Onboard Devices
| Northbridge | Intel X48 Express MCH |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH9R |
| Voltage Regulator | Six Phases |
| BIOS | P1.00 (04/29/2008) |
| 333.3 MHz (FSB1333) | 333.5 MHz (+0.05%) |
| Clock Generator | ICS 9LPRS916JGLF |
| Connectors and Interfaces | Row 6 - Cell 1 |
| Onboard | 2x PCIe x16 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | 1x PCIe x1 |
| Row 9 - Cell 0 | 3x PCI |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | 2x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire |
| Row 12 - Cell 0 | 1x Serial Port header |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | 1x Floppy |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | 1x Ultra ATA (2 drives) |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | 6x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s* |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | 1x Front Panel Audio |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | 1x CD-Audio In |
| Row 18 - Cell 0 | 1x S/P-DIF Out |
| Row 19 - Cell 0 | 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) |
| Row 20 - Cell 0 | 1x Fan 3 pins (Chassis) |
| IO panel | 2x PS2 (keyboard + mouse ) |
| Row 22 - Cell 0 | 1x RJ-45 Network |
| Row 23 - Cell 0 | 6x USB 2.0 |
| Row 24 - Cell 0 | 2x External SATA* |
| Row 25 - Cell 0 | 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire |
| Row 26 - Cell 0 | 2x Digital Audio Out (S/P-DIF optical + coaxial) |
| Row 27 - Cell 0 | 6x Analog Audio (7.1 Channel + Mic-In + Line-In) |
| Mass Storage Controllers | Row 28 - Cell 1 |
| Intel ICH9R | 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) |
| JMicron JMB368 PCI-E | 1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) |
| Network | Row 31 - Cell 1 |
| Realtek RTL8111C PCI-E | Gigabit LAN Connection |
| Realtek RTL8187L USB | 802.11g/b Wireless Network Interface |
| Audio | Row 34 - Cell 1 |
| Realtek ALC890B HD Audio Codec | 7.1 Channel Directional Audio |
| FireWire | Row 36 - Cell 1 |
| VIA VT6308S PCI | 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mb/s) |
ASRock endows the X48TurboTwins-WiFi with a complete controller set typically expected of high-end motherboards, but differs from the norm by using a non-SATA add-in disk controller. Intel chipsets haven’t supported Ultra ATA devices since the P965, and ASRock would have likely left the board devoid of any add-in controller had this not been the case.
The X48TurboTwins-WiFi port panel provides PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, coaxial and optical digital audio outputs, IEEE-1394 FireWire, six USB 2.0 ports, a single gigabit network port and six analog audio jacks. Two internal SATA to eSATA pass-through connections are also found here, but enabling these requires some very messy internal cabling.
ASRock chose JMicron’s JMB368 Ultra-ATA controller, rather than one that supports both Ultra-ATA and SATA. It uses one of the chipset’s six unallocated PCI-Express pathways to provide optimal performance…typically to slow devices such as a DVD burner.
Realtek’s RTL8111C uses PCI-Express to provide full bi-directional bandwidth to a single Gigabit Ethernet port. The motherboard’s single PCI-Express x1 slot and two third-party controllers use up only three of the chipset’s six “spare” lanes.
ASRock uses VIA’s ancient 6308 series FireWire controller to provide two IEEE-1394 ports. At 133MB/s, its PCI interface is more than fast enough to provide full performance for two 50MB/s (400 megabit) connections.
ASRock is the only company we know of to use Realtek’s ALC890B audio codec, which the company rates at a respectable 110db signal-to-noise ratio.
ASRock continues to use the AW-GA800BT mini-USB card previously found in Asus WiFi products to provide 802.11g/b wireless networking. Realtek’s RTL8187L controller does the job nicely.
