ASRock Readies Z68 Fatal1ty Motherboard with PCI-Express 3.0 Slots

[btarunr]

ASRock gave its premium LGA1155 motherboard lineup a boost with the new Z68 Fatal1ty. Apart from being a Z68 chipset based motherboard modeled along the lines of its predecessor, the ASRock P67 Fatal1ty, the new motherboard features PCI-Express 3.0 graphics slots, that work on Sandy Bridge and future Ivy Bridge processors. The new third generation PCI-E interconnect can drive 1 GB/s of data per link, per direction. You'll need PCI-E 3.0 compliant add-on cards to make use of that bandwidth, current graphics cards will run at Gen. 2 speeds. One advantage here could be that AMD Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 series single-GPU graphics cards will run on Gen 2.1 mode, which has slightly higher bandwidth at its disposal thanks to its lower-overhead data coding scheme.

The ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty is designed for both gamers and overclockers, using high-grade components. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 18-phase VRM, wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz (Ivy Bridge IMC's optimal memory speed). Featuring Intel Flexible Display Interface (FDI), the board allows you to use the integrated graphics. With the Lucid Virtu technology, you can switch between the integrated graphics, and discrete graphics cards. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x8/x8 when both are populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to Z68 PCH), and two each of PCI-E 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI.



Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four internal 3 Gb/s ports, two eSATA 3 Gb/s, E-IDE and FDD. It supports the Intel Smart Response SSD-caching technology Other connectivity includes four USB 3.0 ports (two internal), 8-channel HD audio, two low-latency/high-polling USB 2.0 ports optimized for gaming mice, dual gigabit Ethernet, and display connectivity that includes D-Sub and HDMI.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[thiskar]

ide and floppy, some just never give up

 

[W1zzard]

i think you also need a pcie 3.0 supporting processor?

 

[arnoo1]

Do those amd cards get higher frames when plugging it in a pci-e 3.0 slot??

 

[W1zzard]

Do those amd cards get higher frames when plugging it in a pci-e 3.0 slot??

assuming those cards ran in 3.0 mode my educated guess is that fps gains will be well below 1%

with current cards there is nothing to be gained from going 3.0

 

[_JP_]

ide and floppy, some just never give up

2 things: IDE-to-SATA converter and DOS games. It's for a niche-group anyway.

 

[R_1]

Good stuff. If Bulldozer fails... Iwill be all over it.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

high-polling USB 2.0 ports optimized for gaming mice

any higher then 1000Hz polling rate i wonder. otherwise this is just a marketting gimmick

 

[micropage7]

any higher then 1000Hz polling rate i wonder. otherwise this is just a marketting gimmick

yeah thats what we have now. from wake up to sleep.
oh i forgot, this is the way to grab some attention and if they interested they gonna buy it no matter what

 

[arterius2]

I have the P67 version of the Fatal1ty board, I've been through many motherboards, but I have to say this is one of the best mobo I've used.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Even so. I doubt that it makes that much difference at all compared to the usual enthusiast boards.

mouses have such high DPi these days. does having a lower latency usb really make any real world performance improvements?

 

[cheesy999]

ide and floppy, some just never give up

some of us need IDE...

 

[_JP_]

some of us need IDE...

Dual DVD-RW Drives!
Or small IDE HDDs for the pagefile and other stuff for backup.

 

[MilkyWay]

Dual DVD-RW Drives!
Or small IDE HDDs for the pagefile and other stuff for backup.

Whats wrong with the 10 sata ports it has?
Anyone who uses this board likely doesn't still have any IDE devices in use.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Anyone who uses this board likely doesn't still have any IDE devices in use.

and yet 99% of PSUs still come with a floppy drive power plug.

 

[cheesy999]

and yet 99% of PSUs still come with a floppy drive power plug.

Floppy drives, got one of those

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Floppy drives, got one of those

Here.... your gonna need one of these to put that beast out of its misery

 

[cheesy999]

Here.... your gonna need one of these to put that beast out of its misery

Don't do that, its still good for half a photo a disk

 

[arterius2]

ok i'll just put this stupid floppy flame to rest

THE TRUE REASON WHY THEY HAVE FLOPPY?
its because ASROCK is trying to cater to everyone, yes including ones that are behind the times... some people still use XP (in fact close to half the windows users), and to enable AHCI in XP, you need to insert a floppy ACHI driver disk during windows installation, called the F6 pre-install driver:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...duct=Intel®+Rapid+Storage+Technology&lang=eng

 

[Neuromancer]

I dropped optical drives on most of my systems, and have not made a floppy disk in 7 years.

Why have floppy drive style power ports on PSUs? Other devices use that adapter as well.

 

[Frick]

and yet 99% of PSUs still come with a floppy drive power plug.

You can do other things with that you know. ^^

IDE I can understand but not floppy on a motherboard this new.

 

[arterius2]

its just funny people still wondering about the floppy port after i pretty much stated previously why there is a floppy port, some people just don't read thesedays... sigh..

 

[Frick]

its just funny people still wondering about the floppy port after i pretty much stated previously why there is a floppy port, some people just don't read thesedays... sigh..

Well that was not a good enough reason imo.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yeah, you can just install XP in IDE mode, and then change over to AHCI post install. really easy on XP

 

[arterius2]

Well that was not a good enough reason imo.

what's not a good enough reason? no one is forcing you to buy it. and no one is forcing you to use it, its just for the few people who do use it. i have the p67 fatal1ty board, and I do not use the floppy. doesnt get in my way, I don't get in its way, problem sovled, I move on about it and enjoy the pletora of other great features found on this motherboard. it's priced lower than other boards of this range,(and more features) so what is there to complain?