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| Date Reviewed: 02/03/2006 |
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Strengths: This is a good upgraders board for people who don't want to go PCI express yet. Also it has the capability of going socket M2 when it comes out. Somewhat good overclocking board but not extreme OC.
Weaknesses: The layout is odd. If you have an AGP card with a big HSF it will block one of the PCI slots.
Summary: Overall I like this motherboard a lot and it has had no problems since I've gotten it. It is very stable and easy to work with. Bios upgrades were a breeze (I'd highly recommend you upgrade bios). Excellent, excellent.
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| Date Reviewed: 09/29/2005 |
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Strengths: Price, bios options, dual video option with no sacrifices, future cpuupgrade port (M2)
Weaknesses: Lack of higher end features, relatively unproven chipset
Summary: Tests from anandtech and tomshardware has shown this to be very overclockable and very stable. This board's chipset is competetive to that of the NF4 boards and very cheap to boot. However, it lacks certain features like firewire, hi-def audio, more raid options and other extra features you have on more expensive boards.
Personal experience has shown to me that those reviewers were correct and it has been running stable ever since installation. The sata 2 port runs very well, but no option of raiding sata 2. And it runs the AGP/PCI-E at full speeds.
96% of People (52/54) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/25/2005 |
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Strengths: AGP OR PCIe video or both, M2 slot for next AMD CPU, PRICE, Performance, great user community at OCW
Weaknesses: While it does overclock cpu well it's not for heavy overclockers, also limited options for Vdimm voltage, very limited tech support from Asrock (OCW makes up for it somewhat)
Summary: I'm using this MB with a A64 3500 "venice". No issues other than ones I created through heavy overclocking. Heres the deal with this motherboard. If you are into some serious overclocking then you should not bother with this board. If, however, you have an AGP card that you want to use for now, don't want to spend a lot of money, or want to be able to use the AMD M2 CPU then I highly recomend getting this board.
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| Date Reviewed: 02/19/2006 |
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Strengths: 8X AGP _and_ PCI-E X16 and future M2 cpu slot
Weaknesses: Official bios limited to HTT 274, low max vcore and vdimm, layout of pata plugs "less than ideal"
Summary: The prime reason anyone would want this board is because they have a reasonable AGP card but would like to move to PCI-E in the near future, with a 939 Athlon 64 / X2 and the M2 future slot is a nice hedge. The AGP slot works well with my Aopen 6600GT, 8X, fast-writes, etc. Install Windows, install the Asrock (or ULI) AGP driver/gart, then install the video card drivers (and don't mess with the asrock/uli agp driver/gart again [cuz if you mess it up, reinstalling it doesn't work, video performance goes into the dumper and you'll have to reinstall windows again to fix it, seriously]). Nvidia control panel says the card and chipset are at 8X but the OS is at 2X, but that seems to be a typo / error. Overclocked, my 6600GT gets 8,880 gfx Aquamark3 scores, and with my new 3700+ SD runs better than it did in my old P4 2.8 The bios is a little non-standard - visit OCWorkbench for OC tips and terms. The official bioses seem to be limited to a max HTT of 274 and a max vcore of 1.45V - which was enough to OC my 3700+ SD from 2.2 ghz to 2.816 with stock AMD HSF. There are "overclocker bioses" available, and a fairly straightforward vcore mod that raises vcore max to 1.55V For me, this budget board exceeded my expectations. I'm running a cheap Athlon x64 3700+ at FX-57 speeds, with a budget board, a reused 6600GT, a good Antec 550 PSU and a good case with lots of fans, two Sata drives in mirror raid, some Pata drives for backup - Aquamark3 scores - 8880 gfx, 12,319 cpu - total of 65K and plan to move to a PCI-E 7800 series card when I can afford to. This box plays Counterstrike Source much better than my previous box with the same vid card. The built in sound and ethernet work fine. Very effective cheap upgrade for me. Some people have issues that may or may not be related to this board when they do their build - video card issues, ram issues, etc. Some people find the thermal paste under the southbridge is skimpy and thus the SB is prone to overheating (mine's fine) Some go to great lengths to get ram to work at 1T timings, some have luck with 1T out of the box - I say "meh". If you want super performance and OC-ability then buy something twice as expensive. Even looking at the Tom's review, where they say it's "a bit slow", I'm boggled when I look at the benchmarks. So it's a percentage or two slower than a more expensive - so what? Does that other board have an AGP slot and a PCI-E slot? Well, that gets back to my original point - if you're wanting to upgrade to PCI-E but can't do manage a cpu, mobo and video card all at once - then buy this, tweak it up a little and be happy.
