by Doors4ever
05/01/2008 | 08:13 PM
I doubt that this summer we will be celebrating a one-year anniversary of the Intel P35 Express core logic launch. And not because it is a bad chipset, but because all our thoughts will be with the fourth generation of Intel chipsets, such as Intel P45 Express. Having turned to mainboards on Intel X38/X48 Express chipsets we failed to see that they have any significant advantages over their predecessors.
<%BANNER[article]%>Moreover, it turned out that some flagship mainboards often yield to the best solutions on Intel P35 Express in terms of overclocking friendly features and overall work experience. And although we have already checked out numerous solutions on P35 from abit to MSI (in alphabetical order), there are some manufacturers, whose mainboards we didn’t yet have a chance to check out. One of them is ASRock, for example.
So, today we are going to make up for this omission and introduce to you ASRock’s solution on Intel P35 Express.
ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard comes in a box that is of the same length and width as the others, but is in fact almost half the height than the boxes of other contemporary mainboards:
We even doubted for a second that a mainboard may in fact fit inside a thin box like that. However, the board was there, assembled and ready to use, so we didn’t have to deal with a compactly packed pile of components and “make your own mainboard” guide. :)
Moreover, even the accessories bundle was not scarce, as you may have thought at first. ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard comes with FDD and IDE cables, four Serial ATA cables with locking clips on the connectors and a SATA HDD power adapter, a big booklet with installation instructions in multiple languages, a CD disk with software, I/O Shield for the case rear panel. There is even one nice bonus such as HDMI SPDIF Cable to get sound to the graphics card.
But this is also not all yet! ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard has “WiFi” abbreviation standing for “Wireless Fidelity” for a reason: it comes bundled with ASRock WiFi-802.11g Module, and antenna, a brief user’s manual and a bracket with special holes cut out for the antenna and for the modules status indicator.
This is a surprisingly rich accessories bundle, I should say – the first of a few pleasant surprises ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ prepared for us today.
When it came to discussing the PCB layout, we had to admit that the mainboard is not that brilliant any more. It is good though that it uses a 24-pin power connector and an 8-pin ATX12V connector, especially since it proudly bears “4Core” in its model name. However, we believe that the engineers could have found a much better place for the power connector, than in the middle of the PCB:
The chipset cooling system is also quite primitive, as if it had arrived from the last century. Both heatsinks, on the chipset North Bridge:
…and the chipset South Bridge heat up a lot and would be better off with some additional cooling:
This is where the next drawback comes from: there are only two fan connectors, one of which will most likely be taken y the processor cooler. And where shall we plug the additional case fans in?
If we turn the mainboard upside down, we will see one more drawback worth pointing out: sharp ends of the processor socket contacts. They are not too tall, but you still risk closing them accidentally if you use a cooler with a metal backplate:
Another drawback of the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard doesn’t catch your eye right away. The set of jumpers used to set the FSB and memory frequencies is located in-between the PCI Express x16 slots and is almost completely hidden beneath the installed graphics card.
The ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ model name suggests that it supports processors with 400 (1600) MHz bus. However, the user’s manual claims that you will have to reset the jumpers for that. This frequency support is unofficial that is why the memory set as DDR2 1066 will in fact work at lower frequency, namely as DDR2 960. the same is true for DDR3 1066 that will work as DDR3 960, while DDR3 1333 will in fact run as DDR3 1280.
However, only a couple of top Intel Core 2 Extreme processors officially support 400 (1600) MHz FSB these days, so I doubt that any of the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ owners will really face this problem. I really feel bad about listing this issue as a drawback, as someone was really trying to do a good job providing support of all processor types, and we do appreciate it… However, if you have one of those widely spread processors with 266 (1066) MHz or 333 (1333) MHz bus and you decide to set the memory as DDR2 1066, you will have to deal with jumpers again. This is a real drawback, I should say, and many ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ users will inevitable have to deal with it.
Luckily, this seems to be the end of our “disadvantages” list and now we have to mention only the remaining good things. The mainboard is designed using exclusively solid-state capacitors, the graphics card doesn’t block the memory slot clips, the gap between the first and second graphics card slots is twice the size, there are three PCI slots and there was even enough room for an additional FireWire controller. By the way, it is exactly due to IEEE1394 support that ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard boasts the “+” in its name. The same mainboard but without this controller has no “+” in the model name.
