ASRock Announces Penryn1600SLIX3

[Jimmy 2004]

Built explicitly for PC enthusiasts, NVIDIA 680i SLI Chipset is the right one for them. ASRock proudly announced its NVIDIA 680i SLI motherboard to you today with ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi! Why did I say proudly announce? The reason is simple. ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi is the worldwide only 680i SLI MB that supports Intel Penryn Quad Core Yorkfield CPU & 3-Way SLI. ASRock once again proved its creativity, cost-effectiveness and considerate. There is a wide range of CPU selection for this motherboard, from the mainstream Core 2 Duo E6550 CPU, Q9300, Q9400 CPU to the high-end QX9770 CPU.



Free Bundle: 802.11g WiFi module

Not something you could find from other 680i SLI boards, ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi is bundled with a 802.11g WiFi module and a antenna, which allows you to set it as either AP or Client mode for wireless internet connection.

ALC890 audio codec with DTS support

To differentiate the audio part of ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi from other 680i SLI motherboard on the market, we adopted ALC890 audio codec instead of ALC889A audio codec. ALC890 audio codec supports signal to noise ratio of 110dB, and the S/N rate means the higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is. And what’s best is that ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi supports DTS, which makes the sound from game or software become a 7.1 channel audio output through the surround speakers, and it also can simulate the 2-channel audio file, (MP3, WMA..) to a 7.1 channel audio output through the surround speakers.

All solid capacitors

Better capacitor is also one of the most important criteria to users. ASRock Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi is designed with all solid capacitors, which enhances the durability, over-clocking, reliability and safety of it.

IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN, eSATAII

As for the external devices interface, this motherboard comes with IEEE1394, Gigabit LAN, featuring 6 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 5), NCQ and "Hot Plug" functions, eSATAII port.

Performance Comparison of Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi MB with 780i SLI MB (with 3-Way SLI)



Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi



NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ref. MB



Here are Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi brief specifications:

• LGA 775 for Intel Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Quad / Core 2 Duo / Pentium Dual Core / Celeron, supporting Penryn Quad Core Yorkfield and Dual Core Wolfdale processors
• All Solid Capacitor design
• NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Chipset
• Compatible with all FSB1600/1333/1066/800MHz CPUs
• Supports Dual Channel DDR2 800/667/533 x 4 DIMM slots, maximum capacity up to 8GB
• Supports NVIDIA SLI and 3-Way SLI
• 3 x PCI Express x16 slots (white @ x16 mode, yellow @ x8 mode)
• Supports Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
• Supports 2 x IEEE1394 ports (one port on back panel, one header on board)
• 6 x SATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 5), NCQ and "Hot Plug" functions
• 1 x eSATAII 3.0 Gb/s connector, supports NCQ and "Hot Plug" functions
• 1 x WiFi/E header
• 7.1 CH Windows Vista Premium Level HD Audio with Content Protection, supports DAC with 110dB dynamic range (ALC890 Audio Codec), DTS (Digital Theater Systems)
• Supports ASRock OC Tuner
• Windows Vista Premium 2007 Logo Ready
• Bundle: 1 x ASRock WiFi-802.11g Module 1 x Antenna, 1 x ASRock SLI Bridge and 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI Bridge
• ASRock WiFi_eSATAII I/O Plus : 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED, 1 x IEEE 1394 port, 1 x eSATAII port

Source: ASRock

[mdm-adph]

Nice board, but all that and no coolers on the MOSFET's? :P

...and does that 3DMark06 score seem kinda low to anyone else?

[GJSNeptune]

What? ASRock for enthusiasts? Since when?

[Saakki]

lolz Asrock has rly risen its quality from where they started =:O

[Darksaber]

Actually!!!

Asrock is not the only and not the first to support Penryn on 680i!!!

EVGA released a BIOS update for the CPUs a few weeks back oh and that simple heatsink on a 680i?These puppies get quite hot on far more elaborate cooling solutions...

cheers
DS

Originally Posted by Darksaber

Actually!!!

Asrock is not the only and not the first to support Penryn on 680i!!!

DS

It's claiming to be the first 680i to support 3-Way SLi and Penryn, and it is...

[WarEagleAU]

Agreed. From inception to production. EVGA just did the bios update though. Nice board, I really like it.

[ShinyG]

Does this mean ASRock has the best engineers around or that nVidia is developing deliberately crippling the 680i to sell the 780i?

[tkpenalty]

Originally Posted by mdm-adph

Nice board, but all that and no coolers on the MOSFET's? :P

...and does that 3DMark06 score seem kinda low to anyone else?

5 Phase, You dont really need MOSFET cooling. I would immediatelu rip that stock NB cooler off and grab one HR-05 SLi IFX and HR-05 IFX, SB and NB cooling respectively.

That benchmark is severely bottlnecked

EDIT: This board's NB and CPU socket positioning allows HR-05 IFX and Ultra 120 eXtreme to be installed in their proper orientations.

[Fitseries3]

the whole point of 780i was to add support for 45mn quads.... now 680i supports it? WTF? assholes.

