ASROCK Prepare their first X58 Board

rjk · 11 Feb 2009 at 00:25

Following the release of the X58 SuperComputer high-end motherboard, ASRock made an addition to its socket LGA-1366 motherboard lineup with the X58 Deluxe. The new SKU is simply a trimmed-down package of the X58 SuperComputer, with a few features and accessories removed. The motherboard continues to be a high-end offering from ASRock that supports leading multi-GPU standards in their highest-possible configurations: ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA 3-Way SLI and Quad-SLI. It retains the PCB and component-layout of the X58 SuperComputer for the most part.

The changes kick-in where, the X58 Deluxe makes do with only a single gigabit Ethernet interface, as opposed to two on the X58 SuperComputer. It does away with an SLI interconnect bridge that spans across two expansion slots (2S). The SuperComputer package originally bundled three SLI bridges in all: 2-way 2S, 2-way 3S and, 3-way. The 2S bridge connected two NVIDIA graphics cards on neighbouring PCI-Express x16 slots. With the red-coloured slots wired-up for a maximum of 8 PCI-E lanes only, the 2S bridge become redundant and not recommended for common two-card SLI setups. The rest of the offering remains the same, with support for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory, four PCI-Express x16 slots, 8-channel HD Audio and gigabit Ethernet. The new model is expected to be priced a little lesser than the X58 SuperComputer. It is yet to be officially announced by the company, though already listed on its website.

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Phatjayunoi · 11 Feb 2009 at 00:56

ASRock certainly have been growing bit by bit each year and trying to make a name for themselves. I won't be surprised within a few years they end up becoming as big name as the likes of MSI, Gigabyte or their parent company, ASUS.

Check out their Youtube channel for some hilarious stuff. The ASRock Instant Boot video is a classic

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WJA96 · 11 Feb 2009 at 00:58

These are basically P6T variants. Probably more stable too

WJA96 · 11 Feb 2009 at 01:04

Phatjayunoi said:
Check out their Youtube channel for some hilarious stuff. The ASRock Instant Boot video is a classic .

ROFL - that is great!

Hugo said:
Why my compooter soooo sloow to Boooot?

maddness · 11 Feb 2009 at 11:40

Phatjayunoi said:
ASRock certainly have been growing bit by bit each year and trying to make a name for themselves. I won't be surprised within a few years they end up becoming as big name as the likes of MSI, Gigabyte or their parent company, ASUS.

Check out their Youtube channel for some hilarious stuff. The ASRock Instant Boot video is a classic .

im surei read somewhere that asrock is a part of asus

MeatLoaf · 11 Feb 2009 at 12:15

<maddness> said:
im surei read somewhere that asrock is a part of asus

They are imdeed, im sure they make them in the same factory. The only thing that puts me off Asrock boards is they arent gnerally known as being good overclocking boards

reflux · 11 Feb 2009 at 12:22

The more X58 boards, the better. Let's have some cheap ones that overclock well and don't look like carp like MSI's budget effort.

Helios1234 · 11 Feb 2009 at 12:28

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=553

We had mentioned the ASRock X58 SuperComputer motherboard a couple of weeks ago and received numerous questions about it. We just wanted to provide a quick update today on our progress so far with the board. ASRock just released a new BIOS that has the board performing well. We have four NVIDIA GTX260-216 cards working on the board and performance is basically the same as boards with the NF200 bridge chipset in our test applications.

ASRock's Instant Boot technology is available on this board. Our average resume time (power off to desktop) has been right around six seconds. We really like this feature, although it does require a system reboot before the board powers down. ASRock offers power management via their Intelligent Energy Saver (IES) technology that is comparable to ASUS' EPU, MSI's DRMOS, and Gigabyte's DES programs. Average power savings at idle is around 5W and about 9W under load at this point. One of the more unique features on this board is that the eSATA port is self powered via a USB connector. This allowed us to utilize a eSATA/USB based SSD drive off the port.

Of course, if you are going to spend near $300 on a performance oriented motherboard, one of the first thoughts is how well does it overclock. Overclocking is now up to speed with BIOS 1.4 and stability has been excellent so far. We have asked ASRock to increase the VTT range in the BIOS and offer VDroop control along with a few other fine tuning requests. However, the board does overclock within the range of its competition as we reached a stable 19x215 or 20x205 with our retail i7 920.

We will have the full review of the ASRock X58 along with a look at several other mid-range X58 products shortly.

