ASRock 939Dual-SATA2: First Retail ULi PCIe/AGP
by Wesley Fink on September 7, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
Almost everyone likes a story where the little guy wins - David beats Goliath. The little guy comes up with a unique and useful product or tops the Performance charts with a new chipset. Certainly, the ULi M1695/M1567 is just such a success story.Many buyers were begging for a PCIe board that would also support AGP, without compromise. Lots of companies tried and the market ended up with a lot of compromised solutions that didn't catch on. It took ULi to finally build the chipset that made top-performing AGP on a PCIe board a reality.
More than that, the ULi M1695/M1567 chipset does not need to apologize to any other chipset in its performance. The ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 shows a retail product that is as good, or even better, than the ULi Reference Boards that excited those sites that actually bothered to look at the ULi chipset with an open mind.
The ASRock is clearly a value board, designed to sell for a low price, but even so, it provides all the features, including SATA2 with NCQ, that you would expect on an up-to-date A64 motherboard. The ASRock is by no means perfect. The layout will be a pain for some, the cold boot issues are annoying, LAN is 10/100 and not Gigabit, and there are no Firewire ports. But the ASRock does so much, so well that it is easy to forgive the warts when you consider the selling price. We sincerely hope that ASRock will invest a bit more time in refining the 939Dual-SATA2. With a refined BIOS and expanded memory voltage adjustments, this board could be a monster hit for ASRock. It will likely sell very well regardless, as many will also notice the slot for a future M2 expansion board.
UPDATE: ASRock has released BIOS 1.20 dated 9/02/05 which can be downloaded from their web site. Version 1.20 fixed the cold boot problems we experienced.
We like the ASRock and its implementation of the ULi chipset. It is an easy board to recommend - especially in the value and mid-range segments. We are still looking, however, for the ULi chipset from Abit or Gigabyte or Albatron or DFI - or even ASUS - that will really squeeze everything possible from the ULi chipset. Hopefully, such a board is just around the corner.
For now, if you have a top AGP video card that you are not ready to replace, then get an ASRock 939Dual - you will not be disappointed in performance and you can add PCIe whenever. Even if you don't care about AGP, the PCIe performance of the ASRock will not disappoint. ULi has brought a capable, competitive chipset to the AMD Socket 939 market. It is a fully competitive choice for any buyer, a must for AGP owners, and more is on the way from ULi. The ASRock is a very good value board and we are looking forward to what can be done with this chipset on a board aimed at the enthusiast.
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MADDIE - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
I purchased this board about two weeks ago, and have been happy ever since. I have not had any of the boot problems that anandtech had. When I get home I can check my BIOS version (that is, if anyone is interested)Pete84 - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
The new southbridge that ULi is going to release is supposedly a pin for pin replacement for the 1567, and as it'll have SATA-II and more advanced raid functions etc, IF I get a crossover board that'll be the one.Furen - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
I was under the impression that the new southbridge would be PCI-e only, though...Calin - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
I'd say the AGP/PCIe is in the northbridge, not in the southbridge.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
The PCIe is in the Northbridge on ULi chipsets, but the AGP is a M1567 Southbridge feature. If you combine a different Southbridge with the M1695 Northbridge you will not have AGP. You may want to take a closer look at the ULi chipset diagrams we published at http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2471&am...">http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2471&am...Fam Money - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
This is the best review of a product I've wanted to purchse, you tested everything I needed you to. The only downside is it came out 22 hours after I bought the mobo.;)I feel a lot better now about getting this board and buying another gig of Patriot XBLs for it.
Thanks for the review.
Furen - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
I've read that this motherboard only allows 1.55v on 130nm chips, 1.45v on single-core 90nm and 1.35v on dual-core. This is probably to protect the CPU's VRMs but it should be pointed out.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
We did check that an X2 operated on the ASRock, but we did not check to see if the voltage adjustments shifted. I tried a 4800+ x2 again, which has a default voltage of 1.35V, and the voltage adjustments now top out at 1.40v. It appears the slding voltage adjustments set themselves to .05v more than the voltage specification. A wider range at the top would definitely be better fro many users.I will add this information to the review.
Sunrise089 - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
If they can fix their boot issues, this board is perfect for people like me who have a decent office computer (P4 2.0, 756 megs) and who would like to do a little gaming now, and more down the road. This board would allow me to take advantage of any great AGP deal that came along and add it to my current system, play some previous generation games, and then later keep my GPU and upgrade to a much desired A64 system when I have more time/money. Thanks ASRockMarlin1975 - Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - link
Like I said. I have a asrock that has video problems and ram issues. I have talked to others with the same problem yet Asrock has done nothign and does not respond to anybody. So I would not buy it until you hear soemthing else or you will be like myself and other Asrock owners hopeing and waiting. Mind you the boards are cheap, but the basic stuff should still work