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Introduction & Specs

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 3 DIMMs for Socket 939
Memory Capacity	2GB for Socket 754 3GB for Socket 939
Drive Connectivity	2x ATA100 IDE 2x SATA II (RAID 0, 1, JBOD)
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 2 headers onboard
Firewire IEEE1394	None

 

Next Page - Design and Features

Review Index:
- Select - Summary Introduction & Specs Design and Features BIOS & Overclocking Bundle and Test Setup SiSoft Sandra and Everest PCMark and Winstone ScienceMark SuperPi, DVD-DiVX Cinebench, SPEC Viewperf 3DMark, Aquamark OpenGL Gaming: Doom3, Warhammer 40K DirectX Gaming: Half-Life 2, Guild Wars, Brothers in Arms Impressions and Conclusions