ASRock Unveils Two New Motherboards With C232 Chipsets

ASRock has announced the launch of two new motherboards. Both will use the Intel C232 chipsets, making them suitable for the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series processors.

The two motherboards are intended for two different target groups. The ASRock Fatal1ty E3V5 Performance Gaming/OC is aimed at gamers and the ASRock E3V5 WS is a workstation motherboard intended for professional developers. According to ASRock, both motherboards can be used with Intel’s Xeon E3 V5-Xeons, of which the Intel Xeon E3-1230V5 is particularly interesting. This processor is comparable to the Intel i7-6700 and slightly cheaper. Previously, some Xeon processors could still be used in motherboards with consumer chipsets, but since the Series 100 chipsets, Intel no longer offers that possibility.

The Xeon processors lack an integrated GPU, but ASRock indicates that this should not be a problem because of the target groups for which the motherboards are intended. Both motherboards support DDR4 memory with or without ECC and can accommodate four modules with speeds up to 2133MHz. Both boards also support CrossFire capabilities and have six SATA connections.

However, the two motherboards differ in the extras that come with them. For example, the Gaming variant has ASRock’s Gaming Armor, which should improve both the stabilization and the performance of the PC while gaming. To better suit the target audience, the E3V5 WS has been given an Intel I219LM lan chip and offers support for Quadro and FirePro video cards and server operating systems. ASRock has not yet announced anything about prices and availability.