Introduction to ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD ATi RS600/SB600 Mainboard Review

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ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD ATi RS600/SB600 Mainboard Review Intro 1/5
Bluetooth 3 Jul 2007

Pricing of
ASRock ConRoe1333-DVI/H

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Introduction

It has been some time since ATi announced the RS600 chipset. Although it is a highly anticipated chipset by many vendors, there were only a couple of brandsand are not readily available in most markets. This probably because most are worried support issues from AMD on a Intel chipset.

I was quite surprised by this move of ASRock as they took the plunge. Seeing this it is an excellent chipset for Full HD support (up to 1080P) for the Intel platform. It outshines the other RS600 boards with its feature set offering support of 1394 and supporting the FSB1333 processors.

ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD supports all FSB1333/1066/800/533MHz CPUs LGA 775 for Intel^® Core™ 2 Quad / Core™ 2 Extreme / Core™ 2 Duo / Pentium^® XE / Pentium^® D / Pentium^® Dual Core / Pentium^® 4 / Celeron^® / Celeron^® D, supporting Quad Core Kentsfield processors. Based on the ATI RS600/SB600 chipset, it supports Dual Channel DDRII800/667/533 with 4 DIMM slots, maximum capacity up to 8GB. It comes with ATI™ X1250 graphics, DirectX 9.0, Max. shared memory 512MB.

The board also comes with a PCIe x16 for external Graphics card. Options in BIOS also allow overclocking of the CPU. For those who require multiple displays, this board supports Dual VGA Output - Support DVI-D and D-Sub ports by independent display controllers. For HD buffs, you can watch your BD or HDDVD at 1080p with the HDCP through the DVI-D port (you would need a converter to HDMI to connect to LCD TV).

On top of all these, the board supports PCIE Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s, 2 x IEEE 1394 ports (one port on back panel, one header on board). RS600 Chipset embedded HDMI Audio which supports HDMI signal through DVI-D port by using DVI to HDMI adapter (not bundled).

The South bridge supports 4 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 10) , NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions, 7.1 CH Windows^® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec).

Specs

General

CPU

- LGA 775 for Intel^® Core™ 2 Quad / Core™ 2 Extreme / Core™ 2 Duo / Pentium^® XE / Pentium^® D / Pentium^® Dual Core / Pentium^® 4 / Celeron^® / Celeron^® D, supporting Quad Core Kentsfield processors
- Compatible with all FSB1333*/1066/800/533MHz CPUs
- Supports Hyper-Threading Technology
- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
- Supports EM64T CPU

*FSB1333-CPU will operate in overclocking mode.

Chipset

- Northbridge: ATI™ RS600
- Southbridge: ATI™ SB600

Memory

- Dual Channel DDRII memory technology
- 4 x DDRII DIMM slots
- Supports DDRII800/667/533
- Max. capacity: 8GB*

*Due to the chipset limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows^® XP, Windows^® XP 64-bit, Windows^® Vista™ and Windows^® Vista™ 64-bit.

BIOS

- 4Mb AMI BIOS
- AMI Legal BIOS
- Supports "Plug and Play"
- ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
- Supports jumperfree
- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support

Audio, Video and Networking

Graphics

- Integrated ATI™ X1250 graphics
- DX9.0 VGA, Pixel Shader 2.0
- Max. shared memory 512MB
- Dual VGA Output: support DVI-D and D-Sub ports by independent display controllers
- Supports HDCP function with DVI-D port
- Supports 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI-D port

Audio

- 7.1 CH Windows^® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)
- Chipset embedded HDMI Audio

LAN

- PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
- Realtek RTL8111B
- Supports Wake-On-LAN

Expansion / Connectivity

Slots

- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
- 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
- 2 x PCI slots
- 1 x HDMR slot

Connector

- 4 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
- 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices)
- 1 x Floppy connector
- 1 x IR header
- 1 x COM port header
- 1 x IEEE 1394 header
- CPU/Chassis FAN connector
- 20 pin ATX power connector
- 4 pin 12V power connector
- CD in header
- Front panel audio connector
- 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports)

Rear Panel I/O

ASRock DVI_1394 I/O
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
- 1 x VGA/D-Sub Port
- 1 x VGA/DVI-D Port
- 1 x Parallel Port (ECP/EPP Support)
- 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x IEEE 1394 Port
- 1 x RJ-45 Port
- HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

Other Features / Miscellaneous

Hybrid Booster

- CPU Frequency Stepless Control
- ASRock U-COP
- Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)

Support CD

- Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version)

Accessories

- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- Floppy/ATA 133 cables
- 1 x SATA data cable (optional)
- 1 x SATA 1 to 1 power cable (optional)
- 1 x COM port bracket

Hardware Monitor

- CPU Temperature Sensing
- Chassis Temperature Sensing
- CPU Fan Tachometer
- Chassis Fan Tachometer
- CPU Quiet Fan
- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore

Form Factor

- Micro ATX Form Factor: 9.6-in x 9.6-in, 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm

- Microsoft^® Windows^® 2000 / XP / XP 64-bit / Vista™ / Vista™ 64-bit compliant

Certifications

- FCC, CE, WHQL

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