ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi

  ASRock for some time have been content to release motherboards using older chipsets and not go for high-end features but rather for value and cost cutting measures. Lately though they've also released motherboards geared towards the higher-end and enthusiasts and also motherboards based off of new chipsets. One of these we have to look at is based off Nvidia's new 780a chipset, ASRock's K10N780SLIX3-WiFi.   As you might know Nvidia's 780a chipset is the highest-end chipset they have for AMD's Socket AM2+ platform and also features a number of unique features that Nvidia introduced with this chipset. These include integrated video on a high-end board to allow for Hybrid SLI and Hybrid Power. What Hybrid Power does is allow for the integrated motherboard GPU to take control of the main display and work in-tandem with a discrete GPU. What it does is reduce power consumption dramatically as the discrete GPU is turned off when it isn't needed saving possibly hundreds of watts of power if you're using an SLI setup and high-end graphics card. Currently this only works with the GeForce 9800 GTX and GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics cards but we hope Nvidia extends this technology to other cards in the future as it is very promising.   To give a quick run over Hybrid SLI it is similar to AMD's CrossfireX technology that allows the integrated graphics card on a motherboard to work with lower-end cards to run in SLI and give more performance for lower-end systems. This works only on the GeForce 8400 and 8500 low-end cards as with a higher end card there isn't much the integrated video onboard the 780a can offer.     The new 780a chipset is also Nvidia's first to use a 65nm manufacturing process and is thus much, much cooler running than previous Nvidia chipsets which is a great bonus. We noticed on both the high-end Asus Striker II and this ASRock that the heatpipe was much smaller but did it's job perfectly with no need for more cooling. We also increased the HyperTransport link to a hefty 2.45GHz with ease. The other main chip of the 780a is the nForce 200 which handles PCI-E 2.0 support and provides 32 lanes of bandwidth for 16x PCI-Express support and also for triple SLI support and 8x PCI-E bandwidth for three graphics cards. Of course only the 9800 GTX and 8900 GTX support triple SLI but the ASRock maintains that support. One relic which we don't like much but helps them save money is the return of the paddle card selector to choose triple SLI.   Don't think that because ASRock took out integrated video support on the 780a that they skimped on the rest of the features. As mentioned the motherboard still supports triple SLI, a hallmark of the 780 chipset series, as well as DDR2 1066 memory, 6 Serial ATA II 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support for RAID, an external eSATA II connector, one Gigabit LAN, a firewire connector on board and support for another on the back panel, it includes a Wi-Fi/E header, six USB 2.0 ports, 7.1 HD audio content with DTS support as well as optical SPDIF output. Wi-Fi support seems to be a new trend for ASRock on all of their new motherboards. The ASRock K10N780SLIX3 motherboard definitely is full of features and all the connectors you could need. This definitely isn't the level of support you'd see on a value board and not only that it includes Wi-Fi support which is still fairly uncommon on most motherboards. Another feature ASRock is now touting usually seen on higher-end motherboards are all solid capacitors for the motherboard. This should increase the lifespan of the motherboard, how reliable it is, and give a more stable overclock.                       We flashed the BIOS from a pre-release to version 1.0 on their website which fixed a few problems we had and we recommend you flash your board as well to the latest BIOS on their website. The CPU multiplier didn't have half intervals which was somewhat annoying in finding a sweet spot. Additionally when we switched from auto to manual the CPU voltage and the Northbridge voltage were reset automatically to zero. While I can recall the right voltage for the Phenom 9850 off the top of my head, the default voltage for the Northbridge of the 780a was something I had to look up on another computer. When adjusting to manual settings it should definitely start at first with default values so the user isn't lost. Other than that it was fairly easy and included a wide range of options for the bus, voltages, and we quickly attempted overclocking the processor and the HT bus. We weren't able to match the overclock of the high-end Asus Striker II 780a board of 2.9GHz for a Phenom but came close at 2.84GHz. Unfortunately this wasn't stable and it took a bit of work but we finally obtained a stable overclock at 2.8GHz. Quite good if not up there with the Striker. We also as mentioned ramped up the clock on the HyperTransport to a hefty 2.45GHz. Again this wasn't very stable though.     Using the onboard Wi-Fi was a snap and worked excellently. Simply screw on the module to the header, install drivers, and find your access point and you're off. As a bonus you can also use your computer as an access point if you want. Our connection was good and we never experienced any drop in performance. We do tend to like the idea of onboard Wi-Fi over 2 Gigabit ports but that is a personal preference. ASRock's software for their 802.11g card is quite easy to use. The hardware accessories include the ASRock Wi-Fi 802.11G antenna, ASRock SLI bridge, ASRock 3-way SLI bridge, I/O shield, Floppy cables, 4 SATA cables, 1 SATA power cable, an HDMI SPDIF passthrough cable, and an ATA 133 cable.   Software included was ASRock's OC Tuner which worked well enough adjusting settings in the BIOS but we feel that using the BIOS usually yields better results and is more reliable. Their intelligent energy saver was also included.   Let's move onto performance.                 