Introduction & Specs
ASRock delivers another AMD socket 754/939 motherboard, but this time both sockets are on board. You may be surprised to see what improves with upgrading to an FX-53 CPU and what doesn’t.
Today we are looking at the ASRock K8 Combo-Z. Like the ASRock K8 Upgrade 760GX board we reviewed not long ago, the K8 Combo-Z touts the ability to support both Socket 754 and Socket 939. But unlike the K8 Upgrade 760GX, the K8 Combo-Z has both sockets onboard!
The ASRock K8 Combo-Z is a full size ATX motherboard that uses the ALi M1689 chipset and comes with a decent set of features.
In addition to being a review of a unique product, today’s article will be an interesting experiment to see how performance improves when a Socket 754 CPU is replaced with a Socket 939 CPU. How much extra performance do you get going to an FX-53 with dual-channel? Does game performance improve at all? What are the cost-performance benefits? Is the K8 Combo-Z worth buying over the competition?
Let’s get on with it!
Specifications
|
ASRock K8 Combo-Z Specs | |
|
Chipset |
ALi M1689 |
|
Bus Frequency |
400MHz, 600MHz, 800MHz |
|
Memory |
DDR 400MHz |
|
Memory Slots |
2 DIMMs for Socket 754 |
|
Memory Capacity |
2GB for Socket 754 |
|
Drive Connectivity |
2x ATA100 IDE |
|
Audio |
Realtek ALC850 5.1 channel audio |
|
Analog Audio Connectivity |
6x (front, side, rear, center/bass, mic, input) |
|
Digital Audio Connectivity |
None |
|
Network |
Realtek RTL8201BL 10/100 |
|
USB 2.0 |
4 ports on rear panel |
|
Firewire IEEE1394 |
None |
