Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI Reviewed

Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI is a new budget Intel Core 2 Duo (Conroe) motherboard featuring Intel’s 945G chipset and integrated Intel GMA950 graphics card. It has a Dual VGA Output: support DVI-D and D-Sub ports with DVI Graphics-SI card by independent display controllers. The ConRoe945G-DVI is equipped with four DIMM slots that can handle a total of 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM chips. For 3D acceleration, the motherboard supports ATI CrossFire technology via one PCI Express x16 slot and one AGI Express slot, which is basically a PCI Express x4 slot which is mostly used for SLI operation via CrossFire. The Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI motherboard handles four SATA2 slots,and it wears Windows Vista Premium Logo Hardware Ready. It’s current price is around $75 at online PC stores.

OCW Work Bench reveiwed and tested the Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI. You can read the story here.

Asrock ConRoe945G-DVI Specifications

LGA 775 for Intel® Core™ 2 Duo/ Pentium® XE / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D, supporting Conroe processors
Intel® 945G Chipset
Supports FSB 1066/800/533 MHz processor, EM64T CPU and H-T Technology
Supports Dual Channel DDRII667/533 x 4 DIMM slots with max. capacity up to 4GB
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, Pixel Shader 2.0, DirectX 9.0 and Max. shared memory 192MB
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
Supports Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
Dual VGA Output: support DVI-D and D-Sub ports with DVI Graphics-SI card by independent display controllers
Hybrid Booster - Safe Overclocking Technology
Untied Overclocking : During Overclocking, FSB enjoys better margin due to fixed PCIE/ PCI Buses
4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors
7.1 CH Vista™ Premium level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec)
Windows® Vista™ Premium Logo Hardware Ready
HD 8CH I/O: 4 ready-to-use USB ports, HD 7.1 channel audio jacks

video card

What does a video card do for me?

The video card is responsible for delivering all a computer’s hard work and resultant output to a connected display/monitor. When you play 3D video games, the video card is hard at work in the background rendering vivid 3D scenes and effects. In fact, all the text and pictures you see are processed by the video card, including the visualization effects that are provided by media player software. Without the video card, you wouldn’t know what your computer is doing and you most likely won’t be able to enjoy any of the fun that your computer can provide!
The applications that the video card can do are multiplex. In other words, different users will be able to use the video card to do different things. We can categorize the applications into the following types:

General purpose 2D

General-purpose 2D applications include web surfing, word processing, and picture viewing. Such applications are widely used by home and office users and do not have any special requirements for video cards.Web surfing – A general purpose 2D application

3D gaming

3D games have been the driving force behind the video card industry’s phenomenally fast-paced growth. The main difference between each new generation of video card and their predecessors is typically that newer products offer better performance and are equipped with more advanced features to meet the requirements of existing or future 3D games. 3D games are so dazzlingly attractive these days that many users treat their computers as game consoles.Bleeding-edge 3D games are a tough proving ground for video cards


Video playback

The latest video card products add not only new features for a better 3D game experience, but also features that cater to advanced video requirements, which, for example, include hardware acceleration for High-Definition video decoding. Without the help of the video card, the CPU would have a very tough time playing High-Definition video and the result could be heavy frame skipping.HDTV playback is a hot new feature of the latest video cards

Total System Power Draw Comparisons

Here's how the ASUS M4A78T-E motherboard stacks up in real life against a couple different motherboards. We have no way of directly measuring motherboard power draw, so PCSTATS measures total system power draw and compares that in CPU-loaded (max value recorded in Prime95) and idle states (at Windows Vista desktop).

An Extech 380803 AC Power Analyzer and A-PFC compliant PC Power and Cooling 750W power supply were used for these tests.

System Power Draw Tests: (PCPower 750W PSU) Desktop Idle (W) Watts Ranking Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 Onboard) 68 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 GF 8800GTS 320MB) 131 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 Onboard) 72 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 143 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300 video) 77 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 155 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300) 91 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 131 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300) 61 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a GF 8800GTS 320MB) 110 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a onboard nF 750a) 45.4 Prime95 Stressed (W) Watts Ranking Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 Onboard G45 ) 121 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 GF 8800GTS 320MB) 224 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 Onboard G45 ) 122 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 188 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300 video) 122 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 214 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300) 153 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 192 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300) 121 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a GF 8800GTS 320MB) 187 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a onboard nF 750a) 127 3DM06 IGP Stressed (W): Watts Ranking Intel DG45ID (Intel G45 Onboard G45 ) 115 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 F 8800GTS 320MB) 182 ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 nboard G45 ) 119 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 216 ASUS M4A78T-E (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300 video) 123 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX F 8800GTS 320MB) 238 ASUS M3A78-T (AMD 790GX nboard HD 3300 video) 144 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX GF 8800GTS 320MB) 223 Foxconn A7DA-S (AMD 790GX onboard HD 3300) 124 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a GF 8800GTS 320MB) 226 Biostar Tpower N750 (NF 750a onboard nF 750a) 118

The Asus M4A78T-E motherboard has managed to tame power consumption, at idle the platform draws just 77W without a discreet videocard installed. When the videocard-less system is stressed under 3Dmark06, peak power consumption is 123W. By comparison when a Geforce 8800GTS is installed in the M4A78T-E that value balloons to 216W! In general the ASUS M4A78T-E draws less power than the DDR2-based M3A78-T system.

Let's look at the M4A78T-E's physical attributes in a little more detail.