89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 02/14/2006 |
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Strengths: Upgradable, inexpensive, lets me use my agp card to its full potential WHILE I save for a pci-x card.
Weaknesses: Squirrely bios. had to fiddle with setting to get it to run memory @ proper speeds.
Summary: I have been using Asrock mobos for a couple of years. While they are not "super, uber, overclocking beasts, they are very stable & offer mild overclocking to get a little extra juice out. If you want crazy oc, look elswhere. Want value for price, look no further
89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/04/2006 |
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Strengths: Excellent price vs other socket 939 boards. Has AGP and PCI-E X16 slot. Also upgrade port for future AMD M2 socket.
Weaknesses: none apparent.
Summary: This is an upgrade from a via KT266A chipset board. The fact that it has both a true AGP slot and a PCI-E slot made this a no-brainer for me, who didn't have enough money to purchase a PCI-E graphics card. The upgradibility is excellent.
86% of People (6/7) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/17/2006 |
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 AGP problems Strengths: Building the computer was a breeze. Everything installed easily, and I was in windows in no time...
Weaknesses: I've tried 2 AGP cards (Geforce 6600 Chaintech, and Geforce FX5700LE Biostar), even though these cards work great in any other motherboard, neither works correctly on this one.
Summary: Would not have bought this mobo had I known about this AGP issue. I've uninstalled and installed all AGP and video card drivers countless times and I always get corrupt icons on the desktop and in folders. Some games like Star wars Battlefront II are not displayed correctly with the Geforce 6600 from Chaintech, and with the Geforce FX5700LE from Biostar the game is not displayed at all.
The problem arises as soon as I install the video card driver! it's a before and after thing, as soon as the video card driver is installed I get all these problems. I've tried setting AGP to 4x, doesn't work!
I've finally decided to get a PCI express video card to see if all this goes away!!
If anyone has any suggestions, please help me out!!
Thanks
75% of People (6/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/09/2005 |
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Strengths: AGP Video with no compromise: retains SLI capability , low price and the ULi chipset performs very well.
Weaknesses: No Firewire; just 'adequate' audio; PCI slot lost with AGP card use; no SATA-II RAID support.
Summary: 2005-11-12 04:56:20 When seeking a motherboard to enter into the Dual-Core processor arena I was sad when the limited AGP capable motherboards were handicapped in AGP performance(typically 65% AGP speed only). This chipset not only allows use of my 6600GT video card at full power, it retains both x16 PCIe and SLI function leaving an upgrade path. It will also work with 2 video cards in parallel (not SLI) although not what most avid gamers are after those of us preferring a dual (or more!) display it is great. The ULi chipset is on par, performance wise, with the NV-4 models while lacking SATA-II raid support. SATA-I RAID is supported, however.
A big draw back is the loss of a standard PCI slot (1 of 3) when using the AGP slot with a decent cooler attached. With the lack of Firewire requiring using one PCI that leaves but one more for a good sound card OR modem (if you require dialup). The Floppy connector is located low (difficult to reach with some cases) but otherwise the board is laid out adequately.
