ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 REVIEW

"Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 motherboard review testing this ULI M1695 Socket 939 motherboard. The Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 has many features including the ability to use the latest Socket AM2 processors from AMD and the ability to use both AGP 8x and PCI Express video cards. These two main features make the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 very future proof and upgradeable. The Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 is tested against the Gigabyte K8NS Pro which is a Socket 754 motherboard. The software we used for benchmarking was:- 3dmark 2001 SE, 3dmark 2003 and SiSoftware Sandra 2005."

"Featuring ULi's TGi Technology, the ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 supports 1 AGP 8x, 1 PCIe x16 slot, 1 PCIe x1 and 3 PCI slots that enable users to enjoy the freedom to continue using their AGP graphics cards while giving them enough headroom for future upgrade to PCI Express graphics cards. In addition, ULi's TGi Technology enables users to run applications which require multiple displays."

"Devoted to bring ASRock die-hard users the best benefits, the newly released ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, is believed to draw users' attention with its cost-effective, considerate and longevity features. Matching with ULi M1695/M1567, the life circle of 939Dual-SATA2 is unlimitedly extended. The design of both AGP8X and PCI Express graphics interface, allows users to switch graphics cards depending on their budget and needs, and the Future CPU upgrade port lets users to upgrade future CPU socket when it is mature for the market. As for the scalability of hard disk, the embedded JMicron PCI Express based SATA2 controller further extends 939Dual-SATA's life circle by supporting Serial ATA II interface." said ASRock.

"ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 supports AMD64 Socket 939 with a FSB of 1GHz of HTT. Providing a future CPU Upgrade Slot, ASRock 939 Dual-SATA2 offers end-users the flexibility for future CPU upgrade to Socket M2. This board offers a SATA II 3.0 Gb/s and 2 SATA 1.5Gb/s ports, RAID 0 (Striping), RAID 1 (Mirroring), and JBOD, which not only enhanced overall disk performance, but also provide utmost protection to data contents in hard drives."

"ULi M1695/M1567 is world's first chipset that supports both PCI Express x16 and native AGP 8X graphics interfaces. We are developing not only products with excellent qualities, but we also make sure that our products incorporate innovative features that give us a leading-edge against our competitors." said Alex Kuo, President of ULi. "ASRock's outstanding position in the channel market enable us to penetrate and fulfill market's strong demand for highly innovative and flexible, cost-effective solutions."

"About ULi - ULi Electronics Inc. is a leading fabless IC design company that develops world-class solutions for consumer electronics and professional computing products. ULi's expertise in the PC information industry and solid design capability superbly positioned ULi as a major component supplier dedicated to bringing system manufacturers more highly integrated, performance enhancing and cost effective IC solutions. For more information about ULi, please visit our website at http://www.uli.com.tw."

OPTIMISING THE ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 FOR SPEED BENCHMARK TO SHOW GENERAL PERFORMANCE 21263 22275 (+5%) 23090 (+8%) BENCHMARK TO SHOW MEMORY PERFORMANCE 237 263 (+10%) 284 (+17%) BENCHMARK TO SHOW PROCESSOR PERFORMANCE 2750 2833 (+3%) 2865 (+5%) AUTO SETTINGS DDR400 ENABLED DDR400 + 1T ENABLED COMMENT - "This is an investigation into the performance of the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 from basic settings to the advanced settings. Auto settings are the default settings you will encounter when you first install your Asrock 939 Dual Sata2. The default settings force the use of DDR333 even if you own DDR400 memory which is for compatibility reasons. Setting DDR400 and 1T will enable the fastest memory settings available for the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2. The default Auto settings are between 3% to 10% slower than using the DDR400 setting and 5% to 17% when using DDR400 and 1T. Not all DDR400 memory will work 100% when 1T has been enabled, it is nice to know that even just using DDR400 will give you a nice boost compared to Auto."

3DMARK BENCHMARKS 3DMARK 2001 SE 16649 16313 3DMARK 2003 7725 7634 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 GIGABYTE K8NS PRO COMMENT - "Using 3dmark 2001 SE the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 finishes 3% faster than the Gigabyte K8NS Pro and with 3dmark 2005 the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 is 2% faster. These benchmarks are really for testing the video card so any performance increase is good especially with 3dmark 2003." BENCHMARK SETTINGS 3DMARK 2001 SE 1024x768 Resolution 32Bit color D3D Hardware T&L Antialiasing Disabled Double Frame Buffer Compressed Texture Format 24Bit Z-Buffer Depth 3DMARK 2003 1024x768 Resolution No Pixel Processing Optimal Texture Filtering 4x Max Anisotropy Optimal Vertex Shaders No Repeat Tests No Fixed Framerate

SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2005 PROCESSOR - ALU DHRYSTONE 7599 7505 PROCESSOR - FPU WHETSTONE 2852 2828 PROCESSOR - FPU ISSE2 3692 3670 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 GIGABYTE K8NS PRO COMMENT - "Using SiSoftware Sandra 2005 CPU benchmark we are making sure that neither processors has an unfair performance advantage. Even though the Athlon64 2800 uses Socket 754 and the Athlon64 3000 uses Socket 939 both are clocked at 1.8Ghz which is why they deliver almost the same level of performance."

SISOFTWARE SANDRA 2005 MEMORY BANDWIDTH - INTEGER 4978 3043 3026 MEMORY BANDWIDTH - FLOATING POINT 4927 3045 3027 ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 (DUAL) ASROCK 939 DUAL SATA2 (SINGLE) GIGABYTE K8NS PRO COMMENT - "The major difference between the two motherboards becomes clear with this memory bandwidth test, unlike the Gigabyte K8NS Pro the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 can use "Dual Channel Memory" which can increase performance by 40% as shown above. When the Asrock 939 Dual Sata2 is using Single Channel Memory it's memory bandwidth is the same as the Gigabyte K8NS Pro."