14 DAY TRIAL // All high-end motherboards have some technologies that others lower in the hierarchy don't, and we don't just mean better CPU support and broader I/O, memory and storage capabilities. Each motherboard maker has a certain set of special assets they can offer.
ASRock has just revealed the technologies that buyers of its 9-Series motherboards will benefit from, and there are quite a few of them.
The company revealed its Z97- and H97-based platforms some time ago, and they should even be up for order or pre-order here and there.
Knowing the CPU support, number of memory slots and add-in-card expansion capabilities, however, isn't exactly enough.
The high-end mainboards benefit from Purity Sound 2 with Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps, while the mid-range ones have ELNA Audio Caps. ASRock Super Alloy Technology is another asset, boosting reliability and stability.
More importantly, though, ASRock has something called HDD Saver, a technology that can switch on or off idle HDDs whenever users want.
You see, many ASRock 9-Series motherboards have 4-pin HDD Saver connectors right next to the SATA ports.
If you link those to your HDD, you can use the HDD Saver functionality and switch off unneeded HDDs with a single click.
It's really useful if, say, you have everything you're using stored on an SSD, but hold old photos and movie collections on your HDD. Unless you're about to watch a film or play a game not stored on the system partition, you can turn them off.
This saves energy much better, because even in idle mode, HDDs still consume electricity. Moreover, the less use allows for a longer HDD lifespan. So the HDD Saver technology is two-fold, you could say: saves power and saves the HDDs themselves from an early death.
Back to the audio side of things, ASRock has included 7.1 CH HD audio with Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, 115dB SNR DAC with Differential Amplifier, and cap-less Direct Drive technology. It even shielded the circuitry from electric/electromagnetic discharge (EMI shielding cover, PCB isolate shielding). In layman terms, it means you'll get near-professional audio quality without having to get a PCI Express sound board.
Other assets include the ASRock APP Shop (easy BIOS and app updates, even game downloads) and ASRock cloud support (though only for $50 / €37 per year, albeit with a free one-month upgrade to Orbweb.ME Ultimate package with Remote Desktop function is also available).