ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional

Introduction
The battle between Intel and AMD surges on and initial results still show Bulldozer trailing Intel’s Sandy Bridge namely the 2500K and 2600K but the new architecture may have some promise. The debate between single threading and multithreading goes on and on but AMD may be on the right track as we are in a wait and see with next generation multi-cores from AMD. Soon to come Piledriver will show the evolution of AMD’s true multi-core processors but as it may be, Bulldozer looks to take a leap and put AMD back into the performance game.

ASRock, a full line motherboard company, released the Fatal1ty 990FX Professional a few months ago. ASRock looks to make the Fatal1ty series a mainstay for both AMD and Intel platforms and today, it is officially a fan favorite on both sides. With no further ado, let’s jump in and see what this powerhouse motherboard has to offer.

Features

Here are the major features the Fatal1ty 990FX Professional has to offer: Fatal1ty XFast USB Technology - Faster Than Your Imagination! Fatal1ty XFast USB Technology redefines the new standard in high performance computing. Proving once again to be the pioneer in motherboard industry, Fatal1ty XFast USB Series Motherboards integrate with the latest XFast USB Technology which delivers the world's fastest USB data transfer speed. According to the below graph, it shows that the Fatal1ty XFast USB technology can even boost USB 3.0 performance up to 145.05%! XFast LAN Technology ASRock XFast LAN is a smart productivity tool to help you manage your priorities of internet applications, simplify your digital life and accomplish more. The innovative features include : Internet Application Prioritization, Lower Latency in Game, Traffic Shaping and Real-Time Analysis of Your Data. It's the smartest way to control your web programs. LAN Application Prioritization You can configure your application priority ideally and/or and new programs. Lower Latency in Game After setting online game priority higher in XFast LAN, it can lower the latency in game. Traffic Shaping You can watch YouTube HD video and download files simultaneously. Real-Time Analysis of Your Data With the status window, you can easily recognize which data streams you are currently transferring. AM3+ 8-Core Processor Support This board is designed to build up the most powerful system and delivers the most demanding technology for users nowadays. Just enjoy next generation computing with ASRock 8-Core CPU Ready motherboard. Digital PWM Design Digital Pulse-width modulation By adopting digital pulse-width modulation (PWM), the Fatal1ty Series can provide CPU Vcore voltage more efficiently and smoothly. Compared to analog PWM, digital PWM can optimize the CPU power solution and provide a proper and stable Vcore for the processor. C.C.R. (Combo Cooler Retention Module) The unique combo cooler retention module greatly improves heat dissipation and is backward compatible with AMD previous AM3/AM2+ coolers. Dual LAN - Teaming Dual LAN with Teaming function enabled on this motherboard allows two single connections to act as one single connection for twice the transmission bandwidth, making data transmission more effective. Fatal1ty Mouse Port Fatal1ty Mouse Port is a customizable technology for PC gamers that is a part of F-Stream. After plugging the USB mouse into the Fatal1ty Mouse Port and running F-Stream, gamers can use Fatal1ty’s personal preferred mouse polling rate at 500 Hz. F-Stream also provides the flexibility for gamers to adjust the mouse polling rate from 125 Hz to 1000 Hz. This is helpful for professional gamers to experience smoother game play and faster response time to the mouse. Premium Gold Caps All the capacitors on the Fatal1ty Series gaming motherboard are luxury, Premium Gold Caps. These 100% Japan-made solid capacitors are sleek, high gloss caps with a premium gold coating representing long life and stable performance. V12+2 CPU Power Phase The Fatal1ty Series motherboard is designed with a V12+2 Power Phase, featuring sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. The Fatal1ty Series offers unmatched overclocking capability and enhanced performance with the lowest temperatures for PC gaming enthusiasts. ATI™ CrossFireX Technology CrossFireX is a brand name for ATI™ Technologies multi-GPU solution. The technology allows a pair of graphics cards to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance. NVIDIA® SLI Ready SLI is a brand name for NVIDIA® multi-GPU solution. The technology allows a pair of graphics cards to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance. THX TruStudio THX TruStudio is specially designed to bring the same great audio experience found in live performances, films, and recording studios to the PC. On/Off Play Technology Even when the system is powered off (in ACPI S5 mode), On/Off Play Technology still allows users to enjoy the great audio experience from the portable audio devices through the PC speaker. Turbo UCC Turbo UCC technology provides you an all-in-one solution to unlock the hidden cpu cores in the CPU, get the amazing system performance boost by auto-overclocking, and running the system in a certainly lower power consumption level as well. When you press "X" when switch on the computer, the system will automatically reboot itself, after that, the system will execute the Turbo UCC function. Enabling Turbo UCC, it will automatically help you to unlock the extra CPU core to enjoy an instant performance boost, and the system performance will boost up by overclocking CPU frequency, memory frequency and all related voltage settings! Different from normal high-energy consumption for overclocking or system upgrading process, ASRock Turbo UCC can allow an energy-saving overclocking or system upgrade computing operation! Free Bundle - Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 trial now supports hardware transcoding and is optimized to accelerate conversion of all your favorite media files for your favorite portable players. Now you can easily display your favorite movies, songs and photos on iPhone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, Youtube, Facebook etc. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs as much as you want and enhance your videos to new levels with TrueTheater Technology. Fatal1ty F-Stream – The All-in-1 Tuning Software The Fatal1ty F-Stream tuning program is an all-in-1 software utility that supports overclocking and hard-ware tuning such as energy usage, H/W monitor, fan speed control and Fatal1ty Mouse Port Configuration. In Hardware Monitor, it shows the major readings of your system. In Fan Control, it shows the fan speed and temperature for you to adjust. In Overclocking, you are allowed to adjust the CPU frequency, ratio and some voltages for optimal system performance. In Mouse Polling, gamers can freely adjust the mouse polling rate. In Energy Saving, the voltage regulator can reduce the number of output phases to improve efficiency when the CPU cores are idle without sacrificing computing performance. Graphical UEFI – The Revolutionary BIOS Interface Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a revolutionary BIOS utility which offers tweak-friendly options in an advanced viewing interface. Compared with traditional BIOS design, the latest UEFI utility provides lots improved functions. The major features of UEFI include: 1. Graphical Visual Experience – UEFI provides an improved visual interface with colorful icons and makes your computing environment more versatile to replace the traditional dull BIOS page. 2. Mouse Enabling – Besides keyboard control, you can freely use mouse to select your ideal settings in UEFI as well. 3. Supports 3TB bootable HDD* - UEFI breaks the limitations of 2TB bootable HDD on traditional BIOS. With UEFI, you can enjoy 3TB bootable HDD.

