ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2: ULi Dual x16 SLI

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• Gary Key - Saturday, March 4, 2006 - link

  It works very well on this board with an Opteron. ;-)

• Kiste - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

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  The 1.31 driver release has now eliminated all stuttering in our current benchmarks while improving performance across the board except in Serious Sam II.

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  In the past, Realtek has solved performance issues by reducing the number of buffers and disabling EAX effects without telling anyone. I hope someone will have a really good look at these integrated audio solutions one day, one that isn't just FPS and CPU utilization.
  

• Gary Key - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

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  n the past, Realtek has solved performance issues by reducing the number of buffers and disabling EAX effects without telling anyone. I hope someone will have a really good look at these integrated audio solutions one day, one that isn't just FPS and CPU utilization.

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  To date with the HD Codecs, Realtek has not decreased the buffers nor have we noticed changes in EAX2 output except for the positive. It is a very subjective area to comment on but in BF2 I like the sound quality of the 1.29 drivers better but Serious Sam II seems to have improved a great deal in the 1.30 and 1.31 drivers. While the on-board audio solutions are still lacking in most areas compared to the add-in solutions at least the manufacturers (board/chipset) are trying to improve quality in this area instead of pumping out the same old AC97 codecs. If it were not for the cost I think we would have seen several additional Audigy-SE solutions on the motherboards by now and even possibly an improved offering from Creative. While the A-SE is an older chipset it does offer better performance and audio quality in gaming than the current HD codecs from Realtek, C-Media, ADI, and SigmaTel. I really thought the VIA Envy24 series would have had greater market penetration on the motherboards but one can only speculate as to why this never happened. ;->

• tjpark1111 - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

  is it just me, or does this thing have a 20-pin power connector. ?!?!?!??!???

• kelim - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

  Yes, the board does in fact use a 20-pin power connection. If you have a 24-pin PSU, this shouldn't be a problem, since most are 20+4-pin, meaning you can detach the extra 4 pins and only use the ones you need. Either that, or the uneeded pins will hang off the side.

• Gary Key - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

  You are correct, it is a 20-pin ATC connector as stated in the article. I was surprised also and did a double take after removing it from the box. :)

• dab - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

  It says that this motherboard supports ddr2,
  "(4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 400/333/266, non-ECC, un-buffered memory..."
  
  Is this a joke? There's no 240pin slots on that board, only on the riser (which is not included). s939's IMC doesn't support this either..
  
  Am I mistaken?

• Gary Key - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

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  "(4) x DIMM, max. 4GB, DDR2 400/333/266, non-ECC, un-buffered memory..."

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  I was just changing that to DDR, sorry about the mistake. The AM2 daughter card will have slots for DDR2 memory.

• Puddleglum - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

  The figure is noteworthy, but it's actually the only Firewire 800 test result I can find in AT's reviews.

• Gary Key - Thursday, March 2, 2006 - link

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  The figure is noteworthy, but it's actually the only Firewire 800 test result I can find in AT's reviews.

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  I know we only have it in a recent review and probably should drop it. I keep hoping Firewire 800 will be implemented on the higher end boards or those designed for HTPC life. :) However, it appears to be a dead-end option at this point and the technology itself seems to be going away without a fight.