ASRock X58 Extreme 3 Motherboard

   Intel continues its multiple chipset strategy for separation of their highest end CPUs and their more mainstream and value CPUs. They have two Sockets on the market, Socket LGA-1366 for the high end CPUs (9xx series) and LGA-1156 for the mainstream and value (8xx, 7xx, 6xx) CPUs. This has the advantage to Intel of requiring the user to buy a more expensive chipset to use the more expensive CPU.

    

















   ASRock is a spin-off of ASUS and has been known in the past for their special features on some of their motherboards. They were one of the first motherboard manufacturers to embrace the SATA 6 Gb/second protocol and USB 3.0 interface. Today, ASRock is on the forefront of technology again being the first to offer external SATA ports on the motherboard based upon the SATA 6 Gb/second interface. Today’s review is on ASRock’s latest motherboard to use the x58 chipset the ASRock X58 Extreme3. 

Features:

• True 333
• X58 Northbridge
• ICH10R Southbridge
• Gulftown CPU (980X) support
• ASRock DuraCaps
• V8 Power Phase Design
• Triple Channel DDR3-2000 support
• Support ATI CrossfireX and Quad CrossfireX
• Support NVIDIA Quad SLI and SLI
• 1 Powered ESATAIII/USB connector
• ErP/EUP Ready, Dr Debug
• Smart Switch Design
• Supports ASRock Instant Boot, Instant Flash, OC DNA, Multi-Speed Fan Control, OC Tuner, IES, Good Night LED
• 7.1 CH HD Audio
• Combo Cooler Option (CCO)
• CyberLink DVD Suite: OEM and Trial, Creative Sound Blaster X-FI MB Trial  

Manufacturer	ASRock
Chipset	X58
North Bridge	Intel X58
Socket	LGA1366 Socket
Memory speed	2000 (OC)/1866 (OC)/1600 (OC)/1333 (OC)/1066
Processor Types	Core i7
Number of CPUs	1
QPI	Up to 6.4GT/second
Memory Type	DDR3
Memory Channels	Triple
Maximum Memory	24GB
External Graphics	PCI Express x16 x3
IGP	N/A
South Bridge	ICH10R
Audio	8-channel
IDE	133/100/66
SCSI	None
SATA	6.0 GB/s
RAID	0, 1, 0+1, 5, 10
LAN	10/100/1000 4 LAN Ports
Firewire	IEEE 1394a
USB	USB 3.0
BIOS	8MB AMI Legal BIOS

  The ASRock Extreme3 motherboard is based upon the Intel X58 chipset launched in 2008 by Intel along with their Core i7 CPUs. This chipset was the first on the market to support both ATI’s Crossfire and NVIDIA’s SLI multiple GPU solutions. This was also the first motherboard chipset on the consumer side to support triple channel DDR3 memory. 

   ASRock calls their innovative features True 333. SATA 6 Gb/second is now a standard among many motherboards being released today with every motherboard having at least two of these ports. The issue with the X58 chipset is the chipset was released far earlier than the SATA 6 Gb/second ports appeared on a motherboard and drives appeared on the market. 

   The reason they declare it True 333 is due to the fact that on the P55 Express, H55, and H57 platforms the PCI Express lanes available is limited to 24 PCIE lanes with 16 lanes for the graphics portion of the motherboard and 8 for PCI Express slots and other uses. As the introduction of SATA 6 Gb/second and USB 3.0 required 5 Gb/second of bandwidth that means that each set of two ports requires an x2 connection each way or x4 connection total and would operate in normal mode when CrossfireX or SLI was activated. The X58 chipset has plenty of PCI Express lanes (36) meaning that this is not a problem.

   ASRock delivered the first SATA 6 Gb/second solution on the market with their add-on cards included on some of their motherboard bundles. Today, they have moved to including SATA 6 Gb/second on their motherboards, in this instance with a Marvell SE9128 controller. USB 3.0 is the second tier of the True 333 concept with 2 USB 3.0 ports controlled by a NEC MPD 720200. The third leg of the triad is an external SATA 6 Gb/second connector.

    Instant Boot is ASRock’s implementation of using the S3 and S4 Suspend and Sleep modes depending on the hardware configuration. With Instant Boot, this boot time is cut into a few seconds giving a 10x speed up in the boot process over traditional boot times. There are two modes Fast Instant Boot and Regular Instant Boot. Fast Instant Boot time is a few seconds Regular IB time is around 20-22 seconds.

