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.