Uriel · 11 Feb 2009 at 13:52

After being so pleased by my current board, ASROCK are now pretty much my first choice of motherboard manufacturer.

Plus their design department are a bunch of flipping geniuses, squeezing non-standard features from various chipsets.

I'm waiting for their (hopefully) inevitable boards that will do i5 and support i7 on a riser card or the AM3 board that supports both DDR2 and DDR3 and legacy AM2 processors...

Phatjayunoi · 11 Feb 2009 at 16:43

<maddness> said:
im surei read somewhere that asrock is a part of asus

Well if you read my post carefully, I did say that ASUS is the parent company of ASRock, hence ASRock themselves are a subsidiary.

Uriel said:
After being so pleased by my current board, ASROCK are now pretty much my first choice of motherboard manufacturer.

Plus their design department are a bunch of flipping geniuses, squeezing non-standard features from various chipsets.

I'm waiting for their (hopefully) inevitable boards that will do i5 and support i7 on a riser card or the AM3 board that supports both DDR2 and DDR3 and legacy AM2 processors...

And yeah Uriel, I myself am pretty fond of ASRock ever since the AMD Socket A days where they released great budget motherboards with hybrid old and new features. Even to this day, the likes of the 4CoreDual-SATA2 motherboard is an interesting concept. Yeah they may be limited in some areas like high end overclocking, and use budget chipset brands (VIA), but they know how to produce stable proucts and cater to a certain market area.

Uriel · 11 Feb 2009 at 22:16

A bit of testing for you:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2009/asrock/X58-SuperComputer/g1.htm

Guzzidom · 11 Feb 2009 at 22:49

My last PC was based around an Asrock K8 combo-Z with socket 754 and 939, it started out with a 2800 754 and ended up with a 4000+ 939, solid as a rock all running natively, though at £35 it was no overclocker it lasted me nearly 5 years, I sold it for £65 with the 4000+ and is still doing it's duty.
They are no longer part of Asus, they parted company in 2005 but continue to think "out of the box" and make some great Frankenboards as well as some decent enthusiast kit nowadays, however they are no longer as cheap as they once were.
Back in the day they battled with ECS and PCchips and were a league ahead in terms of build and stability.

MeatLoaf · 11 Feb 2009 at 23:34

Uriel said:
A bit of testing for you:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/2009/asrock/X58-SuperComputer/g1.htm

Nice, i didnt see anything about how it clocks tho, hopefully its gonna be a decent cheap board

Uriel · 12 Feb 2009 at 10:15

Another one: http://www.ocaholic.ch/xoops/html/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=258&sel_lang=english

casw1000 · 12 Feb 2009 at 10:36

Anyone seen any UK prices yet? a popular US website is showing $300 for this board, so I am taking a guess that this will be around £250, which given the number of pci-e x16 slots for double spacing. However I am considering the Asus P6T6WS with six slots.

If anyone hears of the UK typical price, please share. TIA.

Casw1000
fold4life.com

MeatLoaf · 12 Feb 2009 at 18:30

Well this does look like a nice board but i would only really get it if it came in at under £200

HighlandeR · 12 Feb 2009 at 20:10

Anyone else simply just want one after watching the youtube video ?

Phatjayunoi · 27 Feb 2009 at 02:38

ASRock's Youtube channel has a new video,

X58 SuperComputer Plugfest demo.

Sure, this may be simple marketing and they may have been selective on the competitor's motherboards to rule out their limitations, but nevertheless, very considerate by ASRock in their X58 board's design.

The most hilarious irony in this video is using the graphics cards manufactured by the "G-Brand"

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mrbios · 27 Feb 2009 at 02:55

Years ago the simple mention of Asrock put shivers down my spine with the thought "utter crap", have they really improved that much?

Phatjayunoi · 27 Feb 2009 at 03:10

mrbios said:
Years ago the simple mention of Asrock put shivers down my spine with the thought "utter crap", have they really improved that much?

In the past few years, they have definately started to edge into the high end scene. Much of their Core 2 boards are in the fine line between budget and "decent" overclocking capabilities.

Most of the time is because they been producing budget motherboards for the budget user and some people will instantly think that itself means "crap". Its mainly the idiots who expect to get a budget board and expect high-end overclocking features on them that puts this brand down. Sure some other manufacturers can provide this but then there are others that exclusively produce boards for just the normal average user.

I've owned a couple ASRock boards in the past and currently still do, and they have never failed me so that is why I tend to regard them highly. Besides, some of their weird hybrid products are actually useful and work!