AMD & ATI™ 1^st AM2 model! ALiveXFire-eSATA2, ATI™ CrossFire™ Xpress 1600 + SB600 based, supporting CrossFire, eSATA2, Gigabit LAN and AMD Live!™ Ready!

     

A number of new AM2 based motherboards have hit the shelter for a while. Today, we finally see a good board - ALiveXFire-eSATA2, a feature-abundant ATI™ CrossFire™ Xpress 1600 based motherboard supports eSATAII ports, Gigabit LAN and other wonderful features. Bundled PCIE Switch card even allows you to flexibly choose between one PCI Express x 16 slot or two PCI Express Graphics slots for ATI™ CrossFire™. Did I miss anything? Yes, It is Windows^® Vista™ Premium Logo Hardware Ready too!

ALiveXFire-eSATA2

Sept. 25^th, 2006, Taipei

For a new company to break into the computer industry is difficult. In just merely 4 years, ASRock has been able to do just that, and quite well by most accounts. The secret of the successfulness comes from the 3C concept – Considerate, Creative, Cost-effectiveness, which ASRock has been complied with till now. Once again, ASRock is ahead of its peers, the first one to release Socket AM2 based ATI™ CrossFire™ Xpress 1600 motherboard to the market. ALiveXFire-eSATA2, an scalable and full-function motherboard, is AMD LIVE!™ ready, designed with ATI™ CrossFire™, Gigabit LAN and eSATAII functions.

ALiveXFire-eSATA2, based on ATI™ CrossFire™ Xpress 1600 and ATI™ SB600 chipsets, supports Dual Channel DDRII800 memory, 4 x DIMM slots, with maximum capacity up to 8GB. The highlight of this board is ATI™ CrossFire™. With free bundled PCIE Switch card, you may even flexibly choose between one PCI Express x 16 slot and two PCI Express Graphics slots for ATI™ CrossFire™.

Well known for switching hard drives conveniently, eSATAII is featured on the board too. ALiveXFire-eSATA2 is designed with 2 x eSATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors (shared with 2 SATAII ports), supporting RAID (RAID 0 and RAID 1), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions. In additional to the wonderful feature of eSATAII, this motherboard, supported by the latest ATI™ SB600 chipset, is equipped with 4 SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, supporting RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions as well. This new hot release is designed with exclusive HDMI_SPDIF header, which provides SPDIF audio output to HDMI VGA card, and allows the system to connect HDMI Digital TV/projector/LCD devices.

Other than above-mentioned excellent features, ALiveXFire-eSATA2 is an AMD LIVE!™ Ready motherboard! With necessary components installed, you could have a AMD LIVE!™ System for the whole family. For ASRock's latest models that are mostly Windows^® Vista™ Ready, ALiveXFire-eSATA2 is no exception. To pass for Windows^® Vista™ Premium versions, the hardware requirement is harsher than that of Basic. And the good side about Windows^® Vista™ Premium version is that it supports Windows^® Aero – which provides 3 D and transparent interface.

Windows^® Aero is an environment with an additional level of visual sophistication for Home Premium user experience. Windows^® Vista™ Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through.

ALiveXFire-eSATA2 is a highly cost-effective motherboard. We took a test run on ALiveXFire-eSATA2 with NVIDIA^® nForce 570 Ultra ref. board, and proved that the overall performance of ALiveXFire-eSATA2 on benchmarks, such as 3DMark 05/06, Quake3, Super PI are better!

ALiveXFire-eSATA2 v.s. NVIDIA^® nForce 570 Ultra ref. board

Here are ALiveXFire-eSATA2 brief specifications:

• Socket AM2 for AMD Athlon™ 64FX / 64X2 / 64 and Sempron Processors
• ATI™ CrossFire™ Xpress 1600 Chipset
• ATI™ SB600 Chipset
• FSB 1000 MHz (2.0 GT/s), Hyper-Transport Technology and AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology
• Supports AMD LIVE!™ Technology
• Supports Dual Channel DDRII800/667/533, 4 x DIMM slots, with max. capacity up to 8GB
• Untied Overclocking : During Overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed PCIE/ PCI Buses
• Hybrid Booster - Safe Overclocking Technology
• ASRock AM2 Boost: ASRock Patented Technology to boost memory performance up to 12.5%
• Supports Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
• 1 x PCI Express x16 slot with PCIE Switch card or 2 x PCI Express Graphics slots for ATI™ CrossFire™
• 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
• 4 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
• 2 x eSATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors (shared with 2 SATAII ports), support RAID (RAID 0 and RAID 1), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
• HDMI_SPDIF header, providing SPDIF audio output to HDMI VGA card, allows the system to connect HDMI Digital TV/projector/LCD devices
• 7.1 CH Windows^® Vista™ Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)
• Windows^® Vista™ Premium Logo Hardware Ready
• Supports Windows^® XP Media Center Edition
• Free Bundle: 1 x USB bracket
• ASRock 8CH_eSATAII I/O: 2 eSATAII ports, 2 ready-to-use USB ports