cheap and stable but hot

Advantages: cheap, stable and responsive, easy installation and runs right off the box
Disadvantages: hot chipset

...Realizing that I am neither much of an enthusiast nor a gamer -- and also to satisfy my itch to build a new system -- I decided to build a new budget workstation setup to replace my two-year old Intel Pentium 2.4A Preshott (no typo error here :p) semi-enthusiast setup. Since AMD is almost always synonymous with budget, I opted for a setup based on the AMD platform. I chose the Asrock AM2NF6G-VSTA as my motherboard for several reasons. Among the low- to mid-level motherboard manufacturers, I am most familiar with Asrock. I have already used one of their motherboards in one of the setups I helped to build and am quite satisfied with its performance. I chose this specific board among the various AM2 board offerings of Asrock primarily because it is based on an NVDIA chipset; there is a general consensus among AMD afficionados that AMD...

xnplx 07.12.2006 (08.12.2006) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of ASRock AM2NF6G-VSTA - motherboard - micro ATX - GeForce 6100

ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

Advantages: Ready for future technologies
Disadvantages: No temperature monitoring hardware, BIOS flashing only works on windows

..., Pentium 4, Pentium Extreme and Core 2 Duo are also supported, with almost all of them compatible out of the box. In the case of a certain few processors, some will require an updated BIOS before being able to be utilized. You can find full details on the ASROCK website as to which processors these are (www.asrock.com). Performance Enhancing CPU technologies such as Hyper-Threading and Untied Overclocking and EM64T are also supported. - Supported Memory - One of the main things that attracted me to this motherboard was that it supported both DDR and DDR II memory. Whilst these cannot be installed both at the same time, it allows for upgrades to be done in stages. For example, if you wanted to upgrade your CPU and Motherboard whilst keeping the same RAM for the time being, you could install your old DDR Ram in the new motherboard. This was...

nemesis2004 09.09.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock 775DUAL-VSTA - motherboard - ATX - PT880 Ultra

mATX - Small, Sound, Old

Advantages: ATX-compatible, Power-efficient, Inexpensive, Supports ATA and SATA
Disadvantages: Obsolete DDR Technology, Unsuitable for Gamers

...ASRock P4i65G is a compact motherboard for that tiny PC case. Because it was manufactured for microtower standard computer boxes, it lacks the strengths that the following customers would desire: workstation administrators, hardcore gamers, media professionals. In other words, this motherboard is currently suitable only for those with medium requirements (if you wish to buy it for a new computer) and highly recommended for Socket 478 processor owners. Introducing mATX Power Capacity Most mATX computers support power supplies of no more than 350W, and the case is sometimes too small for you to stuff two hard disks. This motherboard can easily house a P4 3.4 GHz HT (one of the most powerful and watt-guzzling monocore CPUs) that can compete with modern dual core processors, multiple DVD-ROMs and hard disk...

Lord_Kelvin 15.01.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock P4I65G - motherboard - micro ATX - i865G

Soccer AM 2 the DVD

Advantages: Good laughs and great goals
Disadvantages: Only 58 minutes long

...Soccer AM is a Saturday morning show on Sky sports one every Saturday and it helps cover the English football leagues from the week before and what games are going to be played for the following week. It also has other features like about 3 different guests will come onto the show e.g. one could be an injured footballer, one could be a celebrity and another could be a few band members for a music group. Not only do they have guests and football highlights they also have 8 fans in from a certain football team and some of the crew members have their own part of the show like Tube's question. No this is a big hit on TV soothe first DVD, Soccer AM 1, was quite good so this DVD had good expectations. In Soccer AM 2 it is different to the normal show as they like to focus on a certain idea that do just another show but on a DVD so they...

mjgfish 04.10.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Soccer AM 2 (DVD)

Asrock P4V88 Skt478 Motherboard

Advantages: Easy Setup, Great Performance, Cheap but Reliable
Disadvantages: Some components hard to reach

...and hardware monitoring. The only thing I would advise is to connect the cables from your computer case BEFORE you install the processor etc, otherwose it will be very difficult to reach some of them once the board is mounted in the case. Also, good dexterity is needed to get the connectors into the pins, as they are located quite close together. All the components fit smoothly and easily into/onto the board, and not much force is required. This an ATX board, and Asrock have made the most of the space that they do use. It should be noted that there is no graphics controller on this board, but a decent card can be bought for around £27 retail. There is 5.1 channel sound, LAN and firewire though, so a basic system won't need much additional hardware. No real configuration of the board is needed, and no jumpers need to be set. I installed...

patwanet 19.08.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock P4V88 - motherboard - ATX - PT880

Overclockable motherboard (Asrock K7S41)

Advantages: Safe overclocking ability, onboard graphics (64mb) Onboard LAN
Disadvantages: Only two Ram slots, and two PCI slots

