ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Detailed

[btarunr]

Here's the first detailed body-shot of ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer, which was teased by the company earlier today, and which could end up being one of the most feature-rich socket AM3+ motherboards, if the end is neigh for AM3+. Designed for gaming PCs with up to two graphics cards, although it features three long x16 slots, the Fatal1ty 990FX Killer is a full-size ATX motherboard. It's design appears to be more gamer-centric than overclocker-centric. It draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, with an optional 4-pin Molex connection to stabilize power to add-on cards; and conditions it for the AM3+ CPU using a 10-phase VRM that's cooled by an heatsink that's independent from that which cools the AMD 990FX northbridge (i.e. no heat-pipe linking the two). The AM3+ CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, which support up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2400 MHz memory; and to the 990FX northbridge over a 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport link.

The AMD 990FX chipset puts out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, the third slot is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and possibly wired to the SB950 southbridge. The southbridge handles five internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, the sixth port is wired out as eSATA. The Fatal1ty 990FX Killer, as teased this morning, is among the first motherboards to feature an M.2 slot, extended out of a PCI-Express link. PCIe SSDs tend to be faster, as more interface bandwith is on tap. As many as six USB 3.0 ports are on offer, of which one switches between header and internal type-1 port (for those tuck-away software license keys) all of which are driven by third-party controllers. Wired networking is care of a Killer E2200 network controller, that's optimized for gaming. The board features 7.1-channel HD audio, with a high SNR CODEC, PCB ground-layer isolation (to prevent electrical noise), and an EMI shield for the CODEC; which ASRock collectively labels "Purity Sound." The board is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS, with full support for Windows 8 Secure Boot.



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[ST.Viper]

Looks rather interesting. Though Im not so sure about durability of that board. Anyone here with a recent experience with ASRock boards?

 

[buildzoid]

Looks rather interesting. Though Im not so sure about durability of that board. Anyone here with a recent experience with ASRock boards?

The boards themselves are good but if you're used to the ASUS UEFI you'll hate the Asrock UEFI

 

[FreedomEclipse]

More 'Fatal1ty' branded junk. Id like to know how much that guy gets in royalties. They relate to him as if hes some sort of ultimate gaming God but hes a complete has-been. I bet most people dunno who he is apart from the name Fatal1ty and his face on the box

 

[ST.Viper]

Good to know that as all of my motherboards in past 8+ years were Gigabyte or Asus.

 

[Kärlekstrollet]

Asrock isn't junk or anything related to junk....and keeps reeling in awards from various review sites.

However, Asrock did miss the news of AM3+ being an inactive platform. Good effort though.

 

[EpicShweetness]

However, Asrock did miss the news of AM3+ being an inactive platform. Good effort though.

I was going to say, AM3+ is a dead socket, but it does harbingers the most powerful AMD CPU's for the time being.

 

[Ravenas]

Given that ASRock is investing money in building a high end mobo for AMD technology this late in the game... I wonder if this gives a hint that AMD will be sticking with AM3+ for a little while longer. I love the AM3+ socket and furthermore the backwards compatibility that AMD chooses to provide its users regarding sockets. I'm deeply invested so I would rather not move on to another socket just yet.

 

[Casecutter]

Have had good result with two different ASrock boards they get the job done moderate+ OC'r at a great price.

This never said it can run one of the 220W FX-9590, I if can't what's the use to offer it now?
(edit found it finally in the manual... Supports up CPU's up to 140W)

While AM3+ socket builds are fading I want to imagine AMD will keep such CPU’s in the market well into 2015. I also believe (hope) while not doing any new earth-shattering engineering advancements, we might see a couple of new SKU’s still. Perhaps just some slightly higher Turbo clock parts, while holding at 125W (130W?) . Or, a 6 core that is value priced (OEM non-boxed cooler) that's re-arranged in clocks/L3, something that’s like 3.4GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) part while holding to 100W. A part that could keep most AM3 boards on older lower-end Phenom’s a "sendoff" upgrade. They would sell a ton I'd bet-ya... alas this is just wishful thinking.

 

[Jorge]

This just looks like sort of an updated version of the original 990FX Fatality AM3+ mobo but with some cost cutting. As far as Asrock mobos are concerned the top of the line models are IME every bit as good if not better than Asus and Gigabyte as I'm using them all.

Gigabyte's AM3+ models have had VRM issues for years and could not run an 8-core FX CPU without VRM overheating when under heavy loads. The newer "XFA" models with revised VRM circuits are the only Giga mobos that I would recommend for the 8-core FX CPUs.

Asrock has upped their game significantly in recent years and offers a better product at a better price with significantly better customer support..

The original 990FX Fatality mobo IS approved to run the FX-9000 series CPUs as is the Extreme9 model.

 

[NeoXF]

Uhm... they've also announced a A88X Killer version, a Socket 1150 B85 and another board, so 4... it's not that they've just now rediscovered AM3+.

But anyway, ish MSI would release a "Gaming" series board for FM2+, or even better, ASUS a ROG one...

 

[buildzoid]

Uhm... they've also announced a A88X Killer version, a Socket 1150 B85 and another board, so 4... it's not that they've just now rediscovered AM3+.

But anyway, ish MSI would release a "Gaming" series board for FM2+, or even better, ASUS a ROG one...

ROG FM2+ Impact would be really awesome you'd only need a CPU mobo and a cooler and you'd have a gaming capable PC.

 

[Melvis]

I was going to say, AM3+ is a dead socket, but it does harbingers the most powerful AMD CPU's for the time being.

Link? As even AMD said them selves that there still bring FX CPU's all through 2014 into 2015, so the socket is far from dead. Road maps change all the time, who knows what we will get for this socket by the end of 2014, any idea?

 

[EpicShweetness]

Link? As even AMD said them selves that there still bring FX CPU's all through 2014 into 2015, so the socket is far from dead. Road maps change all the time, who knows what we will get for this socket by the end of 2014, any idea?

Based on the assumption that the current roadmap displays little or no information for the FX or the socket AMx(+). The latest one just let the current line run till their relevance ran out. I see your point however, so time will tell then hmm.

 

[techtard]

Nice looking board. Weird how Fatal1ty is still pulling in these sponsorships and branded products. I can't even remember the last time I heard of him as being relevant in the gaming scene.

 

[Castiel]

I always feel that these Fatal1ty boards are missing things. I wished they would just rebrand a high end AsRock Extreme board with Red and Fatal1ty stickers.

 

[eidairaman1]

so is this any better than the 990FX Extreme, 9, 4 or Fatal1ty 990 FX Professional?

 

[d1nky]

so is this any better than the 990FX Extreme, 9, 4 or Fatal1ty 990 FX Professional?

who knows?! its got better sound, less phases but better power connector, pcie power connector, twice as less capacitors, better uefi bios, less sata connectors, cleaner looking...

reviews will only show! it would be nice to be reviewed side by side with the original 990fx fatality, which is just an extreme9

 

[Initialised]

Does anyone know of an 990FX or Intel (Core 2 or later) board with room for three cards with triple slot spacing?

e.g.

16x
-
-
16x
-
-
16x

No prizes for guessing what it'd be used for!

 

[jamesdunn]

More 'Fatal1ty' branded junk. Id like to know how much that guy gets in royalties. They relate to him as if hes some sort of ultimate gaming God but hes a complete has-been. I bet most people dunno who he is apart from the name Fatal1ty and his face on the box

I remember him and got a lot of his products when he was with the ABIT motherboard company.