ASRock has a number of AM2+ mainboards readily in the market. So far, most of it should support the newer AM3 (DDR2) processor. As we all know, the Phenom II processors, the new Phenom II X3 710 or X4 810 all supports a dual memory controller, a DDR2 and a DDR3 within. That is, the same processor can be used on a DDR2 or a DDR3 memory mainboard. So, how will the same processor perform under these different mainboards.

In this review, we will take a look at the board's performance when the AM3 X3 710 processor is paired up with 2GB of DDR3 running at DDR3-1600 in comparison with the same processor running on a DDR2 memory type mainboard.

Before that, let's take a look at the mainboard specifications. This mainboard M3A790GXH/128M supports the Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom™ II X4 / X3 (except 920 / 940) and Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2 processors. It uses ASRock DuraCap (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors and can support CPUs rated up to 140W.

The board is based on the acclaimed AMD 790GX + SB750 chipset. As it is paired up with SB750, AOD ACC can be enabled to boost CPU o/c. On the M3A790GXH/128M, it also has another hidden feature. That is when this ACC is enabled, the 4th core on X3 710 processor will be enabled as well.

The board supports FSB 2600 MHz (5.2 GT/s), Hyper-Transport 3.0 (HT 3.0) Technology and Dual Channel DDR3 1600(OC)/1333/1066/800 (4 x DIMM slots) non-ECC, un-buffered memory, Max. capacity up to 16GB.

Although the board comes with 3 PCIe full length slots that allows you to pair up with external graphics card for CrossFireX (ATI). The board supports ATI™ CrossFire™, Hybrid CrossFireX™ and 3-Way CrossFireX™ (3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (green @ x16 mode, blue @ x8 mode, orange @ x4 mode). Alternatively, if you do not have any graphics card, you can also use the integrated  AMD Radeon HD 3300 graphics which is of DX10 class iGPU, Pixel Shader 4.0, Max. shared memory 512MB to power up the system if you want to save some cost.

For peripherals, the south bridge supports 6 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1,RAID 5, RAID 10 and JBOD), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions. An eSATA port is also located at the backplane of the board. There is also 2 x IEEE1394 ports (one port on back panel, one header on board) and a PCIE Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s on board. Those intending to use the on board graphics for video playback will be delighted to see 3 output connectors, D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI(HDCP) for 1080 bluray plaback. The board comes with 7.1ch audio using ALC890 that supports DTS.

Other unique features on this ASRock board include ASRock Instant Boot, Smart BIOS, OC Tuner, IES.

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