The PI-A9RX480’s origins

Normally when you think of Sapphire, the first thought that comes to mind is their excellent line of ATI-based graphics cards, which are sold under the Hybrid, TOXIC, and ULTIMATE Edition brands. On this front, the Sapphire brand is well established, as one of ATI’s largest and oldest board partners, they’ve developed an excellent track record for building great products. Now, with the help of ATI’s platform division, Sapphire’s taking that expertise and applying it to their PURE motherboard line, the Sapphire PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 is the first fruit from that effort.

Lower half of the board

IDE and SATA ports

By now you’re probably wondering how experienced Sapphire is at making motherboards. What you may not know is that the PI-A9RX480 isn’t Sapphire’s first motherboard. In fact, it isn’t their second, third, fourth, or fifth either. Sapphire’s been in the motherboard business for quite awhile, we’ve seen quite a few of their motherboards on display at Computex and other trade shows in the past, this is however Sapphire’s first real attempt at getting their feet wet in the US motherboard market under the Sapphire brand, previously they’ve focused their efforts overseas. In fact, Sapphire’s parent company, PC Partner, has quite a bit of experience producing motherboards. One quick glance at PC Partner’s website reveals an extensive line of products.

Two PCI slots, as well as two x1 PCI-E

Another shot of the top of the board

Now Sapphire’s going after the market hardcore, and as we just mentioned, ATI’s platform division – the same guys who developed the “Bullhead” and “Grouper” RADEON XPRESS 200 reference boards – have been playing a key role along the way during the board’s development. ATI first briefed us on the project back in January, just before the PI-A9RX480’s debut at the Computex tradeshow earlier this year. ATI was just as determined as Sapphire to show enthusiasts what the XPRESS 200 chipset could do. This is why they sponsored the overclocking competition at the Texas Gaming Festival (TXGF) back in February of this year. At the TXGF event, ATI gathered three of the top overclockers in the world to overclock their XPRESS 200 reference board and an Athlon 64 FX-55 processor to speeds in excess of 3.7GHz!



Sapphire’s PI-A9RX480 builds largely on the ATI XPRESS 200 Grouper reference board. In fact, with the exception of a couple of minute changes, the PI-A9RX480 is largely the same as the reference motherboard used for overclocking at TXGF.