by Doors4ever
12/26/2007 | 11:53 AM
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.
<%BANNER[article]%>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.
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.
Intel P31 Express chipset differs from Intel P35 Express by the name: an insignificant different, of course.
Intel P31 Express shouldn’t be used for high-performance machines. “Shouldn’t” doesn’t mean it won’t. Overall, the borderline between Performance PC and Mainstream PC is pretty washed out today, and we will definitely compare the performance of Intel P31 Express chipset against that of Intel P35 Express chipset in the end of our today’s review.
Intel P31 Express doesn’t support Intel Core 2 Extreme processors. However, it officially supports Intel Core 2 Quad. Firstly, this is a much more up-to-date feature than the support of thousand-dollar Core 2 Extreme. And secondly, what is the actual difference between Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Quad? The price and unlocked frequency multiplier apart, there is nothing else, so Intel Core 2 Extreme processors will work in Intel P31 Express based mainboards just fine.
Intel P31 Express doesn’t support 1333MHz processor bus. I am sure that ASRock engineers loved this joke. Just look at the actual name of the mainboards we are talking about today: ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2. If this doesn’t help, look at its technical specifications and try to figure out if it actually supports 1333MHz FSB :)
Intel P31 Express chipset supports maximum 4GB of system memory, while Intel P35 Express officially supports maximum 8GB. If I were a marketing specialist, I would probably claim that Intel P35 Express chipset is twice as good as Intel P31 Express from this prospective. And no one would be able to call me a liar, because it is absolutely correct. It is a different question, that there is no real practical benefit to this feature yet. Until the infrastructure switches completely to 64-bit operating systems and 64-bit applications, it doesn’t make much sense to install even 4GB of RAM, not to mention 8GB. When that happens, we will see completely different mainboards on totally new chipsets taking over the marketplace, so this really significant advantage of the Intel P35 Express will not be of any practical value for a long time. However, it is hard to object to actual numbers like that: support of only 4GB of RAM is indeed a drawback, although only a theoretical one at this time.
Intel P31 Express chipset doesn’t support DDR3 SDRAM. And it doesn’t need this support. DDR3 these days is either slower than DDR2 and noticeably expensive, or a little bit faster and much more expensive. It will take at least 6 months for the prices to level out, and even more for DDR3 to become more efficient than DDR2 performance-wise.
Other differences are determined by the functionality of the chipset South Bridges: ICH9 by Intel P35 Express and ICH7 by Intel P31 Express. And you know, ICH9 is not necessarily better. For example, besides four SATA ports, Intel P31 Express chipset supports one PATA port allowing connection of up to two devices. And taking into account that Intel P35 Express based mainboards all have one PATA port that is implemented with an additional onboard controller, i.e. at our expense, Intel P31 Express turns out to have an advantage over the competitor from this standpoint.
Another indisputable, but not very noticeable difference: 12 USB ports by Intel P35 Express chipset against 8 USB ports by Intel P31 Express. To begin with, there are very few boards out there that have more than 4-6 USB ports laid out initially. The rest of the ports require purchasing additional brackets or connecting the system case USBs. But, assuming that all the USB ports are available to us, what will we use them for? The keyboard and mouse take up two ports; web-cam takes the third one; a flash drive or a card reader – the fourth; another flash drive may be permanently plugged in for the ReadyBoost technology to work in Windows Vista – that’s the fifth one; a USB light may take the sixth port; a USB printer – the seventh; a USB scanner – the eighth; and if we still need more ports we can use a USB hub to connect our USB massager or USB drink heater/cooler. I cannot think of anything else to connect, so, yes, 8 USB ports is indeed a very “serious” drawback.
In conclusion I could remind you that Intel P35 Express has eSATA ports, but the mainboard we are going to talk about today also has them. I could mention Rapid Recover Technology, but this is a not very significant feature, either.
All in all, if we go through the whole list once again, we will see that there are only two important differences: Intel P31 Express allows installing only 4GB of RAM (a not very serious drawback still) and Intel P35 Express doesn’t support PATA ports. Still, everything I have just said doesn’t at all imply that Intel P31 Express is better than Intel P35 Express. I would only like to make the point that Intel P31 Express is at least not any worse than Intel P35 Express.
ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard comes in a small box. The front side of the package is decorated with numerous logos of the functions and technologies the board supports. The reverse side lists the advantages of eSATA over USB backing them up with tables and charts.
The box is relatively thin because of modest accessories bundle. The package contains a think user’s manual booklet in several languages, ISE and FDD cables, a pair of SATA cables and a Serial ATA port adapter, a CD disk with software and drivers, a rear panel I/O Shield and a thin two-wire cable. I haven’t yet come across cables like that, so I had to consult the manual that stated that it was an HDMI_SPDIF cable getting the sound to the graphics card. One connector should be plugged into the mainboard, another one – to the graphics card (two- or three-pin connector, depending on the graphics card). As a result, the video and sound are transferred along a single HDMI cable.
