Monday, October 31st 2011
ASRock Shows Off First LGA2011 Micro-ATX Motherboard
ASRock showed off pictures of the first socket LGA2011 motherboard in the compact micro-ATX form-factor, the ASRock X79 Extreme4-M Within its small board footprint of 240 x 240 mm, the X79 Extreme4-M offers almost every feature the platform has to offer. To begin with, the LGA2011 socket is powered by an 8-phase VRM that makes use of high-grade solid-state chokes, and driver-MOSFETs. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, two on either sides of the socket. All four expansion slot bays available to the mATX form-factor are made use of, with three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 and one legacy PCI.
The electrical configuration of the three PCI-Express slots appears to be x16, x8, x16 (permanent). The chipset is cooled by an active fan-heatsink. All six of its SATA ports are wired as internal ports, with two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s. Connectivity features include 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two via header), one gigabit Ethernet, a number of USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, and legacy PS/2. The CMOS can be reset from the rear panel. The board will be driven by UEFI firmware.
The electrical configuration of the three PCI-Express slots appears to be x16, x8, x16 (permanent). The chipset is cooled by an active fan-heatsink. All six of its SATA ports are wired as internal ports, with two SATA 6 Gb/s and four SATA 3 Gb/s. Connectivity features include 8+2 channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs, four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two via header), one gigabit Ethernet, a number of USB 2.0 ports, Firewire, and legacy PS/2. The CMOS can be reset from the rear panel. The board will be driven by UEFI firmware.
52 Comments on ASRock Shows Off First LGA2011 Micro-ATX Motherboard
Source: MaximumPC
Maleficarus, could you please use the edit button instead of 3 posts? Well here's a quick history of AsRock;
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASRock
"ASRock was established in 2002 to compete against Tier 2 motherboard makers like DFI, ABIT, and ECS. Traditionally many think of ASRock as ASUS's entry level board maker, as ASUS is thought of as catering to the high-end market segment. While things aren't so clear anymore as to who owns who, it is pretty much accepted that ASRock isn't owned by ASUS any longer, but they still seem to buy in bulk and thus we see a lot of the same parts used, even parts that are exclusively made for ASUS."
2011 link: vr-zone.com/articles/asrock-z68-extreme7-gen3-review/13629.html
ASRock Inc. is a manufacturer of motherboards, netbooks, and HTPCs, based in Taiwan and chaired by Ted Hsuu. It was established on May 10th, 2002 and invested by and subordinated to Asus. between 2002 and 2008. Since 2008, ASRock has been reassigned to Pegatron due to the reorganization of Asus.
In January 2010, Pegatron's then parent company Asustek announced a plan to spin off and to transfer its long term equity investment in Pegatron to its wholly owned subsidiary, Pegatron International Investment Co., Ltd. On June 10, 2010, Pegatron merged with Pegatron International, and Pegatron has since been the surviving spin off independent company.[9]
Wikipedia
Asrock is splintered off from Asus almost completely, but they are not competing companies (yet). So Asrock formed by Asus, Asus reassigns Asrock to subsidiary Pegatron, Pegatron independent split... Two separate companies, same DMS.
Why do you think Asrock boards are always cheaper then Asus boards?
www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151469
Go back some years and what you say is true though.I have no idea what to respond to this. The manufacturing is similiar of course, but sharing of R&D? TSMC produces both AMD and Nvidia chips, are they sharing R&D too?
My answer: ASrock does not use the higher-end parts that ASUS uses. This is why ASrock is still considered a low-end motherboard maker while ASUS is high-end. Asus created ASrock for this very reason and it is the same today as it was 8 years ago. A few years will not change this fact. The only diffference now is, is ASrock now has a fan following and so they (the fans) are not as willing to accept the low-end tag, but it still dosen't change the fact that it is what it still is..
A duck is still a duck even if you give it diffferent looking feathers. Asrock is trying really hard to lose the low-end tag. But this will never change as long as they still use low-end componetes on there motherboards. When and if they go high-end, they will then lose there only reason to buy them in the first place, because without the cheap price, everyone might as well just buy an Asus board instead right?
I think the confusion is just the definition of 'Low end', it started off as a budget board manufacture, and that was it
Fast forward to 2011. they're still don't do anything near as high end (in price at least) as some of Asus's more expensive board, but in the Mid-range, and lower high end, they now seem to be starting to not only catch-up, but overtake Asus in some cases
In any case after my experience with my budget Asrock board, i would definitely choose ASrock over Asus if i want to get a high end board, they just seem to have more features for the same price
As far as I know, the fan is on high-end boards, as they expect high-end VGAs to be isntalled, and when that happens, the chipset cooler will absorb alot of heat from those cards, as dual-slot cards do tend to prevent air from hitting the heatsink directly.
When some cards with stock coolers run @ 90c, clearly the heat they give off can be detrimental to the chipset's stability. you'll find many boards without fans in the mid- and low-end product lines.
www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=042562
vs.
www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_722&item_id=042019
Huge price difference!
There has to be a reason for this...