Onboard Devices
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: x48, motherboard
Onboard Devices
| Northbridge | Intel X48 Express MCH |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH9R |
| Voltage Regulator | Six Phases |
| BIOS | P1.00 (04/29/2008) |
| 333.3 MHz (FSB1333) | 333.5 MHz (+0.05%) |
| Clock Generator | ICS 9LPRS916JGLF |
| Connectors and Interfaces | |
| Onboard | 2x PCIe x16 |
| 1x PCIe x1 | |
| 3x PCI | |
| 2x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) | |
| 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire | |
| 1x Serial Port header | |
| 1x Floppy | |
| 1x Ultra ATA (2 drives) | |
| 6x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s* | |
| 1x Front Panel Audio | |
| 1x CD-Audio In | |
| 1x S/P-DIF Out | |
| 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) | |
| 1x Fan 3 pins (Chassis) | |
| IO panel | 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse ) |
| 1x RJ-45 Network | |
| 6x USB 2.0 | |
| 2x External SATA* | |
| 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire | |
| 2x Digital Audio Out (S/P-DIF optical + coaxial) | |
| 6x Analog Audio (7.1 Channel + Mic-In + Line-In) | |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |
| Intel ICH9R | 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) |
| JMicron JMB368 PCI-E | 1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) |
| Network | |
| Realtek RTL8111C PCI-E | Gigabit LAN Connection |
| Realtek RTL8187L USB | 802.11g/b Wireless Network Interface |
| Audio | |
| Realtek ALC890B HD Audio Codec | 7.1 Channel Directional Audio |
| FireWire | |
| VIA VT6308S PCI | 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mb/s) |
ASRock endows the X48TurboTwins-WiFi with a complete controller set typically expected of high-end motherboards, but differs from the norm by using a non-SATA add-in disk controller. Intel chipsets haven’t supported Ultra ATA devices since the P965, and ASRock would have likely left the board devoid of any add-in controller had this not been the case.
The X48TurboTwins-WiFi port panel provides PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, IEEE-1394 FireWire, six USB 2.0 ports, a single gigabit network port and six analog audio jacks. Two internal SATA to eSATA pass-through connections are also found here, but enabling these requires some very messy internal cabling.
ASRock chose JMicron’s JMB368 Ultra-ATA controller, rather than one that supports both Ultra-ATA and SATA. It uses one of the chipset’s six unallocated PCI-Express pathways to provide optimal performance…typically to slow devices such as a DVD burner.
Realtek’s RTL8111C uses PCI-Express to provide full bi-directional bandwidth to a single Gigabit Ethernet port. The motherboard’s single PCI-Express x1 slot and two third-party controllers use up only three of the chipset’s six “spare” lanes.
ASRock uses VIA’s ancient 6308 series FireWire controller to provide two IEEE-1394 ports. At 133MB/s, its PCI interface is more than fast enough to provide full performance for two 50MB/s (400 megabit) connections.
ASRock is the only company we know of to use Realtek’s ALC890B audio codec, which the company rates at a respectable 110db signal-to-noise ratio.
ASRock continues to use the AW-GA800BT mini-USB card previously found in Asus WiFi products to provide 802.11g/b wireless networking. Realtek’s RTL8187L controller does the job nicely.
- Previous page ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi
- Next page BIOS and Overclocking
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Where is the Cost/Performance ratio.
I think ASrock have done well to put forward a competitive offering and I reckon they will be notably cheaper. I think they bring the enthusiam to the masses.
I personally would go for the Gigabyte or DFI board, because their builds are quality and could conceivably last for years.