ASRock ALiveNF6G-DVI Motherboard Review

Introduction: ASRock – Smaller is better?

ASRock continues with their small form factor development with the offering of this board. Once again, as a reminder, this board was not meant to be an overclocking giant, or to be full of features to run a slew of drives or several USB/firewire devices. This board was specifically designed for for the budget/HTPC minded that are looking for a quiet, easy to cool, and small sized board. Let’s take a look at the specs and see what you do get…

CPU

– Socket AM2 for AMD Athlon? 64FX / 64X2 / 64 and Sempron Processors
– AMD LIVE!? Ready
– Supports AMD’s Cool ‘n’ Quiet Technology
– FSB 1000 MHz (2.0 GT/s)
– Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
– Supports Hyper-Transport Technology

Chipset

– NVIDIA NF6100-430

Hybrid Booster

– CPU Frequency Stepless Control
– ASRock U-COP
– Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)
– ASRock AM2 Boost: ASRock Patented Technology to boost memory performance up to 12.5%

Memory

– Dual Channel DDRII memory technology
– 4 x DDRII DIMM slots
– Supports DDRII800/667/533
– Max. capacity: 8GB*

Expansion Slots

– 2 x PCI slots
– 1 x PCI Express x16 slot
– 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
– 1 x HDMR slot

Graphics

– Integrated NVIDIA GeForce6-class graphics DX9.0 VGA
– Pixel Shader 3.0
– Max. shared memory 256MB
– Dual VGA Output: Support DVI-D and D-Sub ports with DVI Graphics-SI card by independent display controllers

Audio

– Realtek ALC888 7.1 channel CODEC with High Definition Audio

LAN

– Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Giga PHY Realtek RTL8211B
– Supports Wake-On-LAN

Connector

– 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, JBOD), NCQ, and “Hot Plug” functions
– 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices)
– 1 x Floppy connector
– 1 x IR header
– 1 x Game header
– 1 x COM Port header
– 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header
– CPU/Chassis FAN connector
– 20 pin ATX power connector
– 4 pin 12V power connector
– CD in header
– Front panel audio connector
– 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports)

Rear Panel I/O

HD 8CH I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
– 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
– 1 x VGA Port
– 1 x Parallel Port (ECP/EPP Support)
– 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
– 1 x RJ-45 Port
– HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

BIOS Feature

– 4Mb AMI BIOS
– AMI Legal BIOS
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support

Support CD

– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version)

Hardware Monitor

– CPU Internal Temperature Sensing
– CPU Ambient Temperature Sensing
– Chassis Temperature Sensing
– CPU Fan Tachometer
– Chassis Fan Tachometer
– CPU Quiet Fan
– Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore

Accessories

– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– Floppy/ATA 133 cables
– 1 x SATA data cable (optional)
– 1 x SATA 1 to 1 power cable (optional)
– 1 x COM port bracket
– 1 x HDMR card (optional)
– 1 x HDMI_SPDIF cable (optional)
– 1 x DVI Graphics-SI card

Form Factor

– Micro ATX Form Factor: 9.6-in x 9.6-in, 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm

OS

– Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP / XP Media Center / XP 64-bit / Vista? compliant

Certifications

– FCC, CE, WHQL

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Well, that is a look at all the specs, let’s take an up-close and personal look at some areas of the board.