X-bit labs

ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 Mainboard on Intel P31 Express Chipset

Category: Mainboards

by Doors4ever

[ 12/26/2007 | 11:53 AM ]

We would like to talk about a mainboard from ASRock based on Intel P31 Express chipset but offering most of the features an Intel P35 Express based mainboard would have. Check out our review to see if ASRock managed to design another wonder product.

Table of contents:

• Intel P31 Express and Intel P35 Express: What’s the Difference?
  
• Closer Look at ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 Mainboard
  
• Package and Accessories
  
• PCB Design and Features
  
• Specification
  
• BIOS Setup
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Overclocking and Performance Tests
  
• Conclusion
  

What do you think of ASRock mainboards? I personally have very diverse opinion about them. On the one hand, everyone knows that this company specializes in inexpensive mainboards without advanced overclocking friendly features that is why they may not seem very exciting to extreme overclocking fans. On the other hand, we can’t forget about amazing ASRock mainboards from their Combo series that carried onboard different processor sockets, or solutions from their Upgrade series that allowed upgrading the system by installing a special daughter board with a different processor socket on it.

And in fact, we don’t need to look that far back at all: ASRock engineers manage to surprise us even these days by offering solutions with sockets and technologies that seem to be absolutely incompatible at first glance. Being a CPU and chipset manufacturer, Intel is interested in encouraging the users to buy a new mainboard for a new CPU. If they only could they would design a unique core logic set for every new processor incompatible with other CPUs. ASRock, however, keeps disclaiming all incompatibility statements, proving with their new products that even some of the oldest chipsets may normally support the latest processors.

However, things are not as simple as they may seem at first. One of these days they will definitely offer a solution for AMD processors based around an Intel core logic set, or something nearly as amazing. And right now, while these times haven’t come yet, let’s take a close look at ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard for Intel processors based on Intel P31 Express chipset.

Intel P31 Express and Intel P35 Express: What’s the Difference?

I have to admit that some time ago I wouldn’t be able to answer this question on the spot. However, the answer turned out very simple thanks to a very convenient chipset comparison tool implemented on Intel’s official web-site:

Let’s see, how dramatic the differences between Intel P31 Express and Intel P35 Express are.