ASRock unveiled its latest socket LGA2011v3 motherboard for Core i7 "Haswell-E" processors, the X99M-Killer USB 3.1. Characterized by its micro-ATX form-factor and two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports, the board offers a pretty tight feature-set. To begin with, the board draws power from 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and an optional 4-pin Molex. A 12-phase VRM conditions it for the CPU, which is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting quad-channel memory. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 wired to the CPU, and one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), wired to the PCH.

Storage connectivity on the X99M-Killer USB 3.1 include ten SATA 6 Gb/s, from which two turn into SATA-Express 10 Gb/s, an eSATA 6 Gb/s, and one Ultra M.2 (PCI-Express 3.0 x4 physical-layer). Modern connectivity includes ASRock's Purity Sound 2 onboard audio solution, featuring a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, audio-grade capacitors, a headphones amplifier, and ground-layer isolation on the PCB; two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, one driven by a Killer E2205, and another by Intel i218-V controller; two USB 3.1 ports (type-A connectors), six USB 3.0 (four on the rear panel, two by header), and a pair of low-latency, power-stabilized USB 2.0 ports, meant for gaming mice or keyboards. Also featured is dual-BIOS, with manual switching between two physical EEPROMs. ASRock didn't announce pricing or availability.

In addition to the high bang-for-buck Fatal1ty 970 Performance, ASRock announced one of the very few AMD 9-series chipset based socket AM3+ motherboards in the micro-ATX form-factor, the 970M Pro3. Based on the AMD 970 chipset, and built to be priced well under $99, the 970M Pro3 supports AMD FX processors with TDP of up to 125W (that excludes FX-9000 series). Drawing power from a 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS, the board offers a 5-phase CPU VRM. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 2.0 x16, one PCIe 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the southbridge), and one each of PCIe 2.0 x1 and legacy PCI. Storage connectivity on the 970M Pro3 includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. 6-channel HD audio with ELNA capacitors, gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 3.0 ports (two on the rear panel, two by header), make for the rest of its modern connectivity. The board is driven by UEFI BIOS.

ASRock unveiled its newest socket AM3+ motherboard for gamers with on a budget, the Fatal1ty 970 Performance. Based on the AMD 970 chipset with SB950 southbridge, this board offers a slick feature-set for its potentially two-figure price. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. An optional 4-pin Molex power connector is required, if you have two cards that rely solely on the expansion slot power. The board features a 10-phase CPU VRM, and supports 220W TDP chips such as the FX-9370 and FX-9590.

Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both are populated), a third PCI-Express 2.0 x16, which is electrical x4 and wired to the southbridge, a legacy PCI, and two PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slots. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and an M.2 slot (electrical PCIe 2.0 x4). Other modern connectivity includes six USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, two by headers), an electrically-reinforced Fatal1ty Mouse port, ASRock Purity Sound 2 on-board audio with a 115 dBA SNR CODEC, audio-grade electrolytic capacitors, headphones amp, and ground-layer isolation, and gigabit Ethernet (Realtek-made controller). The board is driven by UEFI BIOS, and supports Windows 8.1 features such as Secure Boot and Fast Boot. Expect this board to be priced at $99.

Tired of that same old boring computing rig that has been sitting lifelessly on the desk? Well, a system upgrade might not be a bad idea right now, especially when Intel is releasing their latest 5th Gen Intel Core Processors. Besides, if you already own an ASRock Z97 or H97 chipset motherboard by any chance, then they're actually ready to support these new processors by a fast and painless BIOS upgrade through the ASRock APP Shop software.

The most noticeable differences between the 4th and 5th generation is that the 5th generation Intel Core processors provide superior performance with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. Moreover, these new processors offer enhanced integrated Intel HD Graphics for stunning visuals and significantly better 3D performance. No matter whether your plan is to play 4K Ultra HD videos or simply just to run the latest games, these 5th generation Intel Core processors are going to bring your screen to life!

The global leading motherboard brand ASRock will be debuting the latest SuperSpeed+ USB 3.1 motherboards at CeBIT 2015 Hall 15 Booth D21. With the USB 3.1 specification announced last summer, USB 3.1 featured devices will definitely be in the spotlight at CeBIT 2015.

