Asrock K10N78hSLI-WiFi

Justin Robinson collapses while attempting to read the motherboard name out loud...

Asrock has been around for a few years now, providing budget builders with motherboards that are most definitely affordable, but still attempt to offer a wealth of features. Their slogan, if you will, ‘Motherboard, We Master It’, certainly proves the company’s enthusiasm. Does it have solid performance to back up this claim?

Using the relatively new NVIDIA GeForce 8200 chipset (which contains an integrated graphic processor), a display output is strangely omitted. This means that a graphics card is essential, and is something that should have been properly thought through. The back panel supports the usual bevy of inputs, including firewire, optical, and an eSATA port. Asrock is known for its corner cutting, and has mutilated this port, requiring a SATA cable to be used as an extension. This means that an internal SATA port is lost, and a cable must be slung across the motherboard, disrupting airflow and possibly interfering with graphics cards.

The area around the CPU socket seems relatively uncluttered, but the poor placement of both the 8-pin and 24-pin power sockets is atrocious, taking up valuable space that could be used for a larger aftermarket cooler, and having two thick cables in the direct path of the airflow is never a good idea. This is an extremely bad location for those with PSUs at the bottom of the case, with most 24-pin and 8-pin cables not having enough length to actually reach the sockets!

Moving just past the socket, there are four slots for DDR2 memory. For normal sticks of RAM, there might be issues with heat pooling in the very small space between the modules, possibly causing instability (though none was experienced during testing). Oversized modules can only have a maximum of two installed, as there is simply not enough physical space for them. The RAM slots are placed high enough up on the motherboard to allow for the removal and upgrading of modules when a graphics card is installed, at least. Thankfully Asrock has given the IDE and SATA ports a similar amount of thought, and placed them on the edge of the board. None of these ports will be blocked by a long graphics card, which is always a big plus, especially in smaller cases where there is limited space to move.

USB headers populate the lower right hand corner of the board, with the front panel connectors along the bottom edge. Also located here is a fan header, useful for connecting front intake fans. A floppy socket is included at the bottom edge in a rather inconvenient place, though. Considering that floppy drives are becoming rarer, this isn’t too horrible, and is certainly functional. The HD audio header is placed in the lower left hand corner, a good location for easy connectivity.

Expansion slots are a funny beast. Too many of the one type, and you start losing out on other slots. Thankfully Asrock has included a good selection of slots here, with plenty of older PCI slots to accommodate tech like sound cards, but with some PCIe 1X slots for upcoming tech. An inconvenient result of the chipset placement means that one PCI and one PCIe 1X slot will be blocked if any card is installed that is slightly large (any soundcard, dual-input TV tuners).

For all the eccentric design choices, there is one that stands out as a good feature – solid capacitors. Offering higher performance, and better longevity, solid caps are always welcomed with open arms.

While testing this board, we realised that the 8200 chipset supported Hybrid SLI! This technology allows you to pair the integrated graphics with an 8400, 8500 or 9800 card in SLI to theoretically allow greater performance in games, and (if the motherboard actually has the display output) the capacity to turn off the graphics card to save power when performing normal desktop tasks. Delving into our Giant Pile of Tech™, we emerged victorious, clutching an 8500GT in one hand, and the carapace of fallen beasts in the other (the tech labs are quite wild). Sadly, the performance of Hybrid SLI was underwhelming. Slight decreases in 3DMark03 and Company of Heroes were paired with increases in 3DMark06, and a large increase in Crysis. It really does depend on the program. Keep a close eye on the chipset temperature as well, as during heavy load it was hot enough to burn fingers – good airflow is a must.

Performance of the CPU was on par with what could be expected, but overclocking capacity was limited. A wall was reached at 232MHz, and no amount of extra voltage could push past this.

In the end, this board is a good choice for office systems, or even a cheap system for the home, but it’s not for overclockers or enthusiasts. With a decent layout and interesting features, Asrock has a bargain basement offering that won’t hurt the wallet, but may frustrate in the long run.