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ASRock ConRoe 1333-DVI/H & Intel E2140 Budget System Review

Motherboards/Intel S775 by SidneyWong @ 2007-08-17

Today, we take a look at ASRock´s latest ConRoe-1333-DVI/H micro ATX board aimed at the budget minded and put in the lowest priced Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 for a test drive. Hopefully, we can get some free performance by overclocking!

Closer Look

Closer Look:

The package contains the following;

Installation Manual
Driver and Utility CD
IDE & Floppy Cables
One SATA cable
Mainboard back plate
Serial/Game com-port PCI extension
4-pin Molex to SATA power cable
DVI graphics HDCP card

The difference between Rev 1.0 and 2.0 is the addition of 2 more dimm slots from 2 to 4, and the DVI card allowing two displays hookup. They share the same BIOS.

Madshrimps (c)

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The left photo shows this mainboard still uses the old 20-pin main; 1X PCIe X16; 1X PCIe X1 slot; 2X PCI and 1X HDMR. To the right of HDMR is the floppy connector. The right photo shows the 4XSATAII, IDE connector; case fan header and two USB connectors.

Click to enlarge

The left photo: there is a COM port header with PCI bracket supplied; a 4-pin 12 volt and 4-pin CPU fan header. The photo on the right; Passive heatsink for both N & S Bridge; 4 memory slots; CMOS battery. Close to the CMOS battery there is a 2-pin CMOS clear jumper pin but no jumper provided.

Madshrimps (c)

To meet the targeted customers, PS2 mouse/keyboard and parallel printer port are provided. Serial port is also provided via PCI bracket. It is good that ASRock does not forget those who keep on using something that is not broken.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/19

I have no question that this E2140 will hit 400FSB or 3.2Ghz. 355 is the max as PCIe bus speed is now at 122, vcore fefault. At 123, the SATA HDD is lost.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/20

Did not quite like the S-bridge passive heatsink getting as high as >54°C, the N-bridge is okay at ~45-48°C. I added my own specially wired 2x 40x10mm ~5,000 rpm to a single 4-pin molex on them.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/20

Same 40mm that comes with Chill Vent?

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/20

Yes

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/20

silent then

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/20

Read ION HTPC case review on sound test

Comment from smilingcrow @ 2007/08/26

I was interested to read about the method of pin modding the E2140; any chance of loading a photo to the forums? There are loads of photos of people using a conductive pen but this mod is unusual. Cheers.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/26

Sure thing, will post them on upcoming E4400 review in a few days.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/27

Here we go

sorry for one of them is out of focus slightly.

1066 FSB mod

Alum foil folded back to HS

1.4 Volt mod with two pieces of alum foil

Comment from smilingcrow @ 2007/08/27

Thanks for the pics. Is there any danger of damaging the CPU or board if you make a short-circuit? The volt mod looks dangerously close to shorting something!

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/27

Yes, so does driving Indy Car at 230 MPH close to hitting the wall in every turn

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/27

nice comparo

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/08/29

Been running Speedstep enable for a few days; min vcore 1.15 and multi 6x. Total system power consumption drops about 10% to 12%. I have not seen overclockers report on C2D the use of Speedstep during ocing.

Comment from jmke @ 2007/08/29

OC and power saving, don't go well hand in hand

Comment from nuuk25 @ 2007/09/24

Hi there
- has anyone tried the E2180 on this MB ? Or any other newer MB from Asrock ? - details are welcome !! ;o)

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/09/24

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuuk25

Hi there
- has anyone tried the E2180 on this MB ? Or any other newer MB from Asrock ? - details are welcome !! ;o)

Check our recent reviews, two more new ASRock boards are listed.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/09/24

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

OC and power saving, don't go well hand in hand

No difference than using fan controller, with Notebook Hardware Control +SpeedStep enble in BIOS, switching between "Dynamic", "Max Performance", "Max Battery" (Auto, Max, Min) within Windows is one click away. If you leave your PC on 24/7 and play game for one hour, there is a lot of savings not to mention less noise.

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/11/06

The best this E2140 could do is 390FSB ...... 95% overclocked

Comment from jort @ 2007/11/06

Quote:

This is all aluminum heatsink; the low thermal characteristic of this CPU prompted Intel to do way with the copper core.

Don't understand that sentence... is it correctly ?

Comment from Sidney @ 2007/11/06

s/b

to do away with the copper core

Are you picking on me two months later?

Comment from jort @ 2007/11/06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sidney

s/b

to do away with the copper core

Are you picking on me two months later?

I dunnow i read the article only today.
I spot the smallest details moastly

Comment from Ibrihim @ 2013/05/05

Just read this article and it's good. Amazed jort took two months to comment.

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