ASRock is readying its second Fatal1ty-branded socket LGA2011 motherboard, the X79 Fatal1ty Champion. The company's first LGA2011 Fatal1ty motherboard is the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, which was launched in February. The new X79 Fatal1ty Champion will be launched on April 27. Those familiar with Creative Sound Blaster Fatal1ty line of sound cards will note Fatal1ty Champion as being a more feature-rich version of Fatal1ty Professional. In this case, the X79 Fatal1ty Champion is based on a completely new PCB, with the design idea of more expansion, and the latest Creative Sound Core3D audio solution.

The X79 Fatal1ty Champion features eight DDR3 DIMM slots (X79 Fatal1ty Professional has four), and a PCIe-only expansion slot layout. The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 12-phase DigiPower VRM, similar to the one on the Professional. The VRM heatsink is assisted by two other secondary heatsinks, to which heat is conveyed by a heat-pipe. One of these is connected to the PCH heatsink. Power is drawn by 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and one 4-pin Molex (angled, optional). The board features consolidated voltage measurement points, which are socketed to hold your multimeter's leads in place. The board will be augmented by a feature-rich UEFI BIOS setup program, and ASRock-exclusive features such as XFastLAN, XFastUSB, and XFastRAM will be included.Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 3.0 x16, two of which are electrical x16-capable, two are x8-capable (grab lanes from the x16-capable slots), one is permanently x8-capable. Two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots make for the rest of the expansion. SATA connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s, and two eSATA 6 Gb/s. There are as many as eight USB 3.0 ports on board. Other connectivity includes two gigabit Ethernet interfaces (driven by Broadcom BCM57781, supports XFastLAN and teaming), Creative Sound Core3D 8+2 channel audio, and FireWire. In Japan it will be priced over 37,980 JPY (US $465), prices in other markets may vary.