ASRock Unveils its Intel-based 8-Series Motherboards

[shadowfamicom]

[citation][nom]rebel1280[/nom]looks very... 90's[/citation]

I actually really like the look of them... compared the the red or blue themed mobos I see all the time now. Not that I wouldn't buy a mobo if has the stuff I wanted in it but it was the wrong color for the "theme" of my case... but its nice to just have generic looking boards, so you can build off of there... IMO.

 

[TheBigTroll]

If they didnt fix their issues with using poor quality caps and components, they arent worth recommending. (go look on the list in my sig)

 

[ipwn3r456]

Umm, will those chipsets support DDR4 RAM in the future?

 

[doniroux]

I like how everyone comments on the old PCI slots and VGA port, but no one noticed the ancient FDD connector on the bottom.

 

[goodguy713]

I like how everyone comments on the old PCI slots and VGA port, but no one noticed the ancient FDD connector on the bottom.

lol yea who actually ever uses that ? lol i mean .. only thing i can think of would be industrial applications.. lol legacy i suppose.. just like IDE 133mhz on some of the other boards .. seriously who still uses that? .. just saying thinking back on the gigabyte 890fx ud5 .. lol i could see using it as a means to back up old drives but other then that...

 

[MisterZ]

What's the difference between this new generation 8 series and the previous 7 series chipset?

 

[MisterZ]

Sweet! I'd use the hell out of those legacy PCI slots!

Seriously though, why are they still putting these things on new motherboards? Just have them laying around or something?

Um, don't people out there still have PCI sound cards? A sound card isn't something that you upgrade as often as a video card, so I'm guessing PCI sound cards would still be relatively common.

 

[Cameramen8]

No more Asrock for me. Got Asrock Z77 Extreme6. It "died" after 8 month. It started to turn system down with no obvios reason and i couldn`t shut it down unless pushing power button for 5 second. Changed it to Asus Sabertooth for extra 40 dollars. (Latvia)

 

[MauveCloud]

[citation][nom]MisterZ[/nom]What's the difference between this new generation 8 series and the previous 7 series chipset?[/citation]

7 series chipsets are designed for Ivy Bridge, which uses LGA 1155, whereas 8 series chipsets are designed for Haswell, which will use LGA 1150, so they won't be compatible.

[citation][nom]MisterZ[/nom]Um, don't people out there still have PCI sound cards? A sound card isn't something that you upgrade as often as a video card, so I'm guessing PCI sound cards would still be relatively common.[/citation]

I think audiophiles would get PCI-express sound cards, while the rest of us just use onboard audio.

 

[InvalidError]

[citation][nom]ipwn3r456[/nom]Umm, will those chipsets support DDR4 RAM in the future?[/citation]
The chipset supports absolutely no RAM since it has no memory controller.

Memory support is dictated entirely by the CPU's integrated memory controller.

 

[MisterZ]

7 series chipsets are designed for Ivy Bridge, which uses LGA 1155, whereas 8 series chipsets are designed for Haswell, which will use LGA 1150, so they won't be compatible.

What I meant was, what extra features does the 8 series offer compared with the 7 series?

 

[InvalidError]

[citation][nom]MauveCloud[/nom]I think audiophiles would get PCI-express sound cards, while the rest of us just use onboard audio.[/citation]
I think so too.

PCIe uses TMDS to interface with the rest of the system which should substantially reduce the level of board-level EMI and make it that much easier to design lower-noise sound cards. TMDS pretty much guarantees that the PCIe interface won't generate much noise below 100MHz and effectively eliminates ground/vcc bounce by being differential while legacy PCI can generate unpredictable amounts of broad spectrum noise from DC to 100+MHz depending on data patterns being transmitted which makes it much more difficult to deal with.

So PCIe is technically a much better choice than legacy PCI for internal add-in sound cards at least from the EMI viewpoint. PCIe lanes being dedicated should also make native PCIe sound a much better choice for DMA streaming... certainly better than using PCI with slow on-bus arbitration logic over a PCI-to-PCIe bridge.

 

[InvalidError]

[citation][nom]MisterZ[/nom]What I meant was, what extra features does the 8 series offer compared with the 7 series?[/citation]
More SATA ports converted to SATA6 ports, more USB2 ports upgraded to USB3, more bandwidth on the DMI bus between chipset and CPU and likely a few more minor goodies.

Nothing earth-shattering but when you are being forced to get a new motherboard due to integrated VRM anyway, may as well throw in a few bones to sugar-coat the pill.

 

[lp231]

[citation][nom]InvalidError[/nom]I think so too.PCIe uses TMDS to interface with the rest of the system which should substantially reduce the level of board-level EMI and make it that much easier to design lower-noise sound cards. TMDS pretty much guarantees that the PCIe interface won't generate much noise below 100MHz and effectively eliminates ground/vcc bounce by being differential while legacy PCI can generate unpredictable amounts of broad spectrum noise from DC to 100+MHz depending on data patterns being transmitted which makes it much more difficult to deal with.So PCIe is technically a much better choice than legacy PCI for internal add-in sound cards at least from the EMI viewpoint. PCIe lanes being dedicated should also make native PCIe sound a much better choice for DMA streaming... certainly better than using PCI with slow on-bus arbitration logic over a PCI-to-PCIe bridge.[/citation]

Besides this technical babble, Professional sound cards are a lot more expensive than consumer sound cards. Even some consumer sound cards are not cheap, like the original Creative X-Fi which cost up to $399 for the top of the line model. When you have a expensive PCI sound card, you will want to use it for as long as possible, not throw it away, just because that board doesn't have any PCI slots. Who ever have a PCIe sound card, probably never own a discrete sound card in the first place.

And I suppose users who complain about PCI slots are those who also complain about why do we still have PS/2 ports. They will also complain about why do we have this, why do we have that, I don't need this, I don't need that. In the end, we have is a motherboard with nothing on it, and it will still cost a arm and leg.

 

[InvalidError]

[citation][nom]lp231[/nom]Besides this technical babble, Professional sound cards are a lot more expensive than consumer sound cards. Even some consumer sound cards are not cheap, like the original Creative X-Fi which cost up to $399 for the top of the line model.[/citation]
The main reason the "top of the line" X-Fi is more expensive is because of the IO panel which Creative has always charged a ridiculously large premium for, often more than the already overpriced card itself.

As for "never having owned a discrete card", the first sound card I have ever owned was a $300 Sound Blaster Pro and my next card after that was a $250 UltraSound Max... so I'm not exactly new to overpriced sound cards that cannot plug into any remotely modern PCs.

Sooner or later though, legacy stuff just got to go. It makes no sense to make the 95% of people who are perfectly fine with on-board features pay for the 5% who desperately want to keep their legacy hardware going.

As for motherboards costing "an arm and leg", this is mostly because you choose to pay that much. For most people's everyday uses, a $80 h77 board is already overkill.

 

[Kand]

Realtek ALC892 is so OOOOLD...

 

[ubercake]

...
[citation][nom]MisterZ[/nom]Um, don't people out there still have PCI sound cards? A sound card isn't something that you upgrade as often as a video card, so I'm guessing PCI sound cards would still be relatively common.[/citation]

I think audiophiles would get PCI-express sound cards, while the rest of us just use onboard audio.

This is what I'm thinking. Sound processing has advanced as well since old-school PCI sockets were the standard. Also, how many of us need more than one old-school PCI slot even if we are audiophiles?