Here are the specifications.General CPU - Support for Socket AM2+ / AM2 processors: AMD Phenom? FX / Phenom / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core / Athlon X2 Dual-Core / Athlon 64 / Sempron processor - AMD LIVE!? Ready - Supports AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet Technology - FSB 2600 MHz (5.2 GT/s) - Supports Untied Overclocking Technology - Supports Hyper-Transport 3.0 (HT 3.0) Technology Chipset - NVIDIA® nForce 780a SLI Memory - Dual Channel DDR2 memory technology - 4 x DDR2 DIMM slots - Supports DDR2 1066/800/667/533 non-ECC, un-buffered memory - Max. capacity of system memory: 8GB* BIOS - 8Mb AMI BIOS - AMI Legal BIOS - Supports "Plug and Play" - ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events - Supports jumperfree - SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support - CPU, DRAM, Chipset Core, PCIE Bridge Multi-adjustment  Audio, Video and Networking Graphics - n/a Audio - 7.1 CH Windows® Vista? Premium Level HD Audio with Content Protection - DAC with 110dB dynamic range (ALC890 Audio Codec) - DTS (Digital Theater Systems) support LAN - Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s - Giga PHY RTL8211B - Supports Wake-On-LAN Wireless LAN ASRock WiFi-802.11g module - 54Mbps IEEE 802.11g / 11Mbps IEEE 802.11b - Supports Software Access Point mode (AP mode) and Station mode (Infrastructure mode and Ad-hoc mode)  Expansion / Connectivity Slots - 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (green @ x16 mode, blue @ x8 mode) - 1 x PCI Express x1 slot - 2 x PCI slots - Supports NVIDIA® SLI? and 3-Way SLI? - Supports NVIDIA® Hybrid SLI? GeForce® Boost feature Connector - 6 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 and JBOD), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions - 1 x eSATAII 3.0 Gb/s connector (shared with 1 SATAII port) - 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) - 1 x Floppy connector - 1 x DeskExpress Hot Plug Detection header - 1 x COM port header - 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header - 1 x IEEE 1394 header - CPU/Chassis FAN connector - 24 pin ATX power connector - 8 pin 12V power connector - CD in header - Front panel audio connector - 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports) - 1 x WiFi/E header Rear Panel I/O ASRock WiFi_SPDIF I/O - 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port - 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port - 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port - 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port - 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports - 1 x eSATAII Port - 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) - 1 x IEEE 1394 Port - HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone  Other Features / Miscellaneous Unique Feature - ASRock OC Tuner - Intelligent Energy Saver - Hybrid Booster: - CPU Frequency Stepless Control - ASRock U-COP - Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) - ASRock AM2 Boost: ASRock Patented Technology to boost memory performance up to 12.5% Support CD - Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version) Accessories - 1 x ASRock WiFi-802.11g Module - 1 x Antenna - 1 x ASRock SLI Bridge - 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI Bridge - 1 x ASRock SLI/XFire Switch Card - Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield - Floppy/ATA 133 Cables - 4 x SATA Data Cables (Optional) - 1 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cable (Optional) - 1 x HDMI_SPDIF Cable (Optional) Hardware Monitor - CPU Temperature Sensing - Chassis Temperature Sensing - CPU Fan Tachometer - Chassis Fan Tachometer - CPU Quiet Fan - Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore Form Factor - ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm - All Solid Capacitor design OS - Microsoft® Windows® XP / XP Media Center / XP 64-bit / Vista? / Vista? 64-bit compliant Certifications - FCC, CE, WHQL  Here is our test system. Mother Board Asus Striker II Formula, ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi CPU AMD Phenom X4 9850BE Video Card Asus 9600 GT Memory Corsair XMS Dominator 2GB Hard Drive Western Digital 750GB Heatsink Zalmaan 9700 Display Samsung 20" LCD Our test system was Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 with all the latest driver revisions and product updates.  For general performance we used PCMark 05 which yielded a slightly lower result than the 780a Striker II from Asus.    PCMark 05 Score Asus Striker II Crosshair Formula 7206 ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi 6970 For gaming tests we used 3DMark which again showed the Striker II slightly in the lead.    PCMark 05 Score Asus Striker II Crosshair Formula 11006 ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi 10937               Conclusion: Overall we're very impressed with ASRock's K10N780SLIX3-WiFi and they seem to be taking more and more steps towards putting out very high-end motherboards but also trying to maintain value. This does though put it in a somewhat odd position of at times competing against Asus and the K10N780SLIX3-WiFi does very much that with excellent onboard features, a cutting edge chipset, and a very good overclocker. While we'd still recommend an Asus 780a for slightly better overclocking it is close and the ASRock has it's own unique features such as onboard Wi-Fi. That said the BIOS could still use some work but the reductions it makes to reduce price such as doing away with integrated video and using audio onboard the motherboard rather than a seperate add on card are ones that I'm sure many users can definitely live with. The picture is a little blurred though as currently the motherboard is not available for sale so it's hard to gauge exactly how much a value it is. If it can come in under $200 and especially $180 then ASRock will have a real winner on it's hands. For now we can say this is another step up for ASRock in quality. Score: 92%   '); //-->

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Tags: ahci corei7 ddr2 esata firewire geforce gtx260 hdmi hypertransport overclocking phenom sata socket-am2 vista WMM