Besides Type-A Super Speed+ USB 3.1 which is backwards compatible with former USB 3.0/2.0/1.1 ports, ASRock motherboards are also going to be the first in the world to carry Type-C USB 3.1 ports that will support next generation mobile devices. Now, all types of USB 3.1 grants up to 10Gb/s data rates, however only this Type-C interface has a reversible design, so that connectors may fit either way. Moreover, compared to USB 3.0 which only allows 0.9 ampere charging, Type-C USB 3.1 supports up to 3.0 ampere fast device charging, and its durability has been enhanced to withstand over ten thousand plugs and removals. Selected ASRock Z97 chipset motherboards will support both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports.

ASRock achieved the impossible, by innovating the world's first socket LGA2011v3 motherboard in the mini-ITX form-factor, letting you give your mini-ITX build the muscle of an eight-core Intel Core i7-5960X processor, with DDR4 memory. The new X99E-ITX/ac from ASRock is a standard mini-ITX motherboard, with a bulk of its precious PCB real-estate occupied by the large LGA2011v3 CPU socket. This socket features an unconventional cooler mount, which is comparable to the 2088-pin socket found on "Haswell-EP" system boards. ASRock has included an copper heat pipe-fed aluminium fin heatsink with this board, although its ability to cool a 140W TDP chip looks suspect.

A major sacrifice ASRock had to make, to achieve this contraption, is halve the memory bandwidth. Due to space limitations, the board features only two DDR4 DIMM slots, and will support only dual-channel memory, even as the platform supports quad-channel memory. Storage connectivity includes one Ultra M.2 (PCIe gen 3.0 x4 physical layer), one 10 Gb/s SATA-Express, an eSATA 6 Gb/s on the rear panel, and four other SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Expansion slots include one PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and one mPCIe 3.0 x1, holding the board's included 802.11 ac WLAN + Bluetooth 4.0 card. Two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, both driven by Intel-made controllers, a 2-port USB 3.1 controller (type-A ports), four other USB 3.0 ports, and an 8-channel HD audio make for the rest of it. ASRock didn't announce pricing or availability.

ASRock announced its latest high-end socket LGA2011v3 motherboard for enthusiast PC/workstation builds, the X99 WS-E. Built in the EATX form-factor, this board is driven by Intel X99 Express chipset, and can run the company's Core i7 "Haswell-E" HEDT, and Xeon E5-2600 series "Haswell-EP" processors, out of the box. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX, an 8-pin EPS, and two optional 4-pin Molex connectors. It offers a 12-phase CPU VRM, and a 4-phase memory VRM. The CPU socket is wired to eight DDR4 DIMM slots, which can seat up to 128 GB of quad-channel memory.

Expansion slots include seven PCI-Express 3.0 x16. The board features two PLX PEX-8747 bridge chips, which take in two x16 links from the CPU, and turn them into a total of four Gen 3.0 x16 slots that run at x16 bandwidth all the time. A third PCIe 3.0 x8 slot from the CPU is directly wired out. Both these PEX-8747 chips have bypass slots, so if you have just two VGA cards and want direct paths between them and the CPU, you can have it your way. Storage includes a total of 10 SATA 6 Gb/s ports driven by the PCH, from which two convert to a single SATA-Express connector, two additional 6 Gb/s ports from a Marvell-made controller, and an M.2 (physical PCIe 2.0 x4) slot.

Among other reasons like support for DDR4 memory modules and being invulnerable to water, the ability to break new records constantly is why ASRock's OC Series motherboards are awesome for overclocking. A couple of weeks ago, Nick Shih overclocked an Intel Core i7 5960X (Haswell-E) on ASRock X99 OC Formula to 6620.73 MHz, and now the skilled overclocker John Lam has set another new record by running Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) on the same winning combination to achieve a mind exploding 2950 marks! Moreover, overclocker 8 Pack also broke two more new records on an ASRock's Z97 OC Formula and GeForce GTX 980 - 3DMark06 57742 marks and 3DMark05 75123 marks!

Though there are plentiful Haswell-E X99 platforms out there, sometimes we are simply incapable of being satisfied with what we already have. Faithfully believing that the grass is always greener on the other side, then end up pursuing extremities compulsively. Well, being insatiable is just human. And also the motive to drive ASRock to produce the world's most powerful X99 motherboard - ASRock X99 Extreme11!

