discussion ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi Motherboard Review

[Eldonko]

3D & Gaming Benchmarks

3D & Gaming Benchmarks

This section will provide an overview of stock vs. overclocked 3D results in synthetic benchmark and gaming situations. CrossFire is enabled for all tests and comparisons will be made to show performance increases in overclocked situations.


3DMark Vantage Benchmark:

3DMark Vantage is the latest release by Futuremark, creators of the 3DMark suite. This program is the first Futuremark version of 3DMark designed exclusively for Windows Vista. 3DMark Vantage consists of 2 CPU and 2 GPU tests as well as and 6 feature tests all of which are very hardware intensive. Four presets are available to allow for those with older PCs to benchmark just as easily as those with cutting edge hardware. For our testing, we will use the Performance setting with all other settings at default. The build version is the latest patched version of Vantage v1.0.1.

Results: Similar to 3DMark 2006, Vantage performance relies heavily of graphics card performance, with modest improvements going from 3000Mhz on an E3110 to 4202Mhz, an improvement of about 9%.


3DMark 2006 Benchmark:

Futuremark 3DMark 06 has been the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking for a few years now. A fundamental tool for PC users and gamers, 3DMark06 uses advanced real-time 3D game workloads to measure PC performance using a suite of DirectX 9 3D graphics tests, CPU tests, and 3D feature tests. 3DMark06 tests include all new HDR/SM3.0 graphics tests, SM2.0 graphics tests, AI and physics driven single and multiple cores or processor CPU tests and a collection of comprehensive feature tests to reliably measure next generation gaming performance today. The tests below use 3DMark 2006 defult setting and a resolution of 1280x1024.

Results: 3DMark 2006 has a bit more reliance on CPU power so we see more of an improvement with a CPU overclock than we do with Vantage. A gain in 3DMarks of 27% is noted in 3DMark 2006, not bad at all.


World in Conflict Benchmark:

The World in Conflict in-game benchmark is a great test to show video card performance in real gaming situations. Under the Graphics menu in options, you can choose a variety of video settings and there is a "Run Benchmark" button. The actual benchmark uses all of the game’s graphic capabilities and is a good indication which settings will be optimal for a user’s system. For the tests below resolution was set to 1680x1050 and graphics was set to “High” which gives fullscreen anti-alias at 2x and anisotropic filtering at 2x.

Results: The World in Conflict benchmark shows a decent gain in frames per second, an improvement of 32% or an extra 13 FPS. This tells us that not only overclocking a video card will improve your gaming experience; those extra CPU Mhz also help a lot.

 

[Eldonko]

Crossfire Benchmarks

Crossfire Benchmarks

This section will provide an overview of single card vs. CrossFire performance. For CrossFire testing, two different brands of the ATI HD3870 were used; a MSI model and a HIS ICEQ model. The cards have slightly different speeds, the MSI runs at 800/1125 (GPU/Mem) and the HIS runs at 780/1126. The MSI card was installed in PCIE slot 1 and all tests were completed using Catalyst 8.5 drivers and Windows Vista Home Basic 64bit. Additionally, all CrossFire comparisons will be ran at overclocked CPU settings (4202Mhz/560Mhz 6-5-5-20).

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3DMark Vantage Benchmark:

The first 3D benchmark test for CrossFire is quickly becoming the new standard among benchmarking enthusiasts, Futuremark 3DMark Vantage. The Performance preset will be used and all other settings remain at default to allow other users to compare their results.

Results: CrossFire results are really where the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi shines with gain in Vantage 3DMarks of 2858 or an improvement of 63%.


3DMark 2006 Benchmark:

The second 3D benchmark test for CrossFire is among the most common in the enthusiast world, Futuremark 3DMark 2006. To be comparable to other users’ systems, all settings remain at default, including the resolution which is 1280x1024.

Results: Not quite the impact CrossFire had on Vantage, but close nonetheless. We see a 53% gain in 3DMarks when adding a second HD3870 and running the benchmark in CrossFire.


World in Conflict Benchmark:

For World in Conflict tests, resolution is set at 1680x1050, Detail is set to High, all other display options remain at default settings.

Results: In a gaming benchmark that simulates gaming situations, the performance gained when running CrossFire vs. a single card is outstanding. When adding a second HD3870, FPS improves 93%!

 

[Eldonko]

Voltage Regulation / Temperatures

Voltage Regulation & Heat Analysis

Voltage Regulation

To take a look at a board’s voltage regulation, we first need to know a few voltages. More specifically vcore - BIOS set vcore, vcore in windows, and vcore under load. In theory these numbers should all be the same but load line droop (commonly known as Vdroop) is an intentional part of any Intel power delivery design specification.

Droop by definition is the real voltage delta from idle to load on a motherboard. Vdroop is usually larger for quads due to the extra power going through the voltage regulation integrated circuits and some boards have larger vdroop than others, depending partly on the quality of the voltage regulation of the board.

What we will look at on the X48TurboTwins-WiFi is vdroop and how smooth the voltage line on an overclocked system is over a 5 hour period. For these tests OCCT monitoring is used.

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Voltage set in the BIOS for the Xeon chip is 1.56v, giving 1.51v idle and 1.44v load. Taking this into perspective there is a little to be desired; ideally we like to see .02-.03v droop from idle to load but the X48TurboTwins-WiFi gives closer to .07v droop on a 45nm chip. However, it is important to note the more voltage used, the harder the motherboard voltage regulation ICs must work and the higher the droop will be. Also concerning is the amount of actual voltage that is utilized under load compared to what the user may expect from a BIOS setting. Considering this board has a maximum of 1.6v available in the BIOS, users shouldn’t expect much over 1.45v load on a 45nm duo and even less with a quad. ASRock likely restricted vcore to 1.6v so users would not use more voltage than the voltage regulation transistors and ICs can handle safely.