This is a great bridge board for those of us with decent AGP Video to bring along. While overclocking is not it's strong suit, it is basically capable should one want to get into the 4000 class of dual core world with their X2 3800 CPU. If you can afford an X2 4800 CPU up front, you'll want to skip right up to a high end motherboard anyways :^)
75% of People (6/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/30/2005 |
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Strengths: 939 socket is ready for next upgrade
Weaknesses: Have not found any downside
Summary: Easy installation. Suggest the SATA HD(s) be powered directly from the PS. I followed the advice from Tomshardware and bundled this with the Venice 3000+, added a EVGA GF6600, 1 GB of matched Corsair RAM, a WD 80 800JD drive and used a 450 Watt PS. The result is a great PC that is fast and stable. The CD that came with the board had everything I needed to get the onboard audio and USB going. No complaints. Planning to overclock soon, waiting for additional cooling parts to arrive.
67% of People (4/6) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/21/2005 |
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Strengths: Easy Setup,Upgradeable,Works As Advertised,Priced Right
Weaknesses: AGP And PCI Slots Too Close Together
Summary: Bought This Board For A Build For My Wife. Board Was Easy To Set Up And Is Very Upgradeable For The Price. The Only Downside Is The AGP Slot Is So Close To The PCI Slots A AGP Video Card With Big Fan Will Block A PCI Slot.I Would Buy This Board Again.
67% of People (4/6) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/23/2006 |
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Skip this one.
Strengths: Support for both PCI-E and AGP.
Weaknesses: USB2 would not work. DDR400 RAM was identified as DDR333 (but manually setting it worked)
Summary: I had high hopes even after reading the mediocre review at Tom's Hardare. The PCI-E and AGP feature is nice, but other issues arose. The USB2 would not work, and the machine would lock up. Buy ASUS.
67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/16/2005 |
- colt1911ss
- Member Since:
Nov 2005
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Reviews
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Strengths: affordable, reliable, compatible, expandable
Weaknesses: lack of support from own company, lack bios options, poor instructions
Summary: This motherboard can overclock but due to the lack of voltage options, you will be very limited. The AGP and PCIe16 ports allows compatability over PCIe only boards. Asrock is a sub company of ASUS, which means they have reliability. If you have a good AGP video card, then this motherboard is highly recommended because the controller is as good as a true AGP board. If you are planning on building a gaming machine, look elsewhere. this is a bargain board.
67% of People (2/3) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/24/2005 |
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 This would be a great board but mine fried the PCI ... Strengths: Great bridge board with AGP and PCI-E
Weaknesses: Horrible power management circuitry.
Summary: This would be a great board but mine fried the PCI-E slot and a 600GT AGP card . It no longer works after 30 days of use. The website is horrible and the tech support is even worse. If you get this board you need to also get a 450+ GOOD PSU to go along with it if you use a graphics card that has a big hunger for power. The board is real finicky about PCI-E cards and PNY could not figure out why their PCI-E 6600GT card would not show any video with this board.
60% of People (3/5) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/06/2005 |
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Strengths: Great value with decent performance, support for both 8x AGP and PCI-Express(SLI thru add-on board) video cards, CPU support for Socket 939 single/dual core and future SocketM2, IDE/SATA/SATA2 ports.
Weaknesses: Limited overclocking options, floppy/IDE/power connectors location not ideal, no Giga-bit LAN.
Summary: AsRock - value division of Asus.
This boards works great with my AMD Athlon64 3000+, easily overclocked from 1.8Ghz to 2.4Ghz (= 3800+), can definitely go higher; paired with Leadtek A400LE(6800LE) 8x AGP video card with 16/6 pipelines unlocked, 3DMark05 well over 4000; my only complaint is probably the limited overclocking options/adjustments for CPU and memory voltage, but you should be happy to own such a board for less than $70. Hopefully BIOS limitation will be taken care of through future BIOS update.
50% of People (4/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/26/2005 |
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Strengths: Easy setup.
Reasonable price for quality of product.
Fast!
Offers option to use AGP card until a PCIe is installed.
Latest drivers and bios available on mfr website.
Weaknesses: Owner manual not the best; default settings on jumpers are not clear. Sound chip not all that great until latest drivers are installed.
Summary: mWave got the shipment to me on time. I had the mobo and new cpu (3000/Venice) pre-tested. mWave packaged everything after testing very securely for shipping. Great value upgrade!
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