I believe I have to remind you that ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard is based on Intel P35 Express chipset, i.e. it supports first revision of PCI Express x16, only the top slot of the two available works at full speed of x16, while the other one works at x4. However, CrossFire technology will work just fine here.
I would also like to point out that the board uses ICH9R South Bridge that allows building RAID arrays of hard disk drives, and JMicron JMB368 chip allows using storage devices with Parallel ATA interface. There is an additional VIA VT6308S controller that provides IEEE1394 support. Gigabit networking functionality is delivered by Realtek RTL8111C controller and 8-channel sound – by Realtek ALC890 codec. WiFi-module is built around Realtek RTL8187L and is installed into a special connector located between the PCI slots.
The ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ rear panel will please you with a pretty rare combination of outdated and contemporary interfaces. The mainboard carried two PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse, a COM and LPT port, eSATA, FireWire, RJ45, four USB ports and six audio-jacks.
Although there are a few peculiarities here, too. eSATA connector is initially non-operational, as it s connected to nothing. You will have to sacrifice one of the chipset Serial ATA connectors and connect it with a regular SATA cable to the corresponding internal connector next to the ATX12V, then the external eSATA will work. It may not be the finest approach when there is a SATA cable running over the entire mainboard from the lower right to the upper left corner of the PCB, but this solution definitely has its advantages.
In conclusion I have to point out a few smaller issues of the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ that we discovered during our test session. One of them is certainly the location of the FDD connector, the absence of digital audio outs (S/PDIF) and support of only 10 USB 2.0 ports (four on the rear panel and other six as internal connectors) out of 12 that the chipset provides.
As usual, we would like to sum up all the technical specifications of the ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard in a tale below:
ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard doesn’t have any convenient tools with graphics interface for quick BIOS updates, like ASUS or Gigabyte mainboards. However, you won’t need to connect a FDD to reflash the BIOS: all you need is Afuwin utility from Windows OS:
Everything happens very quickly, in full auto ode. I only wish there were an option to save the current BIOS version, just in case.
ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard uses BIOS based on AMI code. To access the BIOS Setup you have to press F2 instead of the usual Del key. The first page reports the current BIOS version (at the time of tests we used the latest BIOS version P1.30), CPU specifications and its working frequency as well as memory type, capacity and operational frequencies.
The next section is called Advanced and judging by the list of available sub-sections we can guess what its contents are:
We would be primarily interested in checking out the first two sub-sections. Let’s start with CPU Configuration:
Here you can set the desired FSB frequency (100-800MHz) and PCI Express frequency (50-150MHz), adjust the settings for supported processor technologies. The frequencies will be set to their default values in Auto mode. In manual mode you can select the settings yourself. There is also the third mode – I.O.T. (Intelligent Overclocking Technology). It is a sort of dynamic overclocking tool when you can set the desired overclocking goal in percents (maximum 30%), and the CPU will not be overclocked right away but as needed, only if the workload increases. Although we have to admit that although the system did overclock as set, the speed didn’t go down in idle mode, so we couldn’t quite figure out what the difference between this mode and manual overclocking actually was.
Unfortunately, the mainboard doesn’t know to change the processor clock frequency multiplier, and in Auto mode EIST power-saving technology doesn’t work. Even if you manually set Intel SpeedStep tech parameter to Enable, the mainboard will continue to lower the processor clock frequency multiplier in idle mode but will not reduce its Vcore during overclocking. This is when ASUS mainboards acting similarly come to mind: we belief ASROck could have borrowed something better from them than issues like that.
The Chipset Configuration subsection offers us a much broader range of options. Besides adjusting the work modes for integrated audio, networking and FireWire controllers, here we can also set memory frequency and main timings, change the voltages.
