A lot of folks think in order to be mainstream, that they need to buy the best of the best PC hardware. They worry they’ll have to fork out quite a bit of money just to enjoy the benefits the latest computers have to offer. Thankfully, this isn’t always the case especially if you keep checking back here often. We always seem to find alternative ways to keep upgrading costs down. Take ASRock’s H55DE3 Motherboard for example.
ASRock’s offering supports the latest Intel LGA1156 Core i3, i5 and i7 processors as well as any other component you can add to it. It even supports the current home theater PC champion processor, the Clarkdale, that has an integrated graphics processor so you’re spending even less to enjoy owning a mainstream system. Of course, you can always add a good video card so it becomes a gaming system. We did!
Features and Specifications
ASRock’s H55DE3 Motherboard supports any LGA1156 “Lynnfield” and “Clarkdale” processor. The Lynnfield doesn’t have integrated graphics while the Clarkdale does. That means, you can build a system and not have to buy a graphics card. Because it’s powered by the Intel H55 chipset, the motherboard has DVI, Optical SPDIF, and HDMI ports so you can access the integrated graphics.
Otherwise, the H55DE3 is a full sized and fully loaded ATX motherboard with all the regular bells and whistles, but also built for media. The board offers VIA’s VT1718S integrated audio codec coupled with Q-Sound. This is a 7.1 channel high definition feature aimed at providing audio for home theater and high quality 2-Channel experience. This should work well for headphone aficionados but clearly won’t be a match for the awesome ASUS Essence STX Headphone Amp Card.
The Sound Blaster Live X-Fi MB feature was something we were really looking forward to checking out. It was listed on the product web page and even the box. Unfortunately, what we found out was that it actually trial based audio software that you will have to pay extra for to keep it working indefinitely. Though it emulates some of the audio quality via the driver software that you may have heard from Creative X-Fi based sound cards, it’s no hardware solution. While it gets you mostly there for a fraction of the price, it’s definitely a bit of a bait and switch in our opinion.
The H55DE3’s box advertises another new feature called Turbo 50. This is ASRock’s latest overclocking software that can run a processor to 4GHz via the software. It’s also accompanied by OC Tuner, Intelligent Energy Saver, and EUP ready for those that need to save power rather than needing to overclock. We know Turbo 50 is supported by the H55 Pro, but maybe not the DE3 as we’ll cover in the overclocking section.
Overall, the ASRock H55DE3 will easily support HD-DVD and Blu-ray 1080p video whether it be using a Core i5 661 or an up to date PCI Express 2.0 video card. If the board will be used in a gaming system, you’ll obviously want to pick up a performance video card. Otherwise, the Clarkdale processor will more than suffice.
What’s in the Box?
Well, there’s not much in the box to be honest. This is a pretty darn scant bundle right down to the manual. There’s only two red SATA cables, the usual IO Shield, driver disc, Intelligent Energy Saver and Instant Boot quick reference sheets, and Reference Manual.
Unfortunately, there was no BIOS manual in the box. We know that the budget boards tend to have very basic BIOS settings, but it’s still a good idea to have one for reference. The included Quick Installation Guide covers just that, but only covers about half the software. If someone has more important questions about OC Tuner or Turbo 50, there won’t be any answers in the box.
One thing also missing from the box is the Crossfire video card bridge. In the past, motherboard vendors have included them because video cards bundles don’t include them. It’s probably a case of who should have to include it to cut down on costs. They aren’t an easy item to readily find available at every PC store. So, be prepared to spend a few bucks when you do.
Checking Out the Board
The ASRock H55DE3’s design is very plain and simple for the most part. Compared to its more powerful sibling, the H55 Pro, you won’t find any fancy heat sinks or extra cooling which we don’t mind. At least here, they aren’t anodized gold aluminum. We like our heat sinks anything other than cheap silver, or even cheaper gold.
We’re not completely sure why, but a lot of the vendors have moved over to the coffee colored PCB as of late. This is also the color of choice for motherboards made by its big brother ASUS. Maybe it’s cheaper to make this color PCB than black. As long as the color is dark enough, it usually looks just fine. However, the traces on this board stand out a bit more than others.
The overall layout is pretty basic. The board offers no extras in terms of highly useful horizontal SATA ports on the front edge of the board, nor does it offer any eSATA ports on the back. They’re at least tucked in the corner well out of the way of large expansion cards, but definitely won’t clean up as well as horizontal ones. We’re also happy to see that they opted to embrace legacy free goodness by ditching the old IDE port. Attaching an IDE port to a Core i3, i5, or i7 is like putting donut tires on a racing car.