Additionally, when looking at the vcore fluctuations above some other concerns arise. There are fluctuations of 0.2v (13% ripple) over a 5 hour period. It is hard to determine if this ripple is actually occurring of if the voltage monitoring sensors or software are off a few points where the spikes are; but this is something to keep an eye on for sure.


Temperatures

The Northbridge on the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi runs exceptionally cool, even without high-tech heatpipe cooling. Measuring the Northbridge heatsinc with a digital thermometer temperatures hover around 39-40C, even when the system is at full load and Northbridge voltage set to Very High. This temperature is outstanding and ASRock was bang on when they saved users a few dollars by using a cheaper aluminum heatsink.

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For CPU and board temperatures, everything things looks good. There are no particular hot spots on the board and even at 4200Mhz stressed for five hours, temperatures remained in check.

 

[Eldonko]

Long-term Impressions / Conclusion

Long-term Impressions

Overall, the long-term impressions of the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi are mixed but lean to the favourable side of things. On one hand, the solid capacitors and overall build quality are quite strong and the chipset runs cool, while on the other voltage regulation and BIOS need work. Very low chipset temperatures and motherboard heat in general are nice to see staying low, especially after reviewing the last 680i board where the chipset exceeded 80C in some cases. Cool parts are generally durable parts and we have no long-term worries whatsoever seeing a chipset running under 40C.

The BIOS has had one update since the release which fixed the issue with audio, however some other bugs and issues remain. First, the dividers have some issues and booting with settings that should work in theory isn’t always going to happen. Second, the BIOS is very basic for a board targeted at enthusiasts. It is almost laughable to see no secondary RAM timings at all and voltage settings labelled as high, medium and low. Hopefully in the next BIOS update ASRock will fix the memory dividers, add some additional memory settings, and change the NB, SB, and VTT voltages to actual voltages instead of settings like “high” which really leave too much guessing room for many users comfort.


Conclusion

Once again, ASRock has a sure winner if you look at board features. ASRock provides its customers with dual 16x PCIE 2.0 slots, 7.1 HD audio, WiFi capabilities, overclocking and monitoring software and many other perks. All the features tested in this review worked as promised and setup was quite straightforward. As seen in the CrossFire tests, the improvements when running CrossFire on an X48 board and an overclocked system were nothing short of outstanding. The board was also relatively strong in overclocking for a budget board and the dual 16x CrossFire plus hybrid DDR2/DDR3 is just icing on the cake.

When looking a bit further we saw that the BIOS was quite basic and there were a few issues with some of the memory dividers but overall most things work as they should. One plus is ASRock came out with the second BIOS for this board only a few weeks after the first, which shows they are willing to address issues quickly. The voltage regulation also could use some work as we saw a vdroop of 0.07v. When you set voltage to 1.56v in the BIOS and end up with 1.44v under load; that is a little concerning, especially when the max vcore available is 1.6v. This was also under a relatively low power 45nm duo, throw a 65nm quad in the works and droop would only be worse.

In spite of a few minor shortcomings, in terms of overclocking, the board really excelled. Stability over 500FSB and rock-solid stability at 4200Mhz with a 3000Mhz chip is impressive. ASRock’s OC Tuner also helps a lot with tweaking voltages and overclocking FSB and PCIE. Add a second GPU and run your CPU and memory at overclocked speeds and you could be seeing double the FPS than you are used to!

The build quality of the board is much improved over older ASRock designs, with all solid capacitors. However, the 24 pin ATX power connector is still located next to the CPU and may be an obstacle for users with bottom mounted power supplies or larger CPU heatsinks. It would also have been nice to have a little more space between the PCI-E slots to allow air cooled cards some breathing room or water cooling users some room to manoeuvre.

ASRock also gets points for coming to market with an X48 motherboard with a sub-$200 price tag. The other options for this latest and greatest chipset by Intel are very expensive, some nearly double the price. Without sacrificing features, ASRock put out a solid board for a first crack at X48. At this price the X48TurboTwins-WiFi should grab the attention of users that want to run full 16x CrossFire on board that is no slouch for overclocking.

So to sum all this up we have to say that this board is excellent for users who want a solid upgrade for their aging systems or even for the enthusiast looking to gain that extra 30% in performance by running an overclocked system. Hybrid DDR2/DDR3 and CrossFire only make this board more attractive. Is the extreme overclocker that uses sub-zero cooling to produce global benchmark results going to buy this board? Probably not. But for a mainstream overclocking enthusiast, the ASRock X48TurboTwins-WiFi makes up for the few shortcomings with an abundance of features and the cheapest price on a X48 chipset board we have saw thus far. That said, we give this product our Dam Good Value Award.


Pros

- CrossFire support with two 16x PCIE 2.0 slots
- Hybrid DDR2/DDR3
- HD 7.1 audio
- Quality design, with solid capacitors
- Very cool running chipset
- 45nm and FSB1600/1333 CPU support with stock BIOS
- Good overclocker – 4200Mhz easily
- Price!


Cons

- Limited BIOS options
- Few BIOS issues with memory dividers
- Voltage regulation could be better
- Board layout (oddly placed 24pin, close PCIE slots)
- Very limited availability at this time

Thanks to ASRock for sending us this motherboard​

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