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To test the Fatal1ty 990FX Professional motherboard we are going to use the AMD Phenom X6 1090T Black Edition CPU, combined with the Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler.
Test System
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Cooler: Cooler Master 612S
Memory: 4GB (2x 2GB) Kingston HyperX Genesis 1600MHz
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6950
Power Supply: NZXT Hale90 750W
Optical Drive: Samsung B083L Blu-Ray Drive
Monitors: Viewsonic VX2260WM
Boot Drive: Intel 510 Series 250 GB
Software
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
FRAPS Professional
SiSoft Sandra 2011 SP3
CPUz
GPUz
CPUID Hardware Monitor
Cinebench R11.5 (64-bit)
Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra
Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5
CrystalDiskMark
3DMark 11
PCMark 7
VLC Media Player
Performance Monitor
Games
DiRT 3
F1 2010
Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City
Dead Space 2
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests across five closely matched runs and averages out the results to get an accurate median figure.
Overclocking
First of all we tried the automatic overclocking feature of the motherboard which was reasonably effective. Using this feature we were able to achieve an overclock of 3.8 Ghz but we did have to bump the voltage the motherboard was supplying to the CPU from 1.4V to 1.4375V to ensure complete stability. We managed to get the system to boot using the 4.0Ghz automatic overclock but this proved unstable, even with a bump in voltage to 1.45V.
Then we set about trying to achieve the maximum possible overclock with the system. We had more success when overclocking the CPU using the multiplier rather than the baseclock – the automatic overclock feature only overclocks the baseclock. While this means the memory isn't overclocked, we managed to achieve a much more impressive overclock of 4.2Ghz by raising the multiplier to 21x whilst retaining the baseclock at 200Mhz. We set the CPU voltage to 1.475V for this test.
Next we upped the baseclock to 210 Mhz, leaving the CPU voltage at 1.475V, achieving a clockspeed of 4.3Ghz. While our test system was stable at this speed, we were a little concerned about the CPU temperature at this clockspeed so we chose to peg the system back to 4.1Ghz for our benchmarks using a multiplier of 21x and a baseclock of 200Mhz.
hard to believe that they used to be seen as a ‘budget’ model maker. Great product.
Maybe this has been asked before but some people on a forum I visit say they are actually ASUS, is this right?
Looking forward to bulldozer, but some figures leaked dont look that impress. if they are right.
ill wait until I see some bulldozer reviews before b uying, but this is on my shortlist.
Hi Francis, they used to be Asus’ “sister” company, but made the break some years ago now.
I have a 1090t and ordered this today. if bulldozer is worth the upgrade ill move over !
Excellent again. t hey seem to be on a roll lately with some great products released every week. Im an intel guy, but this is great
The only thing that puts me off this product is having to look at his face in the bios! can that be switched off?
How often do they tend to make bios updates? I had a bad time with my last gigabyte board and thats why I moved ot asus as they are more regular.
Seems to me that ASROCK are really stepping up their game. I currently have two ASROCK boards at home. One of them is about middle of the road and the other is a very budget board running a HTPC. I was very impressed with both boards and they have been running for about 6 months each 24/7 with no problems. Seems to me that both of mine come with pretty cheap looking graphics and UIs but for the feature set vs price you really can’t beat it at all.
You could set a really sh#t clock by AMD CPU releases, intel must be pissing themselves.
I am waiting on parts and will be building a system with the Buldozer and this motherboard. I would be happy to post any info on the results of the build if either Henry Butt or his readers are interested. I chose this Asrock board based on features, reviews and price. So far the board seems to be impressive in all catogories.
I am waiting on parts and will be building a system with the Bulldozer and this motherboard. I would be happy to post any info on the results of the build if either Henry Butt or his readers are interested. I chose this Asrock board based on features, reviews and price. So far the board seems to be impressive in all categories.
Hi Nate,
We would love to hear your views. good luck with the system build!