KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
Since the launch of Intel's Broadwell-E CPU family for the X99 platform KitGuru has seen and tested a of variety refreshed motherboards from ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI. However, no assessment of new X99 motherboards would be complete without examining what ASRock has to offer.
The ASRock motherboard on test today is the Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming i7. As the somewhat-verbose naming convention for this product implies it is part of ASRock's Fatal1ty range, and is simultaneously targeted for gaming and professional users of the X99 platform.
Rather fittingly this ASRock motherboard targets an almost identical price point to many other X99 motherboards we've tested such as the ASUS ROG STRIX X99 Gaming and Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming.
At around £275 in the UK, or $260 in North America, this is an upper-mid-range motherboard for the X99 platform that falls in the middle of ASRock's X99 range, which starts with the X99 Extreme 4 and ends with the flagship X99 Extreme 11.
The Fatal1ty X99 Gaming uses a somewhat predictable red and black “gaming” colour scheme with ASRock's almost-trademark gold-coloured capacitors. Despite RGB being the craze of 2016 ASRock has not implemented any RGB or LED lighting into the design, which may be refreshing to some.
The ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Gaming is more about delivering a significant amount of hardware for a competitive price, than flashy aesthetics.
| ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming i7 | |
| Form Factor |
ATX, 30.5 x 24.4 cm |
| CPU Socket |
LGA 2011-V3, 12 Phase VRM |
| Chipset | Intel X99 |
| Memory | DDR4, 8 DIMMs, up to 3300+ MHz with OC |
| Onboard Graphics |
None |
| Discrete Graphics | Nvidia 3-Way SLI or Quad-SLI, AMD 3-Way CrossFireX or Quad CrossFireX |
| Expansion Slots | 3 x PCIe 3.0 X16 (40 lane CPU: 16X/16X/0X or 16X/8X/8X, 28 lane CPU: 16X/0X/8X or 8X/8X/8X) 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slots |
| Storage | 10 x SATA III 6Gbps 1 x SATA Express (shared with SATA ports 4/5) 2 x M.2 32Gbps |
| USB | 6 x USB 2.0 (2 Rear, 4 Front) 8 x USB 3.0 (4 Rear, 4 Front), 4 Rear ports via ASM1074 2 x USB 3.1 (2 Rear) Type-A and C via ASM1142 |
| Networking | 1 x Intel I218V Gigabit LAN 1 x Intel I211AT Gigabit LAN Intel 802.11ac AC3160 dual-band WiFi & Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Audio | Realtek ALC1150 7.1 Channel with TI NE5532 Headset Amplifier |
| Fan Headers | 5 x 4-pin |
| Rear I/O | – 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port – 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port – 1 x USB 2.0 Port (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 4 x USB 3.0 Ports (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)) – 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) – 1 x Clear CMOS Switch – HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| UEFI | Custom UEFI with Dual BIOS chips |
Any idea of price?
Yes it’s discussed on the final page – around £270 in the UK and $260 in the US.
260 USD isn’t 270 GBP, even after the eu referendum bollocks.
Id more likely expect something like;
260 USD / 220 GBP
320 USD / 270 GBP
Wouldn’t make sense at all for it to be more in GBP than USD.
I know how the currency conversion (plus being British tax) works. But that’s what retailers are selling the board for. It says in the review that ASRock’s pricing is more competitive in North America than it is in the UK.
It’s 324 euros here in Belgium.
This one looks good, but if I was to go with X99 on a budget I would consider their Taichi model.
I do like the looks of Taichi. Even Fatal1ty looking good, Taichi Black and white looks really good.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got my FX990 Killer, it is one solid board with wonderful audio and I really do like the UEFI set up way more than Asus or MSi. My only complaint with mine is the rather terrible northbridge heatsink design, it’s just a stylized block of anodized aluminum with 3 grooves cut in it, I could have gone down to the 970FX board with all better heatsinks, USB 3.1 with a type C port and support for 220watt CPU’s, but I would have given up a far more superior chipset (I run multiple PCIe devices, wireless, a USB 3.1 card and 2 different graphics cards), additional power to PCIe and audio
Really good stuff coming out from them, love their mobos.