We have already expressed our discontent about the fact that we need to reset jumpers in order to get the memory to work as DDR2 1066 with processors supporting 266 (1066) MHz or 333 (1333) MHz FSB. We can also complain that the memory frequency doesn’t change when the FSB frequency changes, so we have to calculate the resulting value ourselves. The complete list of supported memory frequencies depending on the default processor FSB speed looks as follows:
Processor FSB frequency | Supported memory |
400 (1600) | DDR2 800, DDR2 1066 |
DDR3 1066, DDR3 1333 | |
333 (1333) | DDR2 667, DDR2 800, DDR2 1066 |
DDR3 800, DDR3 1066, DDR3 1333 | |
266 (1066) | DDR2 667, DDR2 800, DDR2 1066 |
DDR3 800, DDR3 1066 | |
200 (800) | DDR2 667, DDR2 800 |
DDR3 800 |
The situation with memory timings is also not quite flawless. We can adjust only the major timings and besides the supported value intervals are far from being optimal. DRAM CAS# Latency, DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay and DRAM RAS# Precharge parameters for DDr2 SRAM can be changed from 3 to 6, while DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge – from 9 to 15. This is more or less acceptable. When we switch to DDR3 SDRAM the DRAM CAS# Latency interval shifts and the available values now fall between 5 and 9. It is also quite normal. However, as for other timings, everything stays the same, just like for DDR2 SDRAM: from 9 to 15 for DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge and from 3 to 6 for everything else, though these are unacceptably low values for DDR3.
Now let’s say a few words about the voltage adjustment. Once you change the CPU Voltage from Auto to Manual, you get pretty good options for CPU voltage adjustment. The supported interval is relatively big: from 0.81975V to 1.6V with a tiny increment of 0.00625V. This is all pretty good, no complaints here. The mainboard also offers pretty decent options for adjusting the memory voltage, the maximums are even a little too high. The DDR2 voltage may be set between 1.79V and 2.72V, while DDR3 voltage – from 1.47V to 2.66V with a small variable increment. And then things get confusing again: NB Core Voltage, SB Voltage and VTT Voltage parameters can be set to [Auto], [Low], [Middle], [High] and [Highest], although there is no mention anywhere about the actual numbers behind these words.
We also found no explanations whatsoever regarding the DRAM RCOMP Setting and CIR10 Field 1 parameters, sow e can only guess what they actually stand for:
The monitoring section is its definite infancy here. You can be happy that the board allows controlling the rotation speed of all fans that can be connected to it, but there are only two of them…
The situation with other parameters is not any better. The mainboard allows monitoring system temperature, CU temperature and registers only the processor Vcore besides the main voltages coming from the system PSU. It formally allows adjusting the rotation speed of the processor fan, but in reality this feature doesn’t work with fans using three-pin connectors.
We normally do not dwell on standard BIOS features in our mainboard reviews, because they do exist in more or less identical form on any mainboard. However, this time we found something interesting in a pretty common Boot section. Take a look at the modest looking fourth item in the list below: USB.
We all know that floppy disks are no longer used and have been replaced with more reliable, faster and larger capacity USB flash drives that serve not only as portable media for data storage but also as boot-up devices. But how do we boot from a USB flash drive? Different manufacturers offer different solutions. abit mainboard owners have to connect the flash drive first, so that the system could detect it, then enter the BIOS and select it as a boot-up device. Despite all the advantages of abit mainboards, they do not have such useful and convenient feature as boot-up menu. The majority of other mainboards allow you to press F8, F11 or Esc to get to boot-up menu and select the necessary boot-up device. Of course, it is much more convenient this way, but you have to make extra moves and may easily miss the right moment. ASRock Company did it differently, by including a boot-up USB option that should completely replace the good old FDD. Now you just put USB as the first boot-up device instead of Removable Device. If the USB flash is connected and is a boot-up device indeed the system will boot from it, if not, the system will continue booting from the next device in the list. Ingeniously simple and extremely convenient! It is really strange that no one has yet implemented something like that.
There is something else interesting in the Boot Settings Configuration section, although it is not as useful, but more amusing. Contemporary mainboards usually display some Boot logo or image and many manufacturers allow replacing it. ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ features three preset images and you can select the one you like most.
So, summing up a few things this is what our preliminary conclusion will look like. ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard BIOS offers excellent options for adjusting processor and memory voltages, vague options for adjusting other voltage settings, and poor options for resetting memory timings and frequencies. Too bad that the resulting CPU and memory frequencies are not displayed when you change the FSB speed. We wish they also allowed reducing the processor clock frequency multiplier. It is sad that H/W Monitor section boasts pretty scarce functionality. It is great to have a convenient option for booting up from a USB flash drive, but it is high time they enabled USB keyboard and mouse support by default, too. They have selected a very inconvenient F9 key for loading standard BIOS settings: it is located too close to F10 (save and exit). F10 is used frequently, so you may accidentally miss the right key and have to start all over again, because there is no option to save the settings profiles. However, ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ does offer some CPU overclocking options and we are going to discuss them I our next chapter.
