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ASRock 4Core1333-eSATA2 R5.0 Intel P31 Motherboard Review

Motherboards/Intel S775 by SidneyWong @ 2007-09-11

ASRock introduces another new board 4Core 1333-eSATA2 using the newly released Intel P31 chipset in succession only days after the release of 4Core 1333-Viiv P965 main board. Can this board outperform and beat the P965 in performance and price? Let´s find out.

Closer look

Closer Look:

Let’s talk about consistency. ASRock main-boards have been the same color, using the same passive heatsinks, 20-pin main power connector, location of the power connection and board layout across more than 5 different Intel chipsets. The level of consistency is next to none in the industry.

Except the chipsets change, the 4Core1333-eSATA2 R5.0 P31 has the same look as the 4Core1333-eSATA using P945 chipset and our last review on 4Core1333-Viiv with P965 chipset.

Officially, P31 does not support 1333FSB, similar to P956 it only supports DDR2 and 1066FSB while P35 supports DDR3/2 and 1333FSB. Some might compare the P31 to P35, I'm afraid that won't be necessary according to the specifications of the two.

(Click to enlarge)
A plain old look of ASRock board, the 20-pin main power connector. The IDE connection is at an easy reach location.

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Installation manual in multi language
Support CD
IDE ATA 100 80-conductor cable
2.5" Floppy cable
SATA cables 2x
SATA power cable
Rear I/O shield

Rear panel: PS2 mouse/keyboard, Parallel Port, FireWire 1394 Port, LAN, 2X USB, 1X eSATA, COM Port, Microphone and 7.1 Channel Audio out.

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Intel SLAJ3 P31 Chipset and Intel SL8FY I/O Controller Hub (ICH7).

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2 onboard USB headers; 4-SATA Port

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Dual Channel Memory slots; P31 heatsink

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eSATA pass thru and 12 Volt 4-pin power connector

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HD audio header and game port

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VIA FireWire and Winbond sensor chips

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From top down AGI, PCI expansion slots, HD Audio front panel header (light green color), floppy connection, FireWire Header (Red color)

Comment from Nessmaster @ 2007/09/11

You just love ASRock boards, don't you jmke?

But I gata say, they are cheap and work well.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/09/12

Sidney is doing an excellent job at covering these ASRock boards, features, performance, overclocking and value, surely gives you an idea what they are capable of, what you can expect for your money; which is more than I thought, overclocking is almost complete with addition of vcore control

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/09/12

Ty,

If you don't already know, enabling Intel SpeedStep in BIOS and the use of Notebook Hardware Control set to Dynamic switching, OC'ed system runs at a low of 6x multi to CPU default saving a few dollars on electricity.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/11/13

Bios version P1.2 and 1.1 support Yorkfield 45nm Penryn. But, there won't be much OCing, 366FSB is max'ed out.

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