Introduction

I would like to thank ASRock for supplying us with the tested motherboard.

The ASRock 775XFire-eSATA2 is ASRock's first motherboard which is able to run Crossfire. Intel's i945 chipset has enough PCI lanes to do that. 16 lanes are used for the primary PCI-E interface and 4 are used to implement a second PCI-E port called "AGI". Effectively this means Crossfire runs at x16/x4. While the x4 might worry some people I do not see much of a problem there as long as you use cards that have a loopback cable. So X1300 and X1600 are out. The rest should work fine without performance loss. When a game starts it uploads all geometry and texture data to the video card which renders from there - the PCI-E bus is barely used.

Features

Specifications from ASRock

CPU

• LGA 775 for Intel Dual Core Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron D, supporting Presler and Cedar Mill processors
• FSB 800/533 MHz
• Supports Hyper-Threading Technology
• Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
• Supports EM64T CPU

Chipset

• Northbridge: Intel 945PL
• Southbridge: Intel ICH7R

Hybrid Booster

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

Memory

• Dual Channel DDRII memory technology
• 4 x DDRII DIMM slots
• Supports DDRII533
• Max. capacity: 2GB

Slots

• Supports ATI CrossFire™
• 3 x PCI slots
• 1 x PCI Express x 16 slot
• 1 x AGI Express slot (PCI Express x 4)
• 1 x PCI Express x 1 slot

Graphics

• n/a

Audio

• Realtek ALC660 5.1channel CODEC with High Definition Audio

LAN

• Realtek PCI LAN 8101L
• Speed: 10/100 Ethernet
• Supports Wake-On-LAN

Connector

• 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 and Intel Matrix Storage) and "Hot Plug" functions
• 2 x eSerial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors (shared with 2 SATAII ports), support "Hot Plug" function
• 1 x ATA100 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices)
• 1 x Floppy connector
• 1 x IR header
• 1 x Game header
• CPU/Chassis FAN connectors
• 20 pin ATX power connector
• 4 pin 12V power connector
• SLI/XFire power connector
• CD in header
• Front panel audio connector
• 2 x USB 2.0 headers

Rear Panel I/O

• ASRock eSATAII I/O
• 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
• 1 x COM Port
• 1 x Parallel Port (ECP/EPP Support)
• 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
• 2 x eSATAII Ports
• 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port
• Audio Jack: Line in / Line out / Microphone

BIOS Feature

• 4Mb AMI BIOS
• AMI Legal BIOS
• Supports "Plug and Play"
• ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
• Supports jumperfree
• Support CD Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software

Accessories

• Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O shield
• Floppy/ATA 100 cables
• 4 x SATA data cables
• 2 x SATA 1-to-1 power cables

Form Factor

• ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 8.6-in, 30.5 cm x 21.8 cm

OS

• Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/XP 64-bit compliant

Certifications

• FCC, CE, WHQL