   

   The X58 Extreme3 motherboard supports Intel’s LGA-1366 CPUs including the latest Core i7-980X Gulftown 6-core CPU and the various Xeon 55xx series CPUs. The memory controller is on the CPU itself, meaning the Core i7-980X brings support for DDR3-1066MHz natively. The board supports DDR3 memory up to 2000MHz but requires overclocking to support the higher clocked memory. The X58 Extreme3 motherboard has six DIMM slots, allowing for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory and Triple channel memory, but note that if you want the higher clocked memory using Intel’s XMP Profiles only one DIMM per channel is supported.

 

   ASRock uses a standard ATX layout for their Extreme3 motherboard. The color scheme they have decided to go with is black with the upper right hand corner having the 8-pin power connector. Next to the 8-pin power connector is something different, a heatsink/fan/heatpipe combination covering the MOSFETs.

   A heatpipe leads out into the heatsink for the X58 chipset, keeping both the MOSFETS and X58 Express chipset cool in operation. The two heatsinks surround the CPU Socket which can take all of the released Core i7 LGA-1366 CPUs on the market including the Core i7-980X Gulftown CPU recently released. The heatsink/fan assembly is far enough away from the CPU Socket to allow after-market CPU coolers.

   One special feature of this motherboard is the Combo Cooler Option (CCO). Normally, LGA-1366 CPU coolers are much larger than the equivalent LGA-1156 cooler, with different pin holes. ASRock has implemented two sets of holes for the CPU cooler, one for LGA-1156 coolers and the other for LGA-1366 CPU coolers. This flexibility allows for the use of smaller, less expensive coolers than the LGA-1366 Socket normally requires.

    To the left of the CPU cooler are the PowerFan and ChassisFan headers. The CPUFan header is next to the MOSFET. Below the CPU Socket are six DIMM Sockets for up to 24GB of DDR3 memory. The Core i7 980X CPU natively supports DDR3-1066MHz, with higher frequencies supported under Intel XMP memory profiles. Note again that if you are using XMP one DIMM per channel can be populated per Intel policies. 

   The 24-pin power connector is on the bottom right hand corner of the board. The Front Panel I/O is next. This is an interesting position as normally this is located on the far left side of the motherboard. The next item is a USB header. To the left of the USB header is an IDE connector. That’s right, an IDE connector. With every motherboard having SATA ports and DVDs and Blu-ray drives coming in SATA this is a good add-on for those wanting legacy support.

The next item on the board is the SATA ports. There are six SATA 2.0 ports available controlled by the ICH10R Southbridge. These ports are in the sideways alignment, allowing for long video cards to be installed without interfering with the SATA ports. To the left of the SATA ports are headers for the PowerLED1 and Speaker connections. The left side of the board starts off with a Diagnostic LED to let you know of problem areas on boot. Power and Reset buttons are next followed by the Front Firewire header.

   

   The next item on the left side of the board is a 4-pin Chassis Fan header, followed by the Trusted Program Monitor (TPM), a COM1 port, the Floppy port and the HDMI S/PDIF header. Two SATA 6Gb/s ports are located next to the first PCIE X16 slot. The X58 Extreme3 board has three PCI-E x16 slots for graphics cards. Note the first two slots are at x16 mode with the third slot operating at x4 mode. There are also two PCI slots and a PCI Express x1 slot. The graphics slots supports CrossfireX and Quad CrossfireX as well as SLI and Quad SLI.

  

   Onboard sound is provided by a Via VT2020 Audio CODEC. This supports 7.1 Ch HD Audio with Content protection and has DACs with 110dB dynamic range. Premium Blu-ray audio support is present and the board comes with Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi MB Trial software that allows you to use EAX 3.0 and 4.0 on supported sound solutions. The rear I/O on the board consists of a PS/2 Mouse, a PS/2 Keyboard, a Coaxial S/PDIF Out port, an Optical S/PDIF Out port, 5 Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 ports, 1 Powered ESATAIII/USB2.0 connector, 2 Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports, a RJ45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED), and a Firewire port. There are also the six audio jacks for the onboard audio and a Clear CMOS Switch with LED.