Storage Galore: 18 SATA3 (8 SAS-3 12 Gb/s) + 2 Ultra M.2
One thing that you can't possibly miss on this monstrous motherboard is storage connectors! ASRock X99 Extreme11 boasts a total of 18 SATA3 connectors on the side of the motherboard, including 10 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors from Intel X99 and 8 additional SAS-3 12.0 Gb/s connectors by the added LSI SAS 3008 controller chip. Tests at ASRock's lab showed that the data transfer rate could reach an unbelievable 6.1 GB/s when SSDs were connected to the storage ports!

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging trend for the embedded market. Therefore, ASRock's industrial division introduces a compact and slim type of UTX form factor (4.4"x4.6") to help system integrator customers jump on this tremendous bandwagon of opportunities.

The UTX-110 is equipped with the fourth generation Intel Atom E3800 processor family, a system-on-chip (SoC) formerly codenamed "Bay Trail." The new Intel Atom processor E3800 product family brings enhanced stereoscopic 3D capabilities, high-resolution graphics, data integrity, and reliability to meet intelligent system's requirements. These processors are designed for intelligent systems and applications with low power consumption, high performance and fan less operation requirements for various intelligent systems, including IoT gateways, kiosks, vending machines, entry-level POS & ATMs, automotives, retails, medical, security, surveillance, and in-vehicle infotainment.

ASUS is preparing to cut prices of its motherboards by 5-10%, according a Taiwan-based newspaper. The Economic Daily News (translated) reports that the company is preparing these 5-10% retail price-cuts across its lineup, in a bid to compete better with second-best (by volume) Gigabyte, trailed closely by ASRock, and MSI. The paper observes that the cuts could impact Gigabyte's sales in China, making it fall short of its 5.5-6 million units shipped goal, down to 5.4 million, in Q3 2014. Its annual target of 21.5 million could drop to 20 million. ASUS shipped 10.4 million motherboards in the first half (Q1 and Q2) of 2014, and aims to ship 22.1 million units by the year-end.Update (17/09): ASUS stated that it currently does not plan to cut prices of its motherboards.

We have been here before, haven't we? Back in the days when we were used to having X79-chipset based motherboard for building up the supercomputers, and setting up the incredible rig on the face of earth, a brand new chipset motherboard with unassuming power came along and changed everything. It is ASRock's Super Alloy X99 motherboard series. The long-awaited X99 gears based on Haswell-E architecture were born today, including the prestigious Extreme Series, gamers' most wanted Fatal1ty Killer Series and crazy Nick Shih's Overclocking Series.

To identify the flagship motherboards among the three product lines, that would be X99 Extreme6, X99 OC Formula and Fatal1ty X99 Professional. Using out of the world to describe ASRock's top-end motherboards X99 OC Formula and Fatal1ty X99 Professional is actually an understatement. Two motherboards boast a whopping 12 Power Phase Design with 24 Dual-N MOSFETs, which can reach up to an unearthly 1300W support! In addition, two boards are equipped with dual M.2 sockets to satisfy more demands, one Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 slot for experiencing the fastest M.2 performance and one M.2 PCIe Gen2 x4 & SATA3 socket for users who would like to equip dual M.2 devices.

It turns out that the Fatal1ty X99X Killer isn't the only Fatal1ty-branded X99 motherboard ASRock is planning. There's also its bigger sibling designed for high-end gaming PC builds with four graphics cards, the Fatal1ty X99 Professional. The board is based on the same exact PCB as the ASRock X99 OC Formula, and has mostly the same feature-set, barring a few differences. To begin with, its VRM limits aren't as high, so it won't deliver up to 1300W of CPU power. The voltage and clock limits overall are lower. The board trades its pro-overclocker credentials for pro-gamer ones. One of its gigabit Ethernet interfaces is a Killer E2200 gaming NIC. The onboard audio is tuned for higher-impedance headphones on all channels (to drive multi-channel headsets). It also features USB 2.0 ports with higher power output, and voltage stabilizer circuitry, so your USB headsets and other gaming peripherals don't run out of power.

Here are the first pictures of ASRock X99 OC Formula, the Nick Shih-designed socket LGA2011-3 motherboard for professional overclockers. Designed for CPU and memory overclocking, apart from running up to four graphics cards in multi-GPU configs, the board can supply a claimed "1300W" of maximum CPU power, using its 12-phase CPU VRM. Memory is care of a 4-phase VRM. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX, and 4-pin Molex power connectors, to stabilize the various power domains.

