Asrock's X58-powered SuperComputer - where did the front panel headers go?
ASRock have been budget-focused for a long time, and they haven't really entered into the enthusiast market much - until the SuperComputer, that is.
Their past offerings haven't been astounding - their X48 based mobo didn't fare well - but they seem intent on turning this trend around and showing off a mobo with that class of performance and quality not seen from them before.
It's an X58 based motherboard with all the usual features including six DDR3 slots, a LGA1366 socket and plenty of expansion options but perhaps the most interesting part of the mobo is the reasoning behind the SuperComputer name - it's got four PCIe X16 slots.
These four slots all run at X8 electrical when they are all being used, but the actual name comes from the fact that you can use four Tesla cards in SLI to create your own render farm - on the one mobo. This is very similar in function and name to the ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer - we're putting this down to the fact that ASRock was actually created as ASUS' budget brand, and they shared the name.
The board can also run Crossfire, so you're covered for both graphical camps here. They've oddly moved the front panel headers and USB headers away from their usual locations, so jump into the gallery to see just where they were moved to, and pick up Atomic Magazine to read whether or not this is a good idea!
Issue: 133 | February, 2012