ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Review 9

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Review

(9 Comments) »
  • The ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 can be found online for less than $70, which I find an unbelievable price for such a board.
  • Awesome price
  • AGP 8x and PCI-Express x16
  • Good performance
  • Good overclocker, but only after modding
  • Extra SATA-II port
  • Can be upgraded to Socket M2
  • Silent
  • BIOS offers very little OC options
  • Needs modded BIOS and voltmods for serious overclocking
  • Only 100 MBit networking port
  • Slim accessories
  • No Firewire
What can I say, look at that price. For $70 you get a full-fledged board which will facilitate the transition from AGP to PCI-Express with its two slots. You can use your "old" AGP card until you actually see any benefit from going PCI-Express, or have the money.
Unlike other manufacturers' solution neither the AGP or PCI-E x16 port suffer from performance penalties. Both are native implementations. ULi has done a great job with this chipset. Everybody is talking about Intel and NVIDIA chipsets, then ULi comes and delivers a very solid and overclockable chipset.
Sure, ASRock had to save money by putting only 100 MBit networking and no Firewire on the board but most people would not need those features anyway. A nice and useful addition makes the extra SATA-II port. Another nice option for upgrades is the CPU Card support for Socket M2. AMD will not introduce this new socket until early 2006, but it's good to know you will be able to use this board for a long time.
If the board had better overclocking options I would give our Editor's Choice Award without thinking for a second. After flashing a modded BIOS and doing a voltmod, this board overclocks very well, but not everybody feels comfortable with soldering on his board.
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Nov 25th, 2024 22:37 EST change timezone

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