The LGA2011-3 socket is wired to eight DDR4 DIMM slots, which can support up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory. The board features BIOS options that can let you crank DRAM frequencies over 4000 MHz. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x16/x8), an mPCIe 2.0 x1 (for WLAN cards), and one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (physical x4). Storage connectivity includes two M.2 slots, from which one is an "Ultra M.2" slot, which is wired to the CPU, and features physical-layer PCI-Express 3.0 x4; and ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The board offers ten USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, four by headers). 8-channel HD audio with audio-grade capacitors and ground-layer isolation; two gigabit Ethernet interfaces, at least one of which is Intel-made, make for the rest of it.

Today ASRock decided to show off yet another (last week it revealed the X99X Killer, X99M Killer and X99 WS) motherboard based on the Intel X99 chipset, the X99 Extreme6. This board, like the X99 WS, has a black and blue color theme and it features support for Haswell-E processors, eight DDR4 memory slots (for up to 128 GB of RAM), ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports and one Ultra (PCIe 3.0 x4) M.2 connector, plus three PCI-Express x16 slots allowing SLI or CrossFire multi-GPU setups.

ASRock's creation also has 7.1 channel Purity Sound 2 audio, dual Gigabit Ethernet (includes one Intel NIC), two USB 2.0 and six USB 3.0 ports on the back panel plus another connector on the PCB near the DDR4 slots, one eSATA connector, and a debug LED. The X99 Extreme6 is expected to be officially launched next week.

Still in a sharing mood, ASRock has now given us a peek at yet another X99-based motherboard it plans to release at the end of this month, the X99M Killer aka the X99X Killer's little brother. As its name suggests, the X99M Killer has a micro ATX form factor but it's still quite feature-packed - three PCIe x16 slots, ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, one Ultra M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4) connector, dual Gigabit Ethernet (Intel and Killer E2200), and Purity Sound 2 7.1-channel audio.

ASRock's X99 board also offers two Fatal1ty mouse ports, four USB 3.0 ports, a debug LED, and even an eSATA connector, but it has to settle for four DDR4 memory slots. No price tag was announced but that should be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

With two more weeks left to the official launch of Haswell-E and the X99 chipset, ASRock decided to reveal another one of its X99-based boards, the 'workstation level' X99 WS. Seen below, the upcoming LGA2011 motherboard makes use of the Super Alloy technology (extra large aluminum alloy heatsinks, premium alloy chokes, dual-stack MOSFET, 12K platinum capacitors) and features eight DDR4 slots allowing up to 128 GB of RAM, ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, one Ultra M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4) connector and no less than six PCIe x16 slots (SLI and CrossFire are supported).

The X99 WS also has dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet, Purity Sound 2 7.1 channel audio, one eSATA port, four USB 3.0 connectors, and a debut LED. Unfortunately ASRock hasn't shared any info regarding the board's price tag.

Corsair, a leader in high-performance PC hardware, today announced the availability of Corsair Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum lines of high-speed DDR4 computer memory. This new generation of memory ushers in a new age of ultrafast computing with optimizations such as increased DRAM bandwidth, higher bus frequencies, lower power usage, and higher reliability.

Corsair Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum DDR4 memory kits are validated with motherboard partners (ASUS, ASRock, EVGA, Gigabyte, and MSI) and use the new XMP 2.0 profile to deliver easy, reliable overclocking performance with the upcoming next-generation Intel X99 platforms and Intel Core i7 processors (codenamed Haswell-E). The Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum memory kits are supplied with a limited lifetime warranty.

Taiwanese company ASRock has this week provided a few press images of its soon-to-be-released X99X Killer motherboard. Based on Intel's X99 chipset, the board offers support for Haswell-E (LGA2011) processors and features eight DDR4 memory slots (for up to 128 GB of RAM), three PCI-Express x16 slots (allowing SLI or CrossFire setups), ten SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, plus one Ultra (PCIe x4-powered) M2 connector.

ASRock's creation also has 7.1-channel Purity Sound 2 audio, dual Gigabit Ethernet (one Intel NIC and one Killer E2200 NIC), two Fatal1ty and six 'regular' USB 3.0 mouse ports, one eSATA connector, plus a debug LED. The X99X Killer is set to become available after August 29th.

