ASRock 939DUAL-SATA2 Motherboard Review :: The Board

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Spec Sheet
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Part Number	939Dual-SATA2
Manufacturer	ASRock
Price Check	Find Best Price
Downloads	BIOS Drivers Manuals
Chipset	ULi M1695
North Bridge	ULi M1695
Socket	Socket 939
Processor Types	Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Opteron, Sempron
Number of CPUs	1
Front Side Bus	1GHz HyperTransport Bus Link
Memory Type	DDR
Memory Channels	Dual, Single
Maximum Memory	4GB
External Graphics	AGP8X, PCI Express x16
IGP	None
South Bridge	ULi M1567
Audio	8-channel
IDE	133/100/66/33
SCSI	None
SATA	3.0 GB/s
RAID	0, 1
LAN	10/100
Firewire
USB	USB 2.0
Expansion Slots	1 x AGP 3 x PCI 1 x PCI Express x1 1 x PCI Express x16
BIOS	AMI
Form Factor	ATX

The board supports all current AMD Socket 939 CPUs including the Sempron, Athlon 64, and Athlon FX. This board is also unique in that it supports the future Socket 940 M2 CPUs via a Future CPU expansion slot. In the future, you will be able to purchase an M2CPU expansion card to fit in the slot to use the M2 platform by simply setting a set of jumpers.

The 939Dual-SATA2 board has 4 184-pin DIMM slots. These slots take up to 4GB of unbuffered non-registered DDR memory up to 400MHz. Dual channel memory is supported when using like-colored pairs of DIMMs. In other words, put two sticks in both blue and black slots, or put 4 sticks of like memory in all 4 slots to use dual-channel DDR memory.

Expansion on the board is unique to ASRock boards. First thing you'll notice on the board is the aforementioned Future CPU slot. Also present on the board is a PCI Express x16 slot for graphics and an AGP8x slot for graphics. That's right, with this board you can install your old AGP card, and upgrade later to the new standard without changing the board. 3 PCI 2.3 compliant slots and a PCI Express x1 slot make up the remainder of the expansion on this board.

Drive expansion on the board is rather unique. The ULi controller allows up to 2 SATA 1.5GB/second drives to be controlled, ASRock provides 2 SATA ports for this controller. There is a second SATA controller (JMicron JMB360) on the board to provide support for the SATA2 port. This configuration is rather unique, as most motherboard manufacturers include at least two drive connectors for RAID mode on SATA2 drives. RAID 0, 1 and JBOD modes are supported by the SATA1.5 controller. There is also a FDD connector present on the board.

On-board audio is provided by the Realtek ALC850 CODEC. This provides support for up to 7.1 surround sound on the board. The ALC850 supports EAX 1.0 and 2.0 (later versions of Creative EAX standard have not been licensed by other manufacturers), DirectSound, A3D, and other popular sound APIs. I find the 850 to be sufficient for everyday use, as my Audigy 2 ZS is not in my personal computer. I use the onboard 850 on my home computer.

Input and output ports on the back panel of the motherboard are similar to most motherboard configurations on the market today. Present on the I/O is: PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 VGA port, a RJ45 jack for the LAN, 6 audio jacks for up to 8 channel surround sound and a printer port (LPT 1). ASROCK includes a Realtek RTL8201C 10/100 PHY for controlling the LAN.

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