Our testbed was built with the following components:
ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ can work with DDR2 or DDR3 SDRAM. We started our tests with DDR2 SDRAM and used familiar Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-9136C5D memory modules (2 x 1024MB). For our experiments we took Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz, FSB 333MHz, 6MB, Wolfdale, rev. C0) that can work at 450-455MHz FSB, i.e. can overclock beyond 4GHz frequency. The memory frequency was set to the minimum and its voltage was increased to 2.1V. Processor Vcore was set to 1.55V, NB Core Voltage and VTT Voltage were set to High. Our preliminary tests showed that Middle setting was not enough to overclock even to 400MHz FSB. Of course, the North Bridge chipset heatsink did heat up a lot in this case, so we had to use an additional quiet 80mm fan.
ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard started at 445MHz FSB. At 440MHz it booted Windows OS, and it could run stably only at 420MHz FSB. We reduced the processor Vcore to 1.45V, while the memory worked at 840MHz frequency with 4-4-4-12 timings or at 1008MHz frequency with 5-5-5-18 timings.
It is indeed a very modest result for a mainboard built around a chipset that would normally conquer frequencies about 100MHz FSB higher. However, we could immediately answer the question “what maximum FSB frequency does ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ support?” At first we thought that we would never find out this frequency because the mainboard cannot lower the processor clock frequency multiplier, but it didn’t matter for 420MHz FSB.
I would like to point out specifically that during our experiments the mainboard would occasionally freeze on boot-up or would not start at all. However, Boot Failure Guard technology worked impeccably, so we didn’t use the Clear CMOS jumper even once. It was a little annoying that we had to use up all three boot-up attempts before the mainboard would start in safe mode. However, all the previously selected BIOS settings remain intact, which is extremely important because the mainboard doesn’t allow saving settings profiles.
We pinned some hopes upon the DDR3 SDRAM, however, this part of our test session ended up in a total fiasco. At first we worked with 2 x 1024MB Super Talent W1600UX2G7, then we replaced it with a pair of OCZ PC3-14400 Platinum Series (OCZ3P18002GK) modules, but it didn’t make any difference. At 420MHz FSB ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard started only when the memory was working at the minimal possible frequency of 400MHz, as DDR3 800. And taking into account overclocking, the actual memory working frequency equaled about 1GHz, which is pretty good for DDR2, but is indeed too low for DDR3.
The only way for DDR3 to outperform the predecessor is to reach the frequencies .5 times higher. It is quite possible, contemporary DDR3 SDRAM modules can do things like that, but only not on an ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard. When we set the memory as DDR3 1066 or DDR3 1333 during our processor overclocking experiments, the mainboard wouldn’t even start. These dividers are formally quite operational, as the mainboard did start with DDR3 1333 memory setting when the CPU was working at its nominal speed. Although I have to admit that the timings looked pretty strange in this case: 7-9-9-24. Besides, the Performance Level was set differently for each channel: 6 for one and 7 for another.
It is impossible to correct the timings and set at least the default ones for OCZ PC3-14400 Platinum Series (8-8-8-24). As you remember, the BIOS of ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard allows setting reasonable timings only for DDR2 SDRAM. As soon as we switch to DDR3, only the DRAM CAS# Latency interval shifts so that we can choose from the interval between 5 and 9. All other timing settings remain the same as with DDR2, although they are too low for DDR3 SDRAM. We tried changing only DRAM CAS# Latency and leaving the other timings in Auto, as we hoped that the mainboard would choose the most optimal setting on its own, but it didn’t help. The mainboard still wouldn’t boot with the memory set as DDR3 1066 or DDR3 1333 if the CPU was overclocked to 420MHz FSB.
So, we see that during processor overclocking DDR3 memory can only work at extremely low maximum frequency of 1GHz. Taking into account that DDR2 can easily hit this speed with lower timings, there will be absolutely no intrigue in comparison between the two. A system built on ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard and DDR3 SDRAM will be too slow and hence unable to compete against any other overclocker platform. You can improve the performance by simply replacing DDR3 with DDR2 SDRAM. Unfortunately, we have to admit that ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard only formally supports DDR3 SDRAM. Using this memory type on this platform is not justified: neither from the economical, nor from the performance standpoint.