ASRock rolled out the H81TM-ITX R2.0 thin mini-ITX motherboard for SFF PCs and AIO desktops. The socket LGA1150 motherboard is based on Intel's entry-level H81 Express chipset, and draws power from an external 2-pin DC power source. It features a 3-phase CPU VRM, a PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot, apart from an mPCIe; two SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots. Connectivity includes DVI and HDMI display outputs; two USB 3.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet, stereo HD audio, and a couple of USB 2.0/1.1 ports.

ASRock unveiled a pair of new motherboards based on Intel's new Pentium J2900 quad-core "Bay Trail" SoC. These include the Q2900-ITX (mini-ITX) and the Q2900M (micro-ATX). Both feature the 10W J2900 chips cooled by a fan-less chunky aluminium heatsink. The J2900 features four cores, nominal clock speeds of 2.40 GHz, with 2.66 GHz Turbo Boost, 2 MB of cache, 688-896 MHz Intel HD Graphics, and a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller.

The Q2900-ITX offers two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots, a single PCI-Express 2.0 x1, a miniPCIe 2.0, two-each of SATA 6 Gb/s and SATA 3 Gb/s ports, four USB 3.0 ports, display outputs that include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI; 8-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet. The Q2900M, on the other hand, features much of the same features, except full-size DIMM slots, an additional PCI-Express 2.0 x16 and PCIe 2.0 x1 slots; and 6-channel HD audio instead of 8-channel.

Even though nothing much about ASRock's next generation Intel X99 series motherboards can be revealed yet, we simply can't restrain ourselves from spilling out the good news that ASRock's X99 Extreme4 is the world's first Intel X99 chipset based motherboard to pass Windows 8.1 hardware certification. So, yeah, users may be ensured that ASRock's X99 Extreme4 will support the latest operating system from Microsoft without any problems, and bear in mind that it's coming to you real soon! Kudos to ASRock again!

Not only focusing on developing the most advanced hardware technology, ASRock also keen on bringing the latest software applications to PC users. ASRock pioneers in Windows 8.1 logo submission, and the company's offerings are the best in the overall market. So, why settle for second best? Be the first to lay your hands on the X99 Series computers with ASRock!

Following the official announcement of Intel Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU at COMPUTEX 2014, today ASRock Inc. unveils Z97 Anniversary (ATX) and Z97M Anniversary (Micro ATX) correspondingly. ASRock also provides "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology along with these two motherboards for the easiest overclocking ever, as users are able to experience better computing performance with only few keystrokes!

Pentium Anniversary Boost
Unlike other manufacturers that only update their BIOS for the new CPU, ASRock makes further efforts and offers "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology exclusively. With Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU installed on Z97 Anniversary or Z97M Anniversary motherboard, turn on your PC and press "P" to enter the selection page and choose the CPU frequency you would like to apply. "Pentium Anniversary Boost" will then automatically overclock the relative components and boost the CPU frequency from 3.2 GHz to a maximum of 4.2 GHz! How easy CPU overclocking can be? Now all it takes are just few keystrokes to boost your Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU!

ASRock Inc., one of global leading motherboard manufacturers keeps breaking new world records! Last week, we just saw two new world records of 7181.23 MHz and 1601 marks in Intel XTU achieved by John Lam, an overclocker from HKEPC OC with ASRock Z97 OC Formula motherboard and Intel Core i7-4770K CPU. Today, the legendary overclocker Nick Shih also has reached an incredible 7003.38 MHz with ASRock Z97 OC Formula and the latest Intel "Devil's Canyon" unlocked 4th Gen Core i7-4790K CPU, ranking the top 1 at HWBOT.org!

ASrock has this week rolled out a new board equipped with Intel's Celeron J1900 (Bay Trail-D) quad-core SoC, a thin Mini-ITX model named Q1900TM-ITX. This mini PC/all-in-one motherboard has a fanless design and features two DDR3/DDR3L memory slots (for up to 16 GB of RAM), dual SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, one PCIe x1 and one mini PCIe slot, Qualcomm Atheros Gigabit Ethernet, one USB 3.0 and three USB 2.0 ports, one LVDS connector, and D-Sub and HDMI video outputs.

ASRock's Q1900TM-ITX can be found on sale for as low as €111.55.