ASRock FataL1ty X79 Professional Unleashed! See features, specs and price

ASRock has unleashed its latest motherboard for the Intel Sandy Bridge-E Platform, the ASRock FataL1ty X79 Professional motherboard. Reports are saying that Intel runs short on the supply of Intel Core i7-3930K, nevertheless, it did not stop ASRock from unleashing its monster board.

Compared to its predecessors, the ASRock FataL1ty X79 Professional is the most feature rich board that targets gamers and PC enthusiasts. Some of these features are the following:

• Digi Power Design, 16 + 2 Power Phase Design
• Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
• Supports Quad Channel DDR3 2600+(OC)
• 4 x PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, supports AMD 4-Way CrossFireX™ , NVIDIA® 4-Way SLI™, Configurable in x16/x8/x16 or x16/x8/x8/x8 mode
• 8 x USB 3.0 (4 Front, 4 Back), 6 x SATA3, 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0)
• Dr. Debug, Smart Swith Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
• 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™
• Supports Fatal1ty F-Stream, Graphical UEFI, UEFI System Browser, APP Charger, SmartView
• Supports Fatal1ty XFast USB, XFast RAM, XFast LAN, XFast Charger
• Comes with a Free Bundle of 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel, CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, MAGIX Multimedia Suite

ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional Specifications

CPU Supported	– Supports Intel® Core™ i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 Socket – Digi Power Design – 16 + 2 Power Phase Design – Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology – Supports Hyper-Threading Technology – Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
Chipset	– Intel® X79
Memory	– Quad Channel DDR3 memory technology – 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots – Supports DDR3 2600+(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory – Supports DDR3 ECC, un-buffered memory with Intel® Workstation 1S Xeon® processors E5 16xx/26xx/46xx series in socket LGA 2011 – Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB* – Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2
BIOS	– 64Mb 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, VCCSA, DRAM, VTT, CPU PLL, PCH1.1V, PCH1.5V Voltage Multi-adjustment
Audio	– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 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 PXE
Slots	– 4 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE1/PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE5: x16/8/16/0 mode or x16/8/8/8 mode) – 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot – 2 x PCI slots – Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ , 4-Way CrossFireX™ , 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™ – Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ , 4-Way SLI™ , 3-Way SLI™ and SLI™
SATA3	– 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® X79, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions – 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Marvell SE9172, support RAID (RAID 0 and RAID 1), NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions
USB 3.0	– 4 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by TI®, 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 TI®, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
Connector	– 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions – 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors – 1 x IR header – 1 x CIR header – 1 x COM port header – 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header – 1 x IEEE 1394 header – 1 x Power LED header – CPU/Chassis/Power connectors – 24 pin ATX power connector – 8 pin 12V power connector – SLI/XFire power connector – Front panel audio connector – 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports) – 2 x USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports) – 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
Rear Panel I/O	– 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 eSATA3 Connectors – 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports – 1 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
Unique Feature	– F-Stream – ASRock Instant Boot – ASRock Instant Flash – ASRock APP Charger – ASRock SmartView – ASRock XFast USB – ASRock XFast LAN – ASRock XFast Charger – ASRock XFast RAM – ASRock Crashless BIOS – Hybrid Booster: – CPU Frequency Stepless Control – ASRock U-COP – Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) – Good Night LED
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, ASRock Software Suite (ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite – OEM)
Accessories	– 2 x ASRock SLI_Bridge Cards – 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_3S Card – 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI Bridge 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 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/Chassis Quiet Fan (Allow Chassis Fan Speed Auto-Adjust by CPU Temperature) – CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control – Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore
Form Factor	– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm – Premium Gold Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors)
Operating System Supported	– 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)

As you can see, the specs of the Fatal1ty X79 Professional is quite good, and it looks good too. But the problem here is probably its price. According to reports, the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional is priced at around $330-$350 USD.

Is it worth investing on Intel Sandy Bridge-E platforms (just like the time when LGA1366 was around) since Ivy Bridge is about to come out soon? In the end it’s a matter of personal preference and the capacity of one person to spend on his PC hardware.