Speaking of expansion cards, the board offers dual PCI-E 2.0 slots. However, one is a full speed x16 (PCIE2) and the other one is a x4 (PCIE4) slot. What this means is that the PCI-E x4 slot is best suited for a graphics card that functions as a physics card. Ultimately, any dual GPU card in this slot will operate in a much slower capacity and nowhere near as close to the performance of an x8 by x8 dual card setup.
That’s pretty much as far as the visible checkover goes. It’s a rather uneventful board given its market placement as a low cost soluiton. Now, let’s get on with the testing.
Test System Setup and Installation Notes
Installing the drivers and updating the BIOS are typically easy to do. However, our driver CD was physically a bad disc and wouldn’t read. If this ever happens to you, don’t panic. Acquire at least a 1GB USB pen drive, borrow a computer, download the major drivers needed to connect to the internet, and copy them to a folder on your system. Then, simply install them from that folder.
Since the disc was bad, we also couldn’t determine if the “trial-ware” Sound Blaster X-Fi emulation software was any good or not. Again, we see it on the box and website specifications, but not available on the H55DE3’s support downloads page.
Here is the breakdown of the test system:
- Intel Core i5-661 Clarkdale LGA1156 Processor
- Cooled by Thermalright MUX 120 CPU Cooler
- ASRock H55DE3 (BIOS 2.10)
- MSI H55-GD65 (BIOS 1.2)
- Corsair Dominator 4GB 1600MHz @ 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3
- Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB Rev1.1
- Zotac Geforce GTX280 1GB Video Card
- Antec SG-850 Power Supply
- Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage, 3DMark Vantage, SANDRA Math and Multimedia, CineBench R11.5, Unigine Heaven Demo, Crysis, and RightMark Audio
Naturally, we updated to the latest BIOS available to ensure we present you with the motherboard’s best side. Without the motherboard manual, we were left to figuring out some of the special feature settings on our own. Intel Turbo Tech settings were left enabled where possible, except when overclocking to ensure maximum stability.
Overclocking
If you recall, one of the main features advertised on the very front of the box is ASRock’s highly touted Turbo 50 feature. This feature is visible in the BIOS, but can’t be accessed. To our disappointment, even after re-flashing the BIOS, it wouldn’t allow us to test the feature. This being the case, we tried using some of the preselected overclocked options and of course manual settings.
The two highest automatic options were 4.2GHz and 4.4GHz. Of the two, 4.2GHz proved to be the most stable passing all stability stress tests. Manual overclocking wasn’t nearly as forgiving and required more effort. We messed with more voltage settings than normal, even some that rarely ever have to be touched to attempt 4.3GHz with little success. Either way, an automated 4.2GHz is pretty darn good for a $90 motherboard.
So, we’re on the fence about the lack of the advertised Turbo 50 feature. Mainly because it was advertised, but never delivered. However, we were able to achieve a decent overclock without it that might very well be higher, or at least, more stable than what Turbo 50 might have achieved.
Benchmarks
Without further adieu, we get on with the all important benchmarks. We’ll try to keep it brief to keep you from dozing off.
PCMark Vantage x64
PCMark Vantage is a great benchmark for figuring out the general direction in which a board will perform. Because of its standardized nature, it makes it easy to compare against other boards.
There’s a little give and take here for the most part except where Productivity and Music are concerned. Scores are often very close when using identical chipsets. It’s features like the Via VT1828S audio processor and extra resources that benefit the MSI H55-GD65 over the very budget oriented ASRock H55DE3.
3DMark Vantage
Like PCMark Vantage, 3DMark Vantage gives us a good standard comparison across our test boards. Here’s what we’ve got…
One thing we noticed is that the H55DE3 is a little more aggressive when Turbo is enabled. The platform definitely makes a noise, figuratively speaking, when the CPU is overclocked. Not too shabby a jump in that department.
SANDRA CPU
SiSoftware SANDRA provides a suite of benchmarks to allow us to compare a bunch of boards with a standardized set of tests. Let’s see how well the CPU is supported on our chosen boards.
Sure, the Core i5 661 might be a dual core, but in the right overclocked platform, those 4 Hyper-Threads scoff at the CPU benchmarks. And yes, it’ll probably squash your Core 2 Quad that doesn’t have the integrated memory controller. Overall, the H55DE3 holds it’s own against higher priced competition.
CineBench R11.5
Cinebench is an excellent test of both threaded and single core performance.
It’s taking some effort to get use to R11’s scoring system. Points aren’t all that cool to see, nor are easy to understand. Take Vista’s “experience index” scoring for example: hated it! At least, we see that the H55DE3 can keep up with the beefier MSI board, and actually, pass it.
