Computex 2004 Early Bird Coverage: NV45 in the Flesh, New Chipsets, BTX Boards and more...
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 31, 2004 12:31 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
ASRock puts Two Sockets on Motherboards
ASRock is displaying an interesting board that caught our eyes; the K8 Combo board features both a Socket-939 and a Socket-754 socket. Astute AnandTech readers will know that Socket-754 Athlon 64s only have one Hyper Transport link and thus cannot support multiple processors, so something must be up. Indeed the K8 Combo isn't a multiprocessor board, rather its a motherboard that can support either a Socket-939 CPU or a Socket-754 CPU, but not both. The flexibility offered by the board is interesting, as it provides a decent upgrade path for current Socket-754 users, granted it may be a bit extreme.
This does not appear to be the only multi socket transition motherboard planned by ASRock; a Socket-775/Socket-478 board is also in the works.
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SKiller - Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - link
#13Except that BTX boards wouldn't fit in an ATX case even if they were on the "right" side. The connector layout and a number of other things are different. I think this may in fact help avoid confusion as you'll instantly be able to tell the difference.
Bozo Galora - Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - link
Good article, scooped everyone else, you rascal you.
jliechty - Tuesday, June 1, 2004 - link
#17 - that's a feature of some Gigabyte motherboards. The second ("dual") BIOS chip is a backup in case the first one is damaged by a failed flashing attempt or a virus.#15, #19 - Those things have me interested also. Can't wait to find out what they're there for. :-)
Khronus - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
As for the NV45 only requiring 1 power connector, that's simply because PCI-X allows for more power to be drawn over the bus than AGP does.jcastro - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
What are those golden fingers on the SiS motherboard solutions for? My initial thoughts were that you could plug these mobos into some expansion slot, but that would be unrealistic now wouldn't it? But how awesome would that be? If you haven't noticed them before they are on the top left of the first picture and at the bottom left on the second picture, just right beside the PCI 32-bit slots. Someone tell me what's up with this? Thanks. - Johnshabby - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
So the nv40 refresh gets a 50mhz faster clock? Pffft.jsco - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
on the "intel's 9xx chipsets in the flesh" page in the first picture:there are two bios chips, and one of them is labeled dual bios. what is a dual bios?
what is connected to the green slot and has a heat pipe connected to it?
Monkeyboy0076 - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
I was kinda disappointed to see the moldy old parallel connector still on these new motherboards. I haven't used one of those for over 2 years, and I'm glad for it. I really wouldn't mind getting that large pink connector off of my motherboardnitromullet - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
In the top picture of the NV45, what is the connector directly above the heat sink fan?Pumpkinierre - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
Just favours left handers with case windows. I pity those mobo makers. With all the different sockets, DRAM types, PCI-E/AGPs and peripherals, its a wonder they are not all getting treated for schizophrenia!