ASRock Penryn1600SLI-110dB

[JustaGeek]

I have been using the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard since September 2006, and it has proven itself as a very stable board, used currently on my second computer, coupled with E6600, 2GB of DDR2 667 RAM and 7950GT OC.

But I've come across this interesting motherboard today, and it seems like it might give ASUS run for their money!

ASRock specifications - Penryn1600SLI-110dB.

EDIT: Now available at Newegg for $104,99 + $6.61 S&H.

Gary Key's initial review.


If the price can be kept below $100 US, it will certainly be a winner. (EDIT: Well, it is a bit over $100...)


The short description, courtesy of DarkVision Hardware

"Let me highlight some of its most important features here immediately before getting into the fascinating testing part. For CPU support, ASRock Penryn1600SLI-110dB supports Intel® Core? 2 Extreme / Core? 2 Quad / Core? 2 Duo / Pentium® Dual Core / Celeron®, and even Penryn Quad Core Yorkfield and Dual Core Wolfdale processors. One of its most distinctive features is its support of Intel® Yorkfield CPU, which makes it one and only 650i SLI on the market supporting Yorkfield CPU such as QX9770 CPU, which the test results will be shown later.

This motherboard is designed with all solid capacitors, which makes it a solid, reliable motherboard for extreme over clocking. The sound quality of this motherboard is not something you should ignore. It is designed with ALC890 audio codec with 110dB dynamic range, bringing you consumer level sound quality. As for other features, this motherboard comes with 4 DIMM slots of Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 with maximum capacity up to 8GB, 3 x PCI Express x16 slots (white @ x16 mode, yellow @ x8 mode) for SLI VGA cards configuration. You may install either one VGA card on the white PCI-E x16 slot or two NVIDIA® SLI? series VGA cards on the two yellow PCI-E x16 slots. It?s all up to your budget.

As for the external devices interface, this motherboard comes with IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN which is very favored by many users. This motherboard adopts 7.1 CH Windows® Vista? Premium Level HD Audio (ALC890 Audio Codec), featuring 4 SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors supporting RAID (RAID 0, 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, JBOD) and NCQ functions. For the back panel I/O, it even comes with a Coaxial SPDIF Out Port and an Optical SPDIF Out Port."

 

[Heidfirst]

it's not true that it's the 1 & only 650i SLI with Yorkfield support - abit's FPIN9 SLI claims it as well.

 

[JustaGeek]

Perhaps it is not the only MB with the 650i chipset to support Yorkfield.

But I believe the 775Dual-VSTA is a fantastic MB, that allowed me for a smooth transition to the newest Intel CPUs almost 2 years ago, and I am excited that ASRock is working on the future boards.

 

[toadeater]

Unless they did some re-engineering of this chipset, the NB cooler looks inadequate for a Yorkfield. That's going to need some active cooling, even without an OC.

 

[JustaGeek]

I agree - the NB heatsink might not be sufficient. It does get hot when overclocking, and I have a little fan on my huge ASUS NB heatsink.

 

[JustaGeek]

An interesting review and benchmark results from techPowerUp!.

Will it really beat the 780i...?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Grossly inadequate NB heatsink, but other than that it looks like a good board.

If they hadn't put that cap right next to the heatsink, then it looks like you could remove the NB heatsink and replace with a copper VC-RE.

 

[Heidfirst]

Originally posted by: toadeater
Unless they did some re-engineering of this chipset, the NB cooler looks inadequate for a Yorkfield. That's going to need some active cooling, even without an OC.

they probably aren't going to get much of an fsb oc out of a quad though (Kentsfield or Yorkfield) - most likely low 300s.

 

[GundamF91]

I really dont' care for ECS board, it's probably one of the worst OC board around. If for stock setting use, then that's OK.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: GundamF91
I really dont' care for ECS board, it's probably one of the worst OC board around. If for stock setting use, then that's OK.

What ECS board...?

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek

Originally posted by: GundamF91
I really dont' care for ECS board, it's probably one of the worst OC board around. If for stock setting use, then that's OK.

What ECS board...?

lol he's paying attention

 

[Johnbear007]

Gary Key commented that this was a 95$ board.... where can we find it?

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
Gary Key commented that this was a 95$ board.... where can we find it?

It should be released shortly at NewEgg and a couple of other places. The pricing has moved all over the map, from $85 to $110, figure somewhere around $100 is the real price. I will have a short preview up tomorrow afternoon and a full review with the budget P35 boards in the next week or so.

Those numbers at techPowerUp! were provided by ASRock in their press kit, but they did change the color highlights on the columns. That said, the board surprised me.

