Product Listing

ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 (Intel 945P Express - Core 2 Ready)

By Zachary Chan - 16 Sep 2006

Conclusion

Conclusion

ASRock's ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 is a real fresh entry into the value motherboard market, breaking the usual budget stigmata of low-end components and reduced features. While ASRock doesn't overload the board with features like high-end models from ASUS or Gigabyte, the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 has comprehensive support for the newest technologies. Even though it is based on the older Intel 945P Express chipset, to say that the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 isn't up to date doesn't do it justice. The board boasts advanced RAID features through the ICH7R Southbridge, functional CrossFire capability, PCI Express Gigabit LAN, FireWire and one of the better onboard HD Audio CODECs around.

Locking the memory divider to DDR2-667 is the only feature limitation that the board suffers from, especially if you intend to take full advantage of the latest Core 2 Duo processors and bandwidth optimizations. ASRock is playing it safe by sticking to the chipset's official capability, but this has consistently affected all our benchmarks on the board. Using the same hardware configuration, the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 was always playing catch up to the mainstream Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 and high-end ASUS P5W DH we compared it with, which may indicate slightly loose memory parameters besides the obvious bandwidth differences of DDR2-667 and DDR2-800.

However, despite the memory performance shortcomings, the board has a surprisingly robust and optimized graphics subsystem. In both 3DMark05 and AquaMark3, the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 posted higher GPU scores for all resolutions tested. In a gaming perspective, this balances out its weaker system performance, putting any fears gamers might have that the board will not make the cut. This was seen in game tests like in AquaMark 3 where the average frames-per-second recorded was in the same ballpark as the more current P965 and 975X Express motherboards.

The ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 is a very affordable solution for an all-in-one Core 2 motherboard.

Overclocking hasn't really been an area that ASRock has put a lot of focus on and many of their boards only come with rudimentary controls, so it is not surprising that overclocking isn't a strong point of the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2. While we do think that the board loses some appeal because of this, we do not begrudge ASRock for not developing an overclocking BIOS. If there is anything we truly wish ASRock would do is to optimize their board layout further and make the switch to ATX 2.01. While we've not had any problems with the 20-pin power, better safe than sorry as they say, especially if you intend on using a CrossFire rig.

The ConRoeXFire-eSATA2, like most of ASRock's boards vie for the value market and mostly intended for the budget conscious. In this, it is a plug and play motherboard for those who will not lose any sleep at night for the lack of tweaking options. Stability out of the box is important and we've not run into any installation or operational compatibility issues throughout our review. For US$83, it is frankly a very sweet deal. The ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 gets the job done. It is as simple as that.

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