ASRock 939Dual-SATA2

Board Layout:

Similar to the 775Dual-880Pro that we had examined several months ago, the 939Dual-SATA2 ATX motherboard measures in at 12" x 7.5" and as always, it has a turquoise colored PCB. Starting off in the upper right hand corner of the motherboard are two sets of DDR-400 slots that support the use of dual channel technology. Around these memory slots are a few capacitors but relatively free of any obstructions. With the design of the seven expansion slots, and overall crammed with onboard components, the Northbridge is positioned closely to the DDR DIMM slots. The Chipset utilized is ULI's M1695. For those unfamiliar with this alternative Chipset it offers support for one PCI Express x16, two PCI Express x1, AMD Athlon 64 CPUs, TGI, and Hyper Transport Tunnel Architecture. Cooling the Northbridge is a small passive aluminum heatsink similar to what we had seen when reviewing the ASRock 775Dual-915GL.

Filling up the void between the Northbridge and Southbridge, along with the area around them, is a single SATA2 port and two SATA ports. As the implemented Southbridge does not offer SATA2 with NCQ, JMicron's JMB360 ASIC was called in for support. Providing the two SATA ports is the ULI Southbridge, which also offers RAID 0, 1, and JBOD array capabilities. The Southbridge used in conjunction with the ULI M1695 is the ULI Electronics M1567. Supported by the ULI M1567 is not only the previously mentioned SATA ports and all of the traditional offerings (i.e. USB) and AGP 8x support. ULI refers to its abilities as TGI with full PCI Express x16 and AGP 8x support. This graphics implementation is different from what can be found on other ASRock products such as the 775Dual-880Pro that implements the VIA PT880 Pro Chipset and offers AGP 8x support, however, the PCI Express x16 slot is limited to x4 speeds. Cooling the M1567 Southbridge is a small golden-colored passive heatsink. Underneath the SATA ports and Southbridge are two ATA-133 IDE channels while next to them is the CMOS battery and M0.31B chip. Also in this vicinity is the CMOS clearing jumper, and unlike past ASRock products, a jumper cap was included to make the process even easier.