ASRock 4Core1333-Viiv
While most of the rage these days for Intel hardware is about the P35 and X38 Chipsets, for those looking at an economically-minded motherboard that may not support all of the latest and greatest features but can still work well as a Linux desktop, Intel's P965 remains a great option. One of the motherboards fitting this criteria is the 4Core1333-Viiv from ASRock, which utilizes the Intel P965 + ICH8DH while is still compatible with Intel Core 2 Quad 1333MHz processors. Through ASRock's AGI Express, ATI CrossFire support is also possible using this budget motherboard. But how well does the ASRock 4Core1333-Viiv work under Linux? We'll tell you in this article as we do our usual compatibility and benchmarking roundabout.
Features
· Intel Viiv Ready
· Compatible with all FSB1333/1066/800/533MHz CPUs
· Supports Dual Channel DDRII800/667/533 x 4 DIMM slots, with max. capacity
up to 8GB
· Supports ATI CrossFire
· 1 x PCI Express x 16 slot
· Additional AGI Express slot to adopt 2nd PCI Express x16 VGA card
· Untied Overclocking: Fixed PCI-E / PCI Buses
· Hybrid Booster - Safe Overclocking Technology
· Supports Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
· Supports 2 x IEEE1394 ports (one port on back panel, one header on board)
· 6 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID (RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 and Intel Matrix Storage), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
· 1 x eSerial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s (shared with 1 SATAII port), support NCQ,
AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
· 7.1 CH Windows Vista Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)
· Windows Vista Premium 2007 Logo Ready
· Supports Windows XP Media Center Edition
· Free Bundle: 1 x ASRock DeskExpress
· ASRock 1394_eSATAII I/O Plus: 1 eSATAII port, 1 x IEEE 1394 port, 4 ready-to-use
USB ports
Contents
Included with the ASRock 4Core1333-Viiv was a USB cable, 4-pin molex to Serial ATA adapter, I/O panel, ASRock motherboard manual, driver CD, ribbon IDE cable, ribbon FDD cable, four Serial ATA cables, and as a bonus was an ASRock DeskExpress.
The DeskExpress is an ExpressCard adapter that can be installed into an external 3.5" drive bay. The DeskExpress adapter interfaces with the system via PCI Express and has a USB port on the front of the panel. ExpressCard is the successor to PCMCIA cards and can be used for everything from wireless adapters to additional memory. Should you chose to use the included ASRock DeskExpress, it's very easy to install.