Our attempt to overclock Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (1.86GHz, FSB 266MHz, 2MB, Conroe-2M, rev. B2) also failed. If you look at the table above showing the supported memory frequencies and their dependence on the nominal FSB speed, you will notice that DDR2 can work at the minimal frequency of 333MHz, i.e. as DDR2 667. CPUs with the nominal 333 (1333) MHz FSB, such as Intl Core 2 Duo E8400, have a 1:1 divider for that. During overclocking and FSB frequency increase, memory frequency grows synchronously and everything goes on smoothly. However, processors with 266MHz FSB, such as Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, use an increasing divider of 4:5 to set the same 333MHz memory frequency. It means that during overclocking every 4MHz of the bus frequency increase correspond to 5MHz memory frequency increase. Therefore, it is quite possible that the CPU overclocking will end up limited by the memory modules potential.
Suppose that memory can run stably as DDR2 1100 at 550MHz frequency. You can easily calculate that the maximum bus speed in this case will be only 440MHz, although our Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor sample can overclock to 490MHz FSB. So, even theoretically, we will not be able to overclock our processor to its maximum on ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard. In reality things got much worse. Even at 410MHz FSB the system wouldn’t run stably, and since the board doesn’t work well with DDR3 at all, switching to a different memory type didn’t help, either.
Overclocking processors with 200 (800) MHz FSB is an even bigger disaster. The minimal DDR2 mode for them is again DDR2 667, i.e. they use a lowering divider of 3:5. Every 3MHz of the FSB frequency result in a 5MHz memory frequency increase. Our assumption turned out wrong: DDR2 memory can only work in ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard at frequencies slightly beyond 500MHz, i.e. when we overclock processors with 200 (800) MHz FSB we will hardly be able to push the FSB speed past 300MHz.
There is only one advantage in all these overclocking mishaps: new processors keep coming out and their nominal frequencies keep growing. Old CPUs get discontinued and new ones are sold at the same prices. If we are talking about processors with 200 (800) MHz FSB, their wholesale price is $113 and $133, and their retail price is very close to that, too. And 300MHz FSB frequency will be more than enough for efficient overclocking of the top Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 (2.4GHz) and recently announced but already widely available Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 (2.6GHz).
Although I have to admit that the situation is pretty strange overall: we can’t quite figure out the positioning of ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard in the market. An inexpensive mainboard like that is usually paired with an inexpensive CPU. I our case these will be processors with 200 (800) MHz and 266 (1066) MHz bus. However, ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ is least suitable for overclocking of these particular processors, and copes best of all with relatively expensive CPUs supporting 333 (1333) MHz FSB. In fact, “copes best of all” is also an exaggeration: the board doesn’t do such a good job here, too, as we have just shown you.
Although ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard does have a number of indisputable advantages, its drawbacks will hardly make it a product of choice for any experienced overclocking fans. However, it doesn’t mean that it is a bad board. As you know, most computer systems are purchased not for overclocking needs but to work for a more or less long time at the default speed. And if on day a casual overclocker discovers that his board can in fact do something, it will be a pleasing surprise.
However, the price of ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi+ mainboard keeps you thinking that maybe you should go for something else with a bit more advanced overclocking –friendly features. Of course, you will not find a mainboard with WiFi for $130, but this is not the only feature you look for in a mainboard. If WiFi were a free bonus, then why not, but if it comes instead of additional overclocking options, then maybe you should think twice…
Looks like ASRock foresaw our doubts and concerns and didn’t release just one model, but the whole lineup of solutions using the same PCB layout. We have already mentioned ASRock 4Core1600P35-WiFi (without the “+”): it is exactly the same but without the additional FirWire controller, i.e. costs less:
There is an even simpler model called ASRock 4Core1600Twins-P35D. This one is very different from the other two: no WiFi module (although the connector is still there), no FireWire, ALC888 codec instead of ALC890, ICH9 South Bridge instead of ICH9R, and only 4 Serial ATA ports:
And if we replace solid-state capacitors on ASRock 4Core1600Twins-P35D with regular electrolytic ones, and put a regular four-pin connector instead of the 8-pin ATX12V one, we will get an ASRock 4Core1600Twins-P35 (without the “D”):
So, each of you will always be able to find a suitable mainboard for your needs among ASRock solutions, if not for the features then at least for the price.