Introduction
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ASRock has released eight motherboard models for the new socket LGA2011 platform, heavily betting that this platform will become more mainstream after Intel releases cheaper LGA2011 processors during this year. This time we will take a look at the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, with four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, six SATA-600 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, and a special USB port with high polling rate for gaming mice.
To better understand the differences between the several socket LGA2011 motherboards released by ASRock, we compiled the table below. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this article, except for the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, which is the suggested price announced by the manufacturer. “Game Blaster” is a PCI Express x1 add-on sound card featuring a Creative Sound Core3D audio chip and a Broadcom networking chip.
| X79 Fatal1ty | X79 Extreme9 | X79 Extreme7 | X79 Extreme6/GB | X79 Extreme6 | X79 Extreme4-M | X79 Extreme4 | X79 Extreme3 | |
| Form Factor | ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX | microATX | ATX | ATX |
| Memory Sockets | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| PCI Express x16 | 4 (x16/x8/x16/x0 or x16/x8/x8/x8) | 5 (x16/x0/x16/x0/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8/x8) | 5 (x16/x0/x16/x0/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x8) |
| PCI Express x1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Standard PCI | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| SATA-300 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| SATA-600 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| eSATA-600 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| USB 3.0 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| FireWire | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Gigabit Ethernet | 1 | 1+1 | 2 | 1+1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Audio | ALC898 | Game Blaster | ALC898 | Game Blaster | ALC898 | ALC898 | ALC898 | ALC898 |
| Voltage Regulator | 16+2 | 16+2 | 12+2 | 12+2 | 12+2 | 6+2 | 6+2 | 5+1 |
| Price | USD 280 | USD 345 | USD 260 | USD 280 | USD 250 | USD 219 | USD 215 | USD 215 |
In Figure 1, you see the ASRock X79 Fatal1ty Professional motherboard.
Figure 1: ASRock X79 Fatal1ty Professional motherboard
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