Specifications
Here are the specifications for the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional:

General
CPU	- Support for Socket AM3+ processors - Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom™ II X6 / X4 / X3 / X2 (except 920 / 940) / Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2 / Sempron processors - Supports 8-Core CPU - Supports UCC feature (Unlock CPU Core) - Digital PWM Design - Advanced V12 + 2 Power Phase Design - Supports CPU up to 140W - Supports AMD's Cool 'n' Quiet Technology - FSB 2600 MHz (5.2 GT/s) - Supports Untied Overclocking Technology - Supports Hyper-Transport 3.0 (HT 3.0) Technology
Chipset	- Northbridge: AMD 990FX - Southbridge: AMD SB950
Memory	- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology - 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots - Supports DDR3 2100(OC)/1866/1600/1333/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory - Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB* *Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
BIOS	- 32Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support - Supports "Plug and Play" - ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events - Supports jumperfree - SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support - CPU, VCCM, NB, SB Voltage Multi-adjustment
Audio, Video and Networking
Graphics	- n/a
Audio	- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec) - Premium Blu-ray audio support - Supports THX TruStudio™
LAN	- PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s - Broadcom BCM57781 - Supports Wake-On-LAN - Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az - Supports Dual LAN with Teaming function - Supports PXE
Expansion / Connectivity
Slots	- 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4: x16 mode ; PCIE5: x4 mode) - 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots - 2 x PCI slots - Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™ - Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
SATA3	- 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 5), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
USB 3.0	- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ168A, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s - 2 x Front USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports) by Etron EJ168A, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
Connector	- 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors - 1 x IR header - 1 x COM port header - 1 x IEEE 1394 header - 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header - 1 x Power LED header - CPU/Chassis/Power FAN connector - 24 pin ATX power connector - 8 pin 12V power connector - Front panel audio connector - 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports) - 2 x USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports) - 1 x Dr. Debug (7-Segment Debug LED)
Rear Panel I/O	I/O Panel - 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port - 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port - 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port - 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port - 5 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports - 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) - 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports - 2 x eSATA3 Connectors - 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) - 1 x IEEE 1394 Port - 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED - HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Other Features / Miscellaneous
Unique Feature	- F-Stream - ASRock Instant Boot - ASRock Instant Flash - ASRock APP Charger - ASRock SmartView - ASRock XFast USB - ASRock XFast LAN - ASRock On/Off Play Technology - Hybrid Booster: - CPU Frequency Stepless Control - ASRock U-COP - Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) - Turbo 50 / Turbo 60 CPU Overclocking - Turbo UCC
Smart Switch	- 1 x Power Switch with LED - 1 x Reset Switch with LED - 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Support CD	- Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, AMD Fusion, AMD Fusion Media Explorer, ASRock Software Suite (CyberLink DVD Suite - OEM and Trial)
Accessories	- 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card - Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield - 6 x SATA Data Cables (optional) - 2 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables (optional) - 1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable (optional) - 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel - 4 x HDD Screws - 6 x Chassis Screws - 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket
Hardware Monitor	- CPU Temperature Sensing - Chassis Temperature Sensing - CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Tachometer - CPU Quiet Fan - CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control - Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore
Form Factor	- ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm - All Solid Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors)
OS	- Microsoft® Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista™ / Vista™ 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit compliant
Certifications	- FCC, CE, WHQL - ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

Let's take a look at the package and accessories.