At first I was a little confused by the info on the chipset his mainboard uses that I found on the manufacturer’s web-site and on the mainboard package. When I saw that it is base on Intel P31/G31 North Bridge I decided that this mainboard features integrated graphics and like many other mainboards of the kind it should be designed in compact but very inconvenient for proper components placement MicroATX format. In reality, ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 has no integrated graphics, it is designed in standard ATX form-factor, however, despite this fact it cannot boast ideal PCB layout. The power supply connector stands out in the very center of the PCB, the FDD connector is in the very bottom right beneath the PCI slots, and the free room on the PCB that emerged because of not very optimal components placement is covered with mainboard name and model names written in unusually large font.
Unlike many contemporary mainboards, ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 has not a single solid-state capacitor onboard, even in the processor voltage regulator circuitry.
Moreover, despite the constantly stressed quad-core processors support, the board uses a four-pin ATX12V power connector and a 20-pin ATX instead of 8- and 24-pin connectors respectively.
If you cast a glance at the reverse side of the ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 PCB, you will see something you would rather not: numerous solder contacts right beneath the LGA775 processor Socket. If you intend to install a CPU cooler with a backplate, you may damage the contacts and thus put the system out of order.
We were a little disappointed to see jumpers on ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard: two jumpers next to the power supply connector and another one beneath the first PCI Express x16 slot.
I was pretty surprised to find no mention of these jumpers in the electronic version of the mainboard user’s manual or on the company web-site, however, the printed booklet did tell about them. These jumpers turned out to serve for proper DDR2 533 support implementation for processors with different nominal FSB speed. They are placed very inconveniently, you will have to remove the graphics card and disconnect the power cable to switch the jumpers. Moreover, no one uses jumpers in the 21st century anymore: it is inconvenient and most mainboard makers have given them up already.
The chipset North Bridge features with a large aluminum heatsink that proves efficient enough in case the system runs with a dual-core processor in non-overclocked mode.
The ICH7R South Bridge is topped with a much smaller heatsink.
Actually, I don’t have that many comments about the bottom part of the ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard PCB around the South Bridge. We have already pointed out not the best placement of the FDD connector. I would also like to point out that the front panel connectors are not color-coded, however, the notes on the PCB will help you out. I would also like to point out that there are three PCI slots and the graphics cards may be configured in Crossfire mode. The second PCI Express x16 connector (“AGI Express” according to ASRock) works as PCI-E x4. There is even an additional VIA VT6308S IEEE1394 controller, with one port pinned out on the mainboard and another one put on the rear connectors panel.
Besides the FireWire connector, the mainboard rear panel features PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, LPT and COM ports, four USB ports, RJ45 (RTL 8111B) network port, six audio jacks (ALC888) and one eSATA port. The latter is implemented in a not very traditional way: to make it operational you have to connect one of the chipset SATA with a connector in the upper left corner of the PCB next to the mainboard rear panel with a SATA cable. The cable running over the entire mainboard from the lower right to the upper left corner of the PCB doesn’t look very pretty, however, it requires no additional onboard controller.
All in all, there are some frustrating drawbacks in the PCB layout that I have pointed out. And the availability of only two fan connectors doesn’t make us feel any happier.
You can check out the complete list of ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 specifications in the table below that we took from the manufacturer’s official web-site:
Click to enlarge:
In fact, we were a little disappointed with the quality of the informational docs. Although I didn’t specifically look for mistakes, they jumped out at me right away. I have already mentioned that the electronic version of the mainboard user’s guide has no mention of the jumpers. It also states that the board is equipped with a 24-pin power connector. The paper booklet didn’t say a single word about he BIOS settings, despite it big size, while the electronic version has very scarce mention of them. So, we will have to find out own way here.
ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard uses BIOS based on American Megatrends code. It looks far from traditional, so let’s get a little bit deeper into its details.
When you enter the BIOS (by pressing F2 key) you get into the Main section where you can only set the date and time. Other than that the page contains general system info.
Most settings can be found in the Advanced section that is split into a few pages.
You can guess the pages theme from the names, their features and contents are quite typical and will not be of any surprise for those who have at least once checked out their mainboard BIOS. However, the pages are too numerous. For example, Floppy Configuration page has only one single string offering to manually set the type of the floppy drive. Therefore, I suggest that we focus on first two pages, as they seem to be the most interesting and informative of all.
CPU Configuration page allows setting FSB and PCI Express bus frequencies and adjust the processor technology settings:
Overclock Mode may be set to CPU, PCIE, Sync and CPU, PCIE, Async. In the first case PCI Express frequency increases synchronously with the FSB that can be set in the interval between 90 and 500MHz. In the second case PCIE frequency may be set independently of the FSB speed in the interval between 87 and 114MHz. Boot Failure Guard parameter should theoretically track down failed POST procedures on startup, but in reality we didn’t manage to see it working. Every time the mainboard wouldn’t boot during overclocking we had to clear CMOS with a jumper and reset all parameters anew. The processor clock frequency multiplier cannot be adjusted.
