Biostar introduced “office version” of motherboard based on “office” AMD RS740 chipset. Graphics core is based on RV410, identical graphics core as for AMD RD690 chipset. DX10 is not supported, which isn’t a big problem because there isn’t any integrated graphics that can run DX10 games with decent framerate yet.

Communication between CPU and chipset is limited to 1 GHz, as for 690G, and in case of full duplex: 2 GHz (communication is carried out in both directions). Since 740G doesn’t support HTT 3.0 (690G doesn’t support it to), it is bottleneck as far as performances of integrated GPU are concerned. If you use Phenom CPU performances of integrated GPU will be much better on 780G chipset. On the other side buying this motherboard with Phenom CPU is a little bit irrational decision. X2 is more rational choice so lack of HTT 3.0 support is not that big problem for this price range. Bottom line is: 740G and 690G chipsets are identical with exception of southbridge on 690G that is a little bit better.

Format of this motherboard is micro-ATX, which is ideal for building of barebone or office configurations. Integrated GPU delivers decent performances, but considerably lower than motherboards with higher price tag. Quality of video reproduction is at highest level which is in accordance to the fact that this is ATi GPU.
Triple power filtration unit doesn’t instill confidence when overclock is concerned, but despite that, thanks to cleverly built BIOS and neat motherboard layout it is possible to achieve decent overclock results that come as bonus for this kind and class of motherboard. Phenom X4 CPU’s up to 2.3 GHZ with 95W TDP are supported by current BIOS version.

Quality of motherboard components is fair which is expected for this price range. It is not likely that you will make DDR2 1066 memory to work stable on this motherboard, at least with initial version of BIOS. It is not likely that someone will use those modules on this kind of motherboard when 800 MHz modules are far more rational choice. New SB700 southbridge supports 6 SATA2 and 10 USB 2.0 ports and offers slightly better performances than older SB600 that is integrated into 690G chipset. Overall performances of A740G motherboard are in range of much pricier models. Speed of processing and work with memory is at highest level that can be expected when DDR2 800 memory is used.