Gigabyte is readying the industry's first socket AM3 motherboard that offers the new connectivity features combo that is turning out to be quite a selling point in itself: USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps. Enter GA-790FXTA-UD5P, a high-end socket AM3 motherboard based on the AMD 790FX + SB750 chipset, that isn't just a revised GA-MA790FXT-UD5P. Apart from the star attractions of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, the board features a redesigned expansion slot layout, among other new features. The socket AM3 motherboard supports AMD Phenom II AM3 and Athlon II series processors with support for dual-channel DDR3 memory.

To begin with, the CPU is powered by a 8+2 phase VRM supporting 140W processors, with a 2 phase VRM powering the four DDR3 DIMM slots. The board supports DDR3-1866 by overclocking, while DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066 are naturally supported. A Precision OV controller provides fine (small step) voltage control for the CPU, memory and chipset voltages. Instead of two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots on the MA-790FXT-UD5P, this board features three PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrical x16, x16, NC, or x16, x8, x8, depending on how they're populated). Each x16 slot as one slot spacing which is occupied by a PCI slot. A lone PCI-E x1 slot heads the pack.The component cooling is similar to its predecessor, heatsinks that are interconnected by a heatpipe, cover the CPU VRM, northbridge, and southbridge. All six SATA 3 Gbps ports the SB750 provides are assigned as internal, while an additional controller (usual suspect being the Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2) provides two internal SATA 6 Gbps ports color-coded white. Another additional controller (suspected to be NEC µPD720200), provides two USB 3.0 ports on the rear-panel. 8-channel audio with optical and co-axial SPDIF outputs, eSATA/USB Combo connectors that eliminate need for additional power input on some eSATA thumb drives, a number of more USB 2.0 ports and two gigabit Ethernet connections make for the rest of the rear-panel. Gigabyte is planning more models that feature USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps, namely GA-790XTA-UD4, and GA-770TA-UD3.