..., DDR 400/333/266 Graphics - Onboard Real 256E 3D graphics 64Mb, with the option to use an AGP 8X/4X 1.5v graphics card Audio - AC97 CODEC 5.1 channel Slots - AGP 8X/4X 1.5v (for AGP graphics cards) 2 x PCI slots, PCI 2.2 (for PCI devices e.g. sound cards) Connectors - IDE 2 x ATA 133/100/66/33 (for hard drives, CD rom drives) 1 Floppy Drive connector 20 pin ATX power connector CD/AUX/ audio in This motherboard also has a new technology called Hybrid booster built into the motherboard, this is a feature which allows you to overclock the processor. Basically overclocking is setting your processor to run at a faster speed, but doing so puts stress on your processor and will result in your computer getting hotter, so it is...

cokemusic2009 05.02.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock K7S41 - motherboard - micro ATX - SiS741GX

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - A great upgrade motherboard

Advantages: Full Speed AGP and PCI-Express 16 Graphics, Great Upgrade Path, Stable System
Disadvantages: None - As yet

...ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - AGP and PCI-Express Graphics I have had the motherboard for 6 months now and I have been very pleased with the motherboard. The chipset used on the board is the ULi M1695. The chipset is the only one currently on the market that allows the use of both AGP and/or PCI-Express graphic cards for the AMD Socket 939 CPU's. The board gave me an upgrade path that I have fully used. When I bought the board I had a Nvidia 6800GT AGP graphics card, I couldn't afford to upgrade that aspect when I was also buying a Athlon 64 939 Chip (3700+) and a motherboard, Since then I have purchased a PCI-Express 16 Nvidia 7800GT. The new graphics card went into the board with no issues. The only negatives I would give to this board was the lack of a firewire port and lack of gigabit internet but as I paid £55...

tungst3n 21.04.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - motherboard - ATX - ALi M1695

Review of asrock K7VM2

Advantages: Cheap and Cheerful
Disadvantages: limited PCI slots

...these settings in a multitude of different ways. OPERATIONAL: The motherboard has proved very reliable, stable and easy to configure under the BIOS It uses AWARD bios, which i belive to be one of the best available It comes with 4 USB on the rear, and 2 on a header. it aslo allows you to connect a front audi panel and disable the onboard sound chip The graphics are very impressive from the onboard chip as well, unlike some in a similar range It has a modem riser for the asrock AMR modem. Whilst I am not a huge fan of AMR modems, this one has exceeded expectations with a constant quality connection to the internet. Also onbard is a Ethernet port to allow for either home networking or ADSL modems SUPPORT: The motherboard comes with all necessary drivers, apart from the USB2.0 drivers (which are included with XP service pack...

csujamie 16.04.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock K7VM2 - motherboard - micro ATX - KM266

Great for those who don't like to waste working components.

Advantages: Very backwards compatable. Supports the latest processors, plus AGP and DDR.
Disadvantages: Not easy to get hold of. Not the cheapest.

...either my Video Capture or additional USB card would have to go. Having a limited budget, about £200, was I to have to replace everything, I would have to scrape the barrel on specification. Whilst I might end up with something better than what I had had before, since it was an unplanned and unwanted expense I really wanted to get a significant gain out of it. I then came across the perfect solution, ASRock Motherboards. What makes ASRock stand out from other motherboard suppliers is the amazing backwards compatibility of their products. I finally had the ability to buy a modern LGA 775 processor, but still use my old AGP graphics card and DDR Memory. It was ATX as well, so would properly fit my case. The one that really caught my eye was the 4 Core Dual-SATA 2 Motherboard. This name speaks for itself (if you understand computer jargon), in...

C-J-C 06.03.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of ASRock 4CoreDual-SATA2 - motherboard - ATX - PT880 Pro

one of the best boards for socket 478

Advantages: features SATA, dual channel memory
Disadvantages: lacks modern features such as ddr2 and pci express

...If your like i was before stuck with a pretty decent socket 478 CPU such as a Pentium 4 2.8 , then this is one of the best motherboards i would recommend to get. There are lots of great advantages with this motherboard such as the size, its a Micro ATX motherboard meaning that you can have a smaller case such as a media centre case. It has 2 DDR 400 (backwards compatible with DDR 333,266 and 200) slots which can be used in Dual channel Mode if both Ram modules are the same. The northbridge chipset on this board is an Intel 865g which supports a front side bus up to 800 mhz , but you can also use 400 and 533 mhz bus CPU's with this board. It has two SATA slots which i would say is the most future friendly part on the motherboard meaning it wont be a problem when upgrading your hard drive or some optical drives which are now...

smash_3000 26.03.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of ASRock P4I65G - motherboard - micro ATX - i865G