ASRock X58 SuperComputer Motherboard

First Look and Board Layout (cont):

The I/O panel of the ASRock X58 SuperComputer is fully loaded. It features two PS/2 ports, digital coaxial as well as optical audio out. There are six USB ports, dual gigabit LAN which supports teaming, a firewire port as well as 7.1 channel analog audio. There also one unique port on the back, it's combination USB/e-SATA port. This allows for devices like e-SATA flash drives to be plugged in an not require additional power. You may recall we reviewed an OCZ e-SATA flash drive in the past. If you don't want to use it as a powered e-SATA port, it also works as a normal USB port or non-powered e-SATA port.

Overall the layout on the ASRock X58 SuperComputer is great. It allows for multiple high end graphics card solutions without having to search for single slot cards. The board has all solid state capacitors so there is little risk of failure there. The cooling setup consists of a passively cooled southbridge, which is fine as it did not get terribly hot during testing. The northbridge and mosfets are cooled passively with a heatpipe system (common for most X58 boards).

The only flaw I can see with the layout is that the CPU socket is a bit high on the motherboard. If your case has a top mounted power supply some heatsinks may not be able to fit mounted vertically. If you mount a cooler that has a large metal back plate make sure to mask it off with something non-conductive like electrical tape as there are exposed circuits near the CPU socket on the back of the motherboard. The last one is not really even a major issue, but if the bottom PCIe slot is populated it can be a pain to clear the CMOS.