ASRock ConRoe945G-DVI Motherboard Review
Introduction: ASRock and MATX
Today we have the opportunity to look at a unique board from ASRock. This board is not going to be the best overclocker, or even the most feature rich board that supports 35 SATA drives and 28 USB ports. This board was not designed for that. ASRock has brought a micro ATX board to the table that is designed for to be a used in HTPC settings, and where cost and size is a major factor in the building of a system. ASRock has done that in the offering of the ConRoe 945G-DVI. Although this board is small in size, as you will see from our testing that it packs a punch at default settings when stacked against our overclocking monster, the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. With that focus in mind, let’s take a look at what ASRock is offering for your hard-earned dollars (though fewer of them than we are used to!).
First off, let’s have a look at the specs, as stated from ASRock:
| CPU | – LGA 775 for Intel Dual Core Core? 2 Extreme / Core? 2 Duo / Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron D – FSB 1066/800/533 MHz – Supports Hyper-Threading Technology – Supports Untied Overclocking Technology – Supports EM64T CPU |
| Chipset | – Northbridge: Intel 945G – Southbridge: Intel ICH7 |
| Hybrid Booster | – CPU Frequency Stepless Control – ASRock U-COP – Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) |
| Memory |
– Dual Channel DDRII memory technology *Due to the chipset limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Vista and Windows Vista? 64-bit. |
| Slots | – 2 x PCI slots – 1 x PCI Express x16 slot – 1 x PCI Express x1 slot – 1 x HDMR slot |
| VGA | – Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 – Pixel Shader 2.0, DirectX 9.0 – Max. shared memory 192MB – Dual VGA Output: support DVI-D and D-Sub ports with DVI Graphics-SI card by independent display controllers |
| Audio | – Realtek ALC888 7.1channel CODEC with High Definition Audio |
| LAN | – Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s – PCIE x1 Realtek RTL8111B – Supports Wake-On-LAN |
| Connector | – 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors (No support for RAID and “Hot Plug” functions) – 1 x ATA100 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) – 1 x Floppy connector – 1 x IR header – 1 x COM port header – CPU/Chassis FAN connector – 20 pin ATX power connector – 4 pin 12V power connector – CD in header – Front panel audio connector – 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 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 LAN 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 Temperature Sensing – Chassis Temperature Sensing – CPU Fan Tachometer – Chassis Fan Tachometer – CPU Quiet Fan – Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore |
| Accessories | – Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield – Floppy/ATA 100 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 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 64-bit/Vista? compliant |
| Certifications | – FCC, CE, WHQL |
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at what this little giant has for us!
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