Introduction

With the launch of Intel's Core 2 Duo processors and the imminent release of Windows Vista, there has been many an excuse for PC upgrades recently and some of the hotter motherboards in discussion have naturally been based on the new 965-series 'Broadwater' chipsets from Intel. However, users that are looking for a more value-based motherboard upgrade might want to take a peek or two at what ASRock has to offer. Our past review of the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA may not have been too favorable due to the lackluster VIA PT880 Ultra chipset, but the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 is a different beast altogether. Running on an Intel 945P Express chipset with more than a few feature enhancements on ASRock's part, this budget Core 2 ready motherboard is just what the doctor ordered.

The ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 motherboard.

The ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 comes with the following peripheral bundle:-

4 x SATA data cables

2 x SATA power converter cables

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

HDMI S/PDIF audio cable

USB 2.0 (2ports) and FireWire (1 port) bracket

I/O shield

Driver CD

User's manual

ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 Technical Specifications

CPU Support	Supports 90nm/65nm LGA775 processor package Supports Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Extreme Supports Intel Pentium D Supports Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Intel Virtualization Technology ready
Chipset	Northbridge: Intel 945P Express 533 / 800 / 1066MHz front side bus PCI Express x16 graphics Southbridge: Intel ICH7R Intel High Definition Audio Supports six PCI Express x1 lanes Supports up to eight USB 2.0 ports Supports four SATA II ports Single-channel Ultra ATA-100 IDE port
Memory	Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM Supports 677/533/400 dual channel DDR2 memory architecture
Storage	Intel ICH7R Southbridge 1 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100 (data transfer rate up to 100MB/sec.) 4 x SATA II (Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface) Intel Matrix Storage Technology Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, RAID 10
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio (Azalia) Realtek 8-channel ALC888 HD Audio CODEC HDMI S/PDIF interface header
Networking	Realtek RTL8111B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	Texas Instrument TSB43AB22A FireWire controller 2 x 1394a ports @ 400 Mbps speed
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 1 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors 4 x SATA connectors 2 x eSATA connector (shared resource) 8 x USB 2.0 ports (2 x rear, 2 x bracket, 4 x header) 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (1 x bracket, 1 x header) 1 x RJ45 LAN port 8-Channel Audio I/O ports 1 x 9-pin serial port 1 x parallel port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
Expansion Slots	1 x PCIe x16 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 1 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 1 x AGI Express slot (PCIe x4) 3 x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features	ATI CrossFire Ready ASRock U-COP Boot Failure Guard
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 8.6"(30.5cm x 21.8cm)

Rear I/O ports come with legacy connectors, analog surround audio, two USB 2.0, two eSATA 3.0Gbps and one RJ45 port.