Also, for owners of the 650i boards from ASUS, we hope to have new beta BIOS releases in about a week that will work better with the E8400.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: Johnbear007
Gary Key commented that this was a 95$ board.... where can we find it?

It should be released shortly at NewEgg and a couple of other places. The pricing has moved all over the map, from $85 to $110, figure somewhere around $100 is the real price. I will have a short preview up tomorrow afternoon and a full review with the budget P35 boards in the next week or so.

Those numbers at techPowerUp! were provided by ASRock in their press kit, but they did change the color highlights on the columns. That said, the board surprised me.

Also, for owners of the 650i boards from ASUS, we hope to have new beta BIOS releases in about a week that will work better with the E8400.

Thanks for the update, much appreciated!

There has been speculation about the northbridge cooling being insufficient for a good OC, or possibly even stock. How do you feel about that?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Gary Key
I will have a short preview up tomorrow afternoon and a full review with the budget P35 boards in the next week or so.

WOOT an update! :heart:

 

[MoMurda]

How do the new 750i stack up to the 650i? Almost the same?

 

[KenAF]

I hope they did this "budget P35" review with the E8x00 CPUs.

I still see some other sites posting motherboard reviews with E6x00 CPUs -- what's the point of that? Those CPUs are discontinued.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: KenAF
I hope they did this "budget P35" review with the E8x00 CPUs.

I still see some other sites posting motherboard reviews with E6x00 CPUs -- what's the point of that? Those CPUs are discontinued.

E8400, E6550, Q6600, E2200....

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: MoMurda
How do the new 750i stack up to the 650i? Almost the same?

We will not have the ASUS 750i board until tomorrow, maybe on Monday. The only real difference is the addition of PCI-Express 2.0 plus electrical component changes to handle Yorkfield.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007


Thanks for the update, much appreciated!

There has been speculation about the northbridge cooling being insufficient for a good OC, or possibly even stock. How do you feel about that?

It needs some additional cooling, working on temp numbers right now.

 

[JustaGeek]

It's great to have the "first-hand" info on this motherboard.

I can't wait for the reviews of the new ASUS 780i and 750i motherboards, too...

Thanks, Gary!

 

[KenAF]

Gary,

I'm very much looking forward to that review. I have yet to see anyone publish a motherboard comparison of any kind using the E8400, so you may be the first.

Hopefully, it will be followed by a quick look at that new 320Gb platter hard drive.

 

[Gary Key]

Originally posted by: KenAF
Gary,

I'm very much looking forward to that review. I have yet to see anyone publish a motherboard comparison of any kind using the E8400, so you may be the first.

Hopefully, it will be followed by a quick look at that new 320Gb platter hard drive.

I had a few problems last night with the QX9650 on the ASRock board, found one of the infamous holes that is causing all sorts of problems with the memory clocked around DDR2-900. However, the board is very well behaved with the Q6600 and E8400. ASRock is working on a fix right now, but it might not happen until after the Chinese New Year celebrations next week.

Also, the 320GB drives arrived this morning...

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: Gary Key

Originally posted by: KenAF
Gary,

I'm very much looking forward to that review. I have yet to see anyone publish a motherboard comparison of any kind using the E8400, so you may be the first.

Hopefully, it will be followed by a quick look at that new 320Gb platter hard drive.

I had a few problems last night with the QX9650 on the ASRock board, found one of the infamous holes that is causing all sorts of problems with the memory clocked around DDR2-900. However, the board is very well behaved with the Q6600 and E8400. ASRock is working on a fix right now, but it might not happen until after the Chinese New Year celebrations next week.

Also, the 320GB drives arrived this morning...

Awesome I really can't wait to take a closer look at this board. Do you know if ASROCK plans on fixing the northbridge cooling before it launchs?

 

[Gary Key]

Hi,

1. I had to go back and run the 780i benchmarks again, just to make sure of the results. Results that have really surprised me with SLI enabled. Our first part goes up on Tuesday night and is a comparison on SLI performance with the QX9650 and 8800GTS-512 cards which should be interesting. The full board goes up next week in the budget board shootout, ASUS did send us a 750i board so it will not just be P35 versus 650i. Also, everything from a E2160 to E8500 ran fine in this board with the latest BIOS, overclocking is generally okay, not as good as the P35 boards but if you want a stable SLI platform, ASRock nailed it.

2. The cooling solution will not be upgraded before retail shipments. I will not kid you, this thing gets hot as hell for lack of better words. However, stability was never an issue in testing although we have very good airflow across it in our CM830 Stacker case.

3. I am hoping to get the updated BIOS before the roundup, 8GB testing is not good right now with the 1333 processors, 4GB is very stable though.