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ASRock aren't often considered as one of the top motherboard manufacturers around but at KitGuru, we think their products are somewhat underrated. We recently looked at their P55 Extreme4 Motherboard which walked away with our most prestigious ‘Must Have' award.
Today we are going to look at the 890GX Extreme4 Motherboard which is their attempt at a high-end AMD motherboard. We look forward to seeing if it performs as well as its Intel counterpart with our Athlon II X4 635 processor.
ASRock 890GX Extreme4 Specifications
| General | |
| CPU | – Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom™ II X6 / X4 / X3 / X2 (except 920 / 940) / Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2 / Sempron processors
– Six-Core CPU Ready – Supports UCC feature (Unlock CPU Core) – Advanced V8 + 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 890GX
– Southbridge: AMD SB850 |
| Memory | – Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
– 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots – Supports DDR3 1866(OC)/1800(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory – Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB* |
| BIOS | – 8Mb AMI Legal BIOS
– 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 | – Integrated AMD Radeon HD 4290 graphics
– DX10.1 class iGPU, Shader Model 4.1 – Max. shared memory 512MB – Built-in 128MB DDR3 1333/1200MHz SidePort Memory – Multi VGA Output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI – Supports HDMI Technology with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 (1080P) – Supports Dual-link DVI with max. resolution up to 2560×1600 @ 75Hz – Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 2048×1536 @ 85Hz – Supports HDCP function with DVI and HDMI ports – Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI and HDMI ports |
| Audio | – 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray audio support – Supports THX TruStudio Pro™ |
| LAN | – PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Realtek RTL8111E – Supports Wake-On-LAN – Supports LAN Cable Detection – Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az |
| Expansion / Connectivity | |
| Slots | – 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE3: single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode; PCIE4: x4 mode)
– 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot – 3 x PCI slots – Supports ATI™ Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™, CrossFireX™ and Hybrid CrossFireX™ |
| SATA3 | – 5 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and RAID 5), NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions |
| USB 3.0 | – 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by NEC UPD720200, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
– 1 x Front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) by NEC UPD720200, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s |
| Connector | – 5 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 – 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports) – 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) – 1 x Dr. Debug (7-Segment Debug LED) |
| Rear Panel I/O | I/O Panel
– 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port – 1 x VGA/D-Sub Port – 1 x VGA/DVI-D Port – 1 x HDMI Port – 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port – 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports – 1 x eSATA3 Connector – 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports – 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) – 1 x IEEE 1394 Port – 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED – HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| Other Features / Miscellaneous | |
| Unique Feature | – ASRock OC Tuner
– Intelligent Energy Saver – Instant Boot – ASRock Instant Flash – ASRock OC DNA – ASRock AIWI – ASRock APP Charger – CPU Frequency Stepless Control – ASRock U-COP – Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) – Turbo 25 / Turbo 30 GPU 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), AMD OverDrive™ Utility, AMD Live! Explorer, AMD Fusion, ASRock Software Suite (CyberLink DVD Suite – OEM and Trial) |
| Accessories | – Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables (optional) – 2 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables (optional) – 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel – 6 x Screws |
| 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) |
Seems like a good board again from asrock. they dont have a wonderful name, but their latest products look to be a higher standard than earlier ones.
Doesnt seem to have any major flaws. PCB design looks good.
solid buy, not an asus or MSI product, but they are getting there 🙂
ASrock deliver these at good price points.
no point reviewing these things, you cant buy them anywhere, only in america. waste of time.
Very nice board, seems very good buy
id never buy an asrock board. they are cheap make.
This seems to be a good all round product with support for everything like USB 3 and sata 6gbps. only issue I have with asrock is availabiltiy which means ive never been able to try one.
My friend had an asrock board and it was pretty good, he bought it cause of local pricing here. its very good.
what is memory support like, I read a thread a while ago about a reviewer who couldnt get his memory to work with the board until they updated the bios
seems good to me guys thanks 🙂 ill order one later
Its a long way to find one of these. whats the memory support like, DDR3 up to what?