ASRock 775Dual-880Pro

Conclusion:

Looking back at the benchmarks, we were rather fascinated that the ASRock 775Dual-880Pro, with identical features, managed to keep up with the Tyan Tomcat i915 S5120 server board and even outperform in some instances. However, the VIA PT880 Pro is likely the cause of the competitive performance against the Intel i915. In the coming weeks, we’ll also be publishing some Intel Pentium D results on this ASRock motherboard as a comparison against an i945/955 competitor. However, there is one serious matter with the motherboard and that is the AGP slot. Although the PCI Express slot utilizes fewer lanes than the standard x16 for graphics, it still offered comparable numbers to that of a true PCI-E x16 port on the Tyan motherboard. With the 775Dual-880Pro AGP slot, this simply wasn't the case. Throughout the demanding graphical benchmarks, the 5900XT performed fairly poor compared against the 6600GT and against numbers we derived from our other AGP machines. We also noticed serious degradations in the image quality with the AGP slot. Not only did the AGP performance suffer, but also VIA's DualGFX Express failed to work in our labs when combining any AGP and PCI Express cards. Even with these AGP flaws, we were satisfied with the motherboard. The motherboard was relatively well laid out with a fair number of onboard features, especially considering the $50-60 price tag. Through all the effort ASRock engineers have spent designing the 775Dual-880Pro, their efforts have surely paid off for the budgeted consumer. Although we would never think twice of utilizing the 775Dual-880Pro into a high-end, or even moderately high-end, system this is one of the few motherboards that fit into the niche of selling for dirt cheap while packing a relatively large punch, especially considering the fact that the Tyan i915 S5120 retails for over three times as much money.

Pros:

· Cheap (~ $50 - 60 USD)
· Relatively good performance
· AGP and PCI Express support
· DDR and DDR2 support
· Dual-core and 1066 FSB support
· VIA PT880 Pro Chipset
· Linux compatibility
· 8-channel audio

Cons:

· Lack of accessories
· Poor packaging
· Poor overclocking options
· Only 2 fan connectors
· AGP performance suffers
· No 10/100/1000 support
· VIA DualGFX Technology failed
· DDR/AGP voltage options