[watchthisspace]

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Introduction of ASRock ALiveDual-eSATA2 ULi M1695 + NF3 250 chipset mainboard Review
Bluetooth 18 Dec 2007


With the release of the Phenom series of processors, we have seen more interest in compatible boards that will support this processor. Although most of the older boards might have flash update to support the newer processor, most of these older boards lack one important thing, that is AGP support.

For users who owns expensive AGP cards and are reluctant to change over to PCIe, this board comes at the right time for the next board upgrade.

Kudos to ASRock being able to revive two of the old chipsets, that is the ULi M1695 which found fame in ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 and the AGP supporting old chipset nVIDIA's NF3-250. It is probably the first time we see two chipsets from the formerly two separate entities working hand in hand on this ASRock board.

The board supports Dual Channel DDRII800/667/533 , 4 x DIMM slots, with max. capacity up to 8GB. With AM2 Boost, ASRock Patented Technology can boost memory performance up to 12.5%. The BIOS also supports some basic overclocking features including voltage options and a good range of CPU multiplier/freq.

The board does not lack in features. It comes with a Realtek RTL8111B PCIe GbE. There are also 2 x Serial ATA 1.5 Gb/s connectors by NVIDIA® nForce3 250, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD) and "Hot Plug" functions and 2 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors by JMicron® JMB363 (PCIE x1 interface), support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and JBOD), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions. At the back panel there is 1 x eSATAII 3.0 Gb/s connector (shared with 1 SATAII port), supports NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions.

For multimedia, there is a 1 x WiFi header for future WiFi AP (optional). There is also HDMI_SPDIF header, providing SPDIF audio output to HDMI VGA card, allows the system to connect HDMI Digital TV/projector/LCD devices. 7.1 CH Windows® Vista™ Premium Level Superior Audio (C-Media CM6501 Audio Codec with UAA architecture)

The board supports all features in Windows® Vista™ Premium and supports Windows® XP Media Center Edition."

Full review here: http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/asro...-esata2/g1.htm

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

I think this is a great board. For all the initial teething problems, the nforce3 chipset has definitely shown it is versatile.