Chipset Configuration page contains three groups of parameters: memory configuring, graphics card configuring and integrated sound, network and FireWire configuring. It also allows adjusting the voltages.
ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard supports processors with 1333, 1066, 800 and 533MHz bus. In the first three cases the memory can be set at 333MHz (DDR2 667) or 400MHz (DDR2 800). You can use the jumpers to set the memory at 256MHz (DDR2 533) for CPUs with 1066 and 800MHz bus, and this value will not be added to the previous ones, but will replace them. If you have to go back to 333MHz or 400MHz memory frequency, you will have to reset the jumpers to their initial position. CPUs with 533MHz bus have only one option available to them: 266MHz memory frequency set as DDR2 533 with the jumpers.
As for the memory timings, all of the few available parameters can be adjusted in the interval from 3 to 6, except DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge. For this parameter you can set any value from 9 to 15, which is very strange, because in automatic mode the board would read from SPD and set this parameter to 18 without any problems.
However, most questions arise when we get to voltages adjustment on ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard. VCCM Voltage parameter (I assume this is processor Vcore adjustment) can be set to Auto, High, Middle, Low or Lowest. It is hard to say for sure what it actually means, because the user’s manual has no word about it whatsoever. Lowest should probably be a slight voltage increase over the nominal, Low – a little bigger increase, etc. although, maybe Auto stands for nominal voltage, Middle is a slight increase and Low – a decrease below the nominal value. NB Core Voltage and VTT Voltage parameters are set to Low by default and can be changed to High manually. The mainboard cannot adjust the memory voltage at all.
Other pages in the Advanced section are pretty standard, that is seen from their names, so let’s move on to H/W Monitor section now.
ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard allows monitoring two temperatures, rotation speed of two fans that can be connected to it, three major voltages (3.3V, 5V and 12V) and processor Vcore. You can also adjust the processor fan rotation speed, but this feature will function only for coolers with a four-pin fan connector.
Summing up I can conclude that ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard BIOS cannot boast very rich features, and most of them are not very convenient to use.
Now let’s take a look at the performance numbers and draw our final verdict to our today’s hero.
Our test session was carried out on the following test platform:
The memory was set as DDR2 533 with the jumper and we tried to overclock Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor. Our attempt failed, because the board could only start and boot Windows at 360MHz FSB. At 370MHz FSB the system wouldn’t start, although the processor can run at up to 490MHz FSB frequency. Of course, it hardly makes any sense to run performance tests with insignificant overclocking results like that. Therefore, we decided to precede to the performance tests in the nominal mode.
You may have noticed from the first BIOS photo that ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 recognizes Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D memory exclusively as DDR2 667 and sets its frequency to 333MHz accordingly. When we tried to run the tests at 400MHz (DDR2 800) with 4-4-4-12 timings, we failed, because the system was very unstable. So we had to switch to 5-5-5-18 timings. As a reference for our performance analysis we chose abit IP35 Pro mainboard on Intel P35 Express chipset configured identically.
The results turned out quite good. ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard on Intel P31 Express chipset performed practically identically to the solution on Intel P35 Express in nominal mode.
The chipsets perform equally fast, but the mainboards are hardly comparable, as you may have understood already. ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 ran almost at the utmost of its potential, while the abilities of abit IP35 Pro were intentionally limited for the sake of fair comparison. You can easily lower the memory timings, increase the memory frequency, overclock the CPU to its maximum on abit IP53 Pro, and it will easily leave behind ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 that can simply do none of the above.
ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard is relatively new but looks like it was designed a while ago: COM, LPT, 20-pin power connector, huge electrolytic capacitors, jumpers… I couldn’t get rid of the impression that it was an older mainboard, used for quite a while before it got into our lab. I cannot agree with those web-sites that awarded ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 with a “Highly Recommended” title. I couldn’t find any advantages in the ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 mainboard that the other mainboards out there do not have. However, I can list quite a few things that are obviously missing.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that ASRock engineers failed to reveal the potential of the Intel P31 Express chipset. However, I cannot promise that we will continue reviewing solutions from other mainboard makers based on this core logic set. It turned out that mainboards on this chipset are pretty rare in the market. For example, abit, and Asus have no solutions like that at all. BY the way, I assumed that the new chipsets from Intel’s third series differ from their predecessors by Penryn (Yorkfield and Wolfdale) support. However, I came across an amazing I45D mainboard in abit’s product range that turned out to be no mistake! Their solution on Intel 945G chipset promises to deliver not only 1333MHz FSB but also support for the upcoming 45nm processors.
But coming back to the Intel P31 Express chipset, I have to say that I found solutions based on it among Gigabyte’s and MSI’s products. Maybe we will check them out, to show you how good this chipset actually is.