ASRock's Alive NF5 appeals to the budget and OEM user ... offering performance and value for money 

INTRODUCTION

The ASRock brand name was formed in the early days of 2002. The company is wholly owned by their parent company Asus. Their main business include producing motherboards for the mainstream and budget markets. You'll find many of their motherboards in budget systems, and are popular among OEM companies.

While at the Cebit 2007 exhibition, we asked whether Asus had any influence on their products ... one spoke person said "Yes and No" ... the classic answer. He explained that most of the decisions for production and marketing were their own. Later, asked why there wasn't any high-end motherboards being displayed at their stand ... He then explained to me that they don't really produce any high-end motherboards, and that all production of high-end motherboards were assigned to their parent company Asus.

       

There you have it ... we got the clarification we needed. ASRock=Budget/Mainstream, while Asus=High-end and everything else.

In this review we'll be taking a look at the AliveNF5 eSATA2 motherboard from ASRock. The motherboard is aimed at the budget and mainstream market and is designed for Athlon AM2 processors, upto and including the Athlon FX series. It supports dual channel DDR2-800 and offers some overclocking features in the BIOS.

There are some features which makes this motherboard quite appealing. These include 2 x eSATA connectors and
Remember, this really is a motherboard aimed at the budget market, so any extras is a real bonus.

       

 

Looking at the ASRock product range, they don't seem to have anything new or exciting. I wanted to see if they had any SLI-Ready or 1333FSB motherboards in the pipe-line. Well, the answer you probably know is ... no. However, having said that, I've come across many people saying that ASRock motherboards are just as good as any other motherboard from the big brand names, which are similarly spec'ed.

OK, let's have a look at the specifications and see how the ASRock AliveNF5 eSATA2 motherboard will perform ...