Review Conclusion of ASROCK AOD790GX/128M AMD 790GX+SB750 mainboard

	<![if lt IE 4]> <SCRIPT SRC="http://imgserv.adbutler.com/adserve/;ID=131075;size=468x60;setID=61435;type=js" LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <a href="http://imgserv.adbutler.com/go2/;ID=131075;size=468x60;setID=61435"> <img src="http://imgserv.adbutler.com/adserve.ibs/;ID=131075;size=468x60;setID=61435;type=img" border="0" height="60" width="468"></a> </NOSCRIPT><![endif]>
中文版 \| News \| Archives \| Reviews \| Forum \| $ Deals \| Links \| History \| Contact \| Privacy

Review Conclusion of ASROCK AOD790GX/128M AMD 790GX+SB750 mainboard
Bluetooth 16 Sep 2008

Conclusion

If you are looking for a complete HTPC, gaming solution based on the AMD platform, the AMD 790GX/SB750 seems to have the best answers for these users. If you have already read our previous reviews on the 790GX/SB750, you already knew the feature set of the chipset. Pairing up with different sideport memory, and providing a complete video output solution makes one book outshine the other.

Features-wise, the board is equipped with a 2 PCIe x16 slot which can work in a single PCIe x16 or Dual PCIe x8 in CrossFire mode. There are also 6 SATA II ports supporting raid 0,1,5,0+1 and it has eSATA support. In addition, there is 1394, GbE, HDA, USB. The board also comes with a 128M Sideport which helps boost the 3D performance of the iGP.

As for CPU overclocking, the BIOS comes with a wide range of options including memory timing, voltages, wide range of HTT etc. See gallery for more information. You could also use the supplied ASRock OC tuner tool in the CDROM to overclock the board. In addition, on the SB750 (SB) of the board is the Embedded Controller for AMD OverDrive- Advanced Clock Calibration. With that, we can run AMD Overdrive to overclock the CPU cores by adding a 4% increase in all the 4 cores through this option below.

Using a Phenom 9550 with a multiplier of 11x, we managed to overclock the processor to around 2.8GHz with the help of OC Tuner with voltage bumped up as shown below.

Although the board uses a DDR2-800 as Sideport, we can easily bumped it to run at DDR2-1066 by increasing the voltage. In fact, there is minute performance difference in using DDR2-800 vs DDR3-1333. With DDR2, it also keeps the price of the board competitive.

In conclusion, ASRock has made history again with one of the all rounder boards. It did not cut corners and included features like 1394, eSATA. The ASRock OC tuner and Intelligent Energy Saver are also great help in completing the AMD solution.

Discuss

Pros

ASRock OC tuner
IES
Excellent Image quality
Low CPU Utilization when playing back VC-1
D-SUB, DVI-D interfaces all on board, HDMI requires adaptor
Hybrid CrossFire and CrossFire Support

Cons

HDMI port requires converter
No Power On/off and reset switches
No diagnostic leds
Require peddle card for external VGA card

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.

Category	Score
Performance	10 / 10
Features	10 / 10
Ease Of Installation	10 / 10
Overclocking Features	9 / 10
Documentation	7 / 10
Packaging	8 / 10
Cost / Performance	10 / 10
Overall Rating :	9.14 / 10

Related Reviews 1
Related Reviews 2

Next >>>