ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD HTPC Motherboard

Introduction:

With the HTPC market in full swing, we have been honored to receive various kinds of HDMI motherboards. Most are alike in common supported features and capabilities in regards to memory and processors. Most of the current and new HDMI boards coming to the shelves support 1066 and 1333 Front Side Bus processors. And those that don't seem to have new BIOS revisions bringing the boards up to standards as well. There are more and more models to choose from separated mainly by looks.

This is one aspect that is really nice to see change about ASRock. They are among the many companies who decided it was time to up the bar and change the image. To be honest, I've worked on a few of their earliest really affordable motherboards and found them to be boarder line performers. A lot of people have the impression that a Micro-ATX motherboard will some how perform less or lack certain necessary features. This is very much not the case since many of these HTPC based boards offer the latest features and better quality components.

The latest motherboard to reach my test bench is the ASRock 4Core1333-FullHD HTPC Motherboard. The features it offers aren't completely new yet it does support 1333 Front Side Processors right out of the box. Being a movie buff who enjoys a good movie, I enjoy great sound to go with the movie even more. Compared to current A/V Component systems you can pick up at any Best Buy or Fry's, the ASRock board offers up upgradeability and a more configurable Home Theater experience. This is a new kind of ASRock, so read on and see what kinds of goodness we found.

Specifications:

1. LGA 775 for Intel^® Core™ 2 Quad / Core™ 2 Extreme / Core™ 2 Duo / Pentium^® XE / Pentium^® D / Pentium^® Dual Core / Pentium^® 4 / Celeron^® / Celeron^® D, supporting Quad Core Kentsfield processors

2. ATI™ RS600 + SB600 Chipsets

• Compatible with all FSB1333/1066/800/533MHz CPUs

• Supports Dual Channel DDRII800/667/533 with 4 DIMM slots, maximum capacity up to 8GB

• Integrated ATI™ X1250 graphics, DirectX 9.0, Max. shared memory 512MB

• 1 x PCI Express x 16 slot

• Untied Overclocking : During Overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed PCIE/ PCI Buses

• Hybrid Booster - Safe Overclocking Technology

• Dual VGA Output: Support DVI-D and D-Sub ports by independent display controllers

• Supports HDCP function with DVI-D port, to enjoy better quality with High Definition HDCP Encryption contents

• Supports 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI-D port

• Supports PCIE Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s

• Supports 2 x IEEE 1394 ports (one port on back panel, one header on board)

• 4 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 10) , NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions

• Chipset embedded HDMI Audio which supports HDMI signal through DVI-D port by using DVI to HDMI adapter (not bundled)

• 7.1 CH Windows^® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)

• Windows^® Vista™ Premium 2007 Logo Ready

• ASRock DVI_1394 I/O: 1 x VGA/DVI-D Port, 1 x VGA/D-Sub Port, 1 x IEEE 1394 port

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