ASRock 939Dual-SATA2: First Retail ULi PCIe/AGP

Basic Features: ASRock 939Dual-Sata2

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
CPU Interface	Socket 939 Athlon 64 Future CPU Upgrade Slot for AMD M2
Chipset	ULi M1695 Northbridge - ULi M1567 Southbridge
BUS Speeds	200 to 400Mhz in 1MHz Increments
PCIe Speeds	75-125MHz in 1MHz Increments Selected Frequency, Synchronous or Asynchronous (Fixed) to CPU Speed
PCI/AGP	Fixed at 33/66
Core Voltage	Auto, 0.80V to 1.55V in 0.025V increments
CPU Clock Multiplier	Auto, 4x-21x in 1X increments
HyperTransport Frequency	1000MHz (1GHz)
HyperTransport Multiplier	Auto, 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000
DRAM Voltage	Auto, Normal, High
HyperTransport Voltage	NO Adjustments
Memory Slots	Four 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 4GB Total
Expansion Slots	1 PCIe x16 1 AGP 8X 1 PCIe x1 3 PCI Slots
Onboard SATA/RAID	2 SATA1 Drives by ULi M1567 (RAID 0, 1, JBOD) 1 Sata2 NCQ 3Gb/s Drive by JMicron JMB360
Onboard IDE/IDE RAID	Two Standard ATA133/100/66 (4 drives)
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	8 USB 2.0 ports supported by ULi M1567 No Firewire (Optional)
Onboard LAN	10/100 Ethernet by ULi & Realtek PNY
Onboard Audio	AC '97 2.3 8-Channel by Realtek ALC850
BIOS	AMI 8/12/2005

ASRock provides a decent selection of adjustments in the AMI BIOS. Almost everything the enthusiast needs to squeeze a bit more from the CPU is available in the BIOS options. This includes CPU ratios, CPU voltage adjustments, memory timing adjustments, CPU clock speed adjustments, and PCIe speed adjustment. There is even a crude, but effective option for memory voltage - which just offers normal, high and auto settings. Fortunately, the High setting must be around 2.8V, since it was effective with our standard Samsung TCCD test memory.

CPU voltage has a wide adjustment range down, but it's a bit lacking at the top. The 130nm Clawhammer stock is 1.5V, and 1.55V is the top option with this chip. Install a 90nm 4800+ X2, with a 1.35V default voltage, and the top voltage slides to 1.40V. This .05V voltage range at the top is not really adequate for many users. The wide 200 to 400 CPU speed range is plenty, as is the 75-125 PCIe range and asynchronous PCIe option.

The ASRock would move from adequate to outstanding with a few additions to the BIOS. The ULi chipset is too good not to offer a wide range of memory voltage adjustments. It would also be useful to have CPU voltage extend to at least 1.65 to 1.7V, even if this requires a ULi motherboard with the Asus brand instead of ASRock.

The good news is the limited DRAM "high" setting does work well with most common RAM. The ASRock also has no problem with Athlon x2, FX, or other Socket 939 CPUs.

We did find extremely irritating cold boot issues with the ASRock in our testing. Even at standard stock speeds and settings, the 939Dual often required several starts to boot. Perhaps this was due to some setting in BIOS, but we could never discover the source of the cold boot issue. Overclocking seemed about the same with cold boot issues as stock operations. This kind of problem is often fixable with a BIOS upgrade and we hope that ASRock will address the cold boot issues very soon. It's a shame to have a board this good plagued with annoying cold boot issues.

UPDATE: ASRock has released BIOS 1.20 dated 9/02/05 which can be downloaded from their web site. Version 1.20 fixed the cold boot problems we experienced.