Product Listing

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

By Zachary Chan - 16 Sep 2006

ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 Examined

Features

Budget as it may be, the Intel 945P Express based ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 has a few major features that make it a very interesting motherboard even when compared to the more upmarket competition running on 975X Express or the newer P965 chipsets. First of all is its support for the complete range of Core 2 processors (Core 2 Extreme included) as well as the rest of Intel's LGA775 line-up. The only exception to this is the older Pentium Extreme Edition (dual core), which seems to be the only CPU that the board will not work with, but that's hardly a shortcoming since very few would have splurged on that chip. Memory support is limited to DDR2-667 speeds, though the board can be configured with up to 4GB of RAM.

Supports all Core 2 Duo processors, but memory is limited to DDR2-667.

Storage support is fully taken care of by the Southbridge without any secondary controllers present. The ICH7R supports a total of four SATA 3.0Gbps ports (RAID 0/1/5/10 and AHCI, NCQ ready) and a one Ultra ATA-100 connector. This is unlike the new P965 chipset based boards that require third-party controllers to support IDE devices, thus this ASRock board is very economically sensible. There are also two extra eSATA ports located on the rear I/O panel of the board with hot-plugging features that allow users to connect external SATA 3.0Gbps devices, but like previous ASRock motherboards, these two ports share resources with the Southbridge controller. This means that if you chose to use the eSATA ports, you'll have two less internal SATA connectors (and vice versa). Also note that you would have to manually run a SATA cable from the Southbridge side to the eSATA ports at the rear of the board. While more cabling is involved if you wish to use eSATA, this saves ASRock on board design costs, which are of course passed on to the consumers.

No additional storage controller, but the 'R' version of the ICH7 Southbridge promises high performance SATA speeds and built-in support for IDE.

eSATA port usage is purely up to the user. Just connect a pass-through SATA cable from the main ports with the corresponding color to activate.

Although based on the 945P Express chipset, ATI has enabled the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 to support ATI CrossFire. The board comes with a main PCIe x16 slot and a secondary AGI Express slot (PCIe x4) that is compatible for CrossFire configurations. The board uncharacteristically boasts Realtek's newer high-performance ALC888 8-channel HD Audio CODEC, comes with onboard HDMI S/PDIF interface header, features a PCI Express Gigabit LOM controller (Realtek RTL8111B) and even has FireWire-400 support. These are features that one does not expect from a budget motherboard, so these are plus points for the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2.

Expansion capabilities of the ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2. The purple slot is the secondary PCIe x4 AGI Express slot that can be used for a CrossFire graphics setup.

Realtek 8-channel ALC888 CODEC with HDMI_S/PDIF header onboard.

Layout

Like most ASRock motherboards, the layout of the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 looks like it comes from a standard template and looks identical to the old 775XFire-eSATA2. As such, our old grievances with the 775XFire-eSATA2 remain for the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2. The board has a clean look and decent component spacing, but the ATX power connectors, floppy and eSATA pass-through ports are not ideally positioned. Expansion capabilities aren't too limited, except if you go for a CrossFire setup of course.

Looks clean and spacious, but note the ATX and auxiliary power connectors are all above the CPU socket.

There are no FireWire ports available on the board by default. Thankfully, ASRock provides a bracket to hook up to the headers on the PCB. Also note the bad position of the floppy drive connector.

Overclocking

  • FSB Settings: 95MHz to 350MHz
  • RAM Frequency: DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667
  • DRAM Voltage: Low, Medium, High
  • 1.5v Voltage: Normal, High
  • Multiplier Selection: No

One look at the BIOS options and you should be able to tell that the ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 isn't going to be a great overclocker. From the nearly non-existent voltage control to the non-existent CPU multiplier, there isn't really anything that can be done with the board except to increase the FSB, cross your fingers and hope for the best. In our overclocking tests, even using our trusty Core 2 Duo E6300 processor, the board only managed to hit 295MHz FSB tops. For Core 2 systems, this is quite a bad overclock, but still relatively decent for those on older Pentium 4 and Pentium D CPUs.

Overclocking CPU-Z screenshot.

Overclocking aside, ASRock's BIOS naming conventions still has a lot to improve as we spotted weird names and options spread through the BIOS for this and many of their previous boards. One irritating example is the cryptic voltage options; exactly what can you make out from Low, Medium and High options? Mind you that the manual doesn't help either and hence our stern bickering on this matter.

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