ASRock A75 Pro4

ASRock A75 Pro4

When you're building a desktop PC, you may think your most likely choices for the motherboard's form factor are limited to ATX and microATX. But that's not necessarily so. We were reminded of this when testing the ASRock A75 Pro4 ($109.99 street), which is designed for use with AMD's new Llano Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) and new FM1 socket. Sized nearly an inch narrower than a typical ATX motherboard, it will open up some new room for you in space-starved PC cases. Those wanting maximum flexibility from their builds, however, may be disappointed by what the A75 Pro4 doesn't offer. At first glance, the A75 Pro4 seems respectably equipped. The rear panel offers a port selection, including one PS/2 port; four USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports; VGA, DVI, and HDMI for video output; FireWire; eSATA; and both analog (using the Realtek ALC892 chipset) and S/PDIF audio out. Memory bays are likewise fairly standard, supporting up to 32GB of dual-channel DDR3 RAM running up to speeds of 2,400MHz when overclocked. There are five SATA connectors, each supporting the newer and speedier 6Gbps SATA III standard. And, as there are two PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slots, you'll have the option of setting up two video cards in a CrossFireX configuration.