Unigine Heaven Demo
Unigine’s benchmarks kick off our graphics benchmarks.
This rather nice DX9, DX10, and DX11 capable demo is a murderous video benchmark. For whatever reason, the ASRock was a bit more energetic with the new NVidia drivers and improves with some moderate overclocking.
Crysis
Although extremely dated, Crysis is still a system soul crunching benchmark. Let’s see how the carnage looks.
Not too shabby when testing. We’re talking only pennies compared to the more robust MSI board. Either way, expect it to keep up with whatever video card you use for gaming. Just don’t go too cheap on the video or else you’ll be kicking yourself later. Overclocking definitely helps the ASRock open up a bit more.
BioHazard 5 Benchmark
Just to mix things up, we used the BioHazard 5 benchmark which doesn’t require the game to download and run. It represents an alternative similar to titles like COD4 or Left 4 Dead 2.
As you can see, the H55DE3 can keep up in games. No need to overclock if you’re already playing something similar. But, we included it just because the platform can.
Power Consumption
Naturally, we expected the ASRock H55DE3 to use the least amount of power simply due to its low component count. The MSI board has far more features which require more power.
When the overclocking started, we saw the power consumption go up considerably. We suspect that the platform’s PWM circuitry might be working more overtime due to the fact it’s not a high phase count motherboard. As long as it maintains the overclock, budget folks won’t be concerned.
Right Mark Audio
VIA audio processors like the VT series don’t produce the richest audio in the world. But, they do produce some relatively clean audio at the volumes most folks realistically experience. Usually, we see their VT1828S processor on motherboards as of late which support the Clarkdale’s ability to offer effortless HD. Testing should reveal if there are any differences.
Initial testing shows there’s some performance differences in quality. Here, we have the VT1718S results after four tests looking for the best recorded results. Note the dBA versus distortion.
Above, we have the results from the VT1828S processor. Test 3 reveals how higher amounts of noise, or distortion effect audio performance. Ultimately, it limits the level and quality of output.
Comparing the numbers and percentages, we can tell that the VT1828S audio solution offers notably better performance over the VT1728S. What these results tell us is the same thing we experienced when wearing a good quality headset or connecting a good quality pair of speakers. We would much rather experience what the VT1828S has to offer on any future affordable ASRock motherboard than its sibling which oddly isn’t even listed on VIA’s website.
Input/Output Results
One of the things that poses a bitter sweet dilemma with the H55 platforms is the lack of USB3 and SATA3 support. If you’ve seen one SATAII or USB 2.0 benchmark, you’ve seen them all.
Without the new upgraded features, it’s essentially a basic H55 platform. It just seems a little lack luster when the only thing added to a platform to make it H55 is mainly the video out ports. Great for graphic enthusiasts, but not so great for future expansion. Despite the legacy free-ness of the device, it totally loses out on next generation features like SATA 3.0 and USB 3.0.
Final Thoughts
So what’s the word on the ASRock H55DE3, a $90 budget entry to the H55 world? Well, we’ve got a few things for you to chew on.
We’re a little disappointed with the bait and switching of features. Emblazoned all over the box is the Turbo 50 feature and the X-Fi. But where is it? To be honest, we’re shocked to see the H55DE3’s supporting bundle not ‘support’ what is essentially a good basic motherboard. Features listed on the box should be readily accessible and available at all times whether it be on a disc or off the manufacturer’s website.
As a PC consumer, seeing the small words “trial” next to the featured Free Bundle software titles can be confusing and may end up disappointing the end user. Since we couldn’t test the X-Fi software, you’ll have to deal with the some what limited integrated audio solution, which may have otherwise upgraded the lackluster performance of this solution.
The ASRock H55DE3 motherboard isn’t a bad performer once you get down to brass tax. We were even surprised to see a $90 motherboard support 4.2GHz overclocking so easily as well. While it won’t surpass any performance based motherboards in our collection, it should more than satisfy the needs of a very basic user. That said, it doesn’t sacrifice important things like stability and reliability. If you can overlook the bundle issues and weaker audio it will make a great, cheap gaming board or for that matter, a second system that backs up your main gaming rig.
Pros
- Stable and reliable
- Overclocks relatively well
- Very affordable price
- Respectable performance
- Darker PCB better than green
Cons
- Not very attractive
- Only four onboard SATA ports
- Turbo 50 not included per the box
- Driver support page needs organizing
- No BIOS manual and limited reference guide
- Weaker Via audio solution
Overall Rating: 7.5 / 10.0
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