In spite of the commotion incited by the upcoming release of Intel Haswell processors and the growth of products compatible with their technical requirements, Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs will continue their existence in the market for some time more. For the nonce, ASRock has elaborated a new micro-ATX motherboard, codenamed H61M-VG4. The newly-designed product is based on Intel H61 Express chipset with Socket LGA1155, supporting Intel Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge processor lines. According to ASRock, all potential customers will be able to receive quite efficient system for a budget price.



ASRock H61M-VG4 is furnished with two DIMM slots which support two-channel DDR3 memory modules of up to 16 GB capacity, running at 1066 MHz, 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz frequencies. Expansion facilities are realized by means of a single PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot and a single PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot. The connection of optical, hard and solid-state drives becomes possible thanks to the availability of four SATA …

Motherboards intended for gaming systems are developed and supplied by several reputable companies. ASRock belongs to their army and frequently releases motherboards with outstanding parameters. Its latest creation ASRock Z77 Extreme9 model is designed specifically for LGA 1155 socket and Intel Z77 processor. It is able to provide the users with appropriate efficiency and multiple opportunities to create a really high-performance gaming system.



Integration


Design of motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme9 is not peculiar for the implementation of bright colors or excessive ornamental elements. Only gold yellow capacitors and decorative stripes on radiators add some glamor to the board. One of the stripes is lighted up by white LED; this option is provided by LED Heatsink Design facility. The motherboard is developed in ATX form-factor. Power supply is realized by means of Digi Power digital system that works by 8+4 scheme. All hot converter components are covered by a solid …

The second generation of AMD A-Series hybrid processors, announced earlier in October, are already integrated in a number of graphics solutions. The newly appeared products are compatible with Socket FM2 only and cannot be applied for Socket FM1 infrastructure. This implies that a number of motherboards lose their upgrade facilities and can't be updated with a new advanced solution. Still, the market is currently ready to present a few boards destined to operate with the updated AMD A-Series. Gigabyte is one of the pioneers in this respect, introducing its motherboard GA-F2A85X-UP4, developed specifically for Socket FM2.



Integration


Gigabyte GA-F2A85X-UP4 is designed in ATX form-factor with 305x244 mm PCB dimensions. AMD A85X chipset is a heart of the motherboard; it secures the compatibility with A-Series (second gen.) APU and Athlon CPUs in the implementation of Socket FM2. The overall TDP level claimed for the model is not more than 100W. The PCB allots four DIMM slots …