[JrRacinFan]

Very interesting! I wonder how much these retail for. Anyone saw one on newegg yet?

[Mussels]

asrock = asus for those that dont know.

This is one helluva budget board....

[tkpenalty]

Originally Posted by Mussels

asrock = asus for those that dont know.

This is one helluva budget board....

They certainly dont design boards in a similar manner to ASUS...

Is this even supposed to be a budget board?

[JoJoe]

I love the way ASRock labels everything on their boards...

[panchoman]

glad to see that its 680i and the POS 780i

[Assimilator]

I'm glad to see a mobo company actually innovating with their boards, rather than slavishly copying the reference design. Go ASRock go!

Like some have said there is a possibility that the NB and SB could get too hot, but given the amount of thought that's gone into this design, I'm thinking ASRock will have that covered.

[Kursah]

Horrible placement of the 24-pin connection though...why the hell did they put that there!?!?!

If I was in the market for a 680i board...that would deter me from this as a purchase. Aside from that, very promising features and support...which is very cool. Good to see ASRock continuing their enthusiast level MB releases...now to create a design that's a little more conformative to what users will want...it can't cost too much to place that 24-pin at the edge on the other side of the DIMMS can it? If it does...well, at least in my case (antec 900) it would be worth it to find a different MB. A 24-wire harness + plugin doesn't route the best and could get in the way there, causing issues for cooling, coolers, airflow and such...defeating the point of entusiast level performance....now in the future when power cables are the size of SATA cables it'd be fine...but we gotta ways to go before that happens. Just my thoughts, opinions and preferences though.

[TheGuruStud]

ASROCK = ASUS!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna lose it haha.

Asus made the Asrock brand to sell budget products without interfering with their reputation of making only "high end uber leet boards".

I guess now they figured they'll make high end boards and try them out under Asrock's name or just charge less and sell more.

[GJSNeptune]

Asus hasn't exactly maintained its reputation on its own anyway. I prefer Gigabyte over Asus now.

[TheGuruStud]

Originally Posted by GJSNeptune

Asus hasn't exactly maintained its reputation on its own anyway. I prefer Gigabyte over Asus now.

I agree, that's why I put that in quotations above lol

But I did just order an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe haha. I guess the fancy cooler, eSata, etc sucked me in haha. I was looking hard at the $90 Gigabyte board, but I saw too many bad reviews from failures.

[Mussels]

Asus have great boards - as long as you stick with the intel chipsets. The other failures arent so much asus fault, as most boards with the same chipsets had the same problems (680i + quad cores, for example)

Asus even had older boards updated to suppport 45nm, down to the 965 chipset - they ARE doing good work if you ignore the odd failure (it just happens that the worst boards are often the most expensive)

[TheGuruStud]

Originally Posted by Mussels

Asus have great boards - as long as you stick with the intel chipsets. The other failures arent so much asus fault, as most boards with the same chipsets had the same problems (680i + quad cores, for example)

Asus even had older boards updated to suppport 45nm, down to the 965 chipset - they ARE doing good work if you ignore the odd failure (it just happens that the worst boards are often the most expensive)

Not a fan of intel I can't stand the older intel chipsets, so I hate those regardless of intel making them haha. I've had nothing but quirks with them so I stay far away. Nvidia has never let me down in chipset or graphics, so they will keep all of my business.

[btarunr]

Right. All the left-over 680i chips after the manufacturers moved on to 780i were picked up by ASRock and they came up with this. Nice board layout. They also came up with a Penryn 1600 board based on the NForce 650i SLI. Not sure Yorkfield would work though.

ASRock is the MacGyver of the motherboard industry.

[Fitseries3]

Originally Posted by btarunr

Right. All the left-over 680i chips after the manufacturers moved on to 780i were picked up by ASRock and they came up with this. Nice board layout. They also came up with a Penryn 1600 board based on the NForce 650i SLI. Not sure Yorkfield would work though.

ASRock is the MacGyver of the motherboard industry.

so what did evga do with the thousands of 680i's from the 780i step up program?

AsRock = macgyver..... YES! they always have some weird off the wall thing on almost every board. remember that one that was a 939 board with DDR1 but had a slot to put in the AM2/ddr2 upgrade card? that was weird.

[btarunr]

Originally Posted by fitseries3

so what did evga do with the thousands of 680i's from the 780i step up program?

Refurbished them and sold them to 'emerging markets'. You get the T1 board for $160~$170 here. Not seen A1 / BP though. The fact that the T1 board here is cheaper than in the US makes it evident.

Originally Posted by fitseries3

AsRock = macgyver..... YES! they always have some weird off the wall thing on almost every board. remember that one that was a 939 board with DDR1 but had a slot to put in the AM2/ddr2 upgrade card? that was weird.

Crossfire on Intel 945P. Ever heard of that? http://www.asrock.com/product/ConRoeXFire-eSATA2.htm

The bizarre part is "AGI Express" Something sort of deviation from PCI-E


Innovative fellows.