Package and Accessories

The Fatal1ty 990FX Professional is very similar to what we saw in both Intel’s P67 and Z68 motherboards, coming in an aptly-coloured red-and-black box, with an image of Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel on the front. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last couple of years, he's probably the best known professional gamer out there, having managed to market his likeness and attach his name to many "gaming-oriented" products on the market. The Fatal1ty brand is rather ubiquitious in gaming circles and component hardware. In any event, ASRock has teamed up with Wendel to produce this themed motherboard, one of many products in a long line of Fatal1ty gear. The features mentioned here instead focus heavily toward the enthusiast, including detailed information about socket AM3+, 8 core CPU and X Fast LAN. The rear of the box shows an in depth look and the Fatal1ty with all the features and specifications. The Fatal1ty 990FX Professional also gets extra visual flair with a front opening flap to describe more features, along with a clear plastic window that gives a nice view of the board itself. Inside this outer box are two individual boxes, one housing the board and the other containing the accessories. There's also information that tells the Johnny "Fatal1ty" story and shows main gamer features such as Digital PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), V12 +6 Power Phase, Fatal1ty Mouse Port, six USB 3.0 ports(front and back), 3-way Crossfire/SLI, and Japanese Premium Gold Caps. The accessories package is similar to what we usually see from ASRock for their premium products. Included is the Installation Guide, Software installation guide(UEFI BIOS guide), driver disk, SLI bridge, colour-coded I/O shield, IDE and SATA cables, Molex-to-SATA power cables, and a USB 3.0 front panel connector. Very handy, very nice inclusion here by ASRock. Board Layout Upon removing the motherboard from the box, we see the design again continues the black-and-red syting which is the signature hallmark of Fatal1ty-branded products. However, we wouldn't be shocked if you mistook this board as an ASUS Republic of Gamer product which features the same colour scheme. A quick overview of the Fatal1ty Professional reveals the layout is very tidy. Fan headers are laid out very well, covering every major board area and are grouped together in strategic places. The battery will be blocked by a dual slot graphics card though. The Fatal1ty Professional has Digital PWM Design, Advanced V12 + 2 Power Phase with Design Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors for maximum stability. Further, passive cooling by means of dual heatsinks and a continuous heatpipe is also included. Off the corner of the upper CPU area is the 8-pin CPU power connector, nicely positioned directly at the edge of the board to avoid cable management problems. Starting with the memory slots alternating red and black, we see the 24 pin power connector laid out with no IDE header. IDE has pretty much gone by the wayside and we do not disagree with ASRock on the elimination. We also see front USB 3.0 headers which many "Hardcore" users crave for front panel USB 3.0 connectivity. Moving to the lower half the board, the Fatal1ty Professional features a total of six SATA 6G ports for today’s ultra fast solid state drives. All the ports are angled perpendicular to the board, thus avoiding any conflicts with long graphics cards and making tidy cable management much easier. At the bottom right corner of the board is an LED readout display and Power/Reset buttons. There are also two more fan headers in the lower right corner of the board, well placed for full tower cases. Note the surrounding fan headers have PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). PWM allows the motherboard to automatically control the fan speeds as the system calls for more or less cooling. The PWM feature can be also manually controlled through the bios or ASRock's exclusive software. Aesthetically, the Southbridge heatsink is bad ass lookingl with the Fatal1ty logo prominently displayed. Moving to the expansion slots, the Fatal1ty Professional features three PCI-E 2.0, 2 slots running in x16 configuration with the bottom slot in x4. If running a 3-way setup then you're stuck with x 4 setup in the last slot leaving high-end users out in the cold as far as peak performance goes. This is surprising for a high end gaming board for those who want to run three cards in tri-fire or SLI. There's double spacing between the top two graphics card slots, allowing for improved airflow between the cards if you go with a Crossfire or SLI setup. There are also two PCI-E x1 and two legacy PCI slot. The top x1 slot is fully accessible due to the low profile heatsink. Finally we see an impressive array of rear I/O ports. PS/2 Mouse Port, PS/2 Keyboard Port, Coaxial SPDIF Out Port, Optical SPDIF Out Port, five Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports, Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0), two Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports, two eSATA3 Connectors, two RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED), IEEE 1394 Port, Clear CMOS Switch with LED, HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone. Looks like a gamers paradise to us.

source:http://www.pureoverclock.com