an additional AMD HD34XX video card for more graphics horsepower. Whereas CrossfireX allows the use of a pair of any AMD graphics cards (two HD3870 x2s, two HD4870s, etc.), Hybrid Crosssfire combines the integrated graphics chip (in this case the HD3200 that serves as the 780G’s IGP) with an additional HD34XX add-in graphics card.

Next: The Downside

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