A decade ago, updating system BIOS was a cumbersome and risky task that required you to have spare bootable disks and the know-how of flashing from MS-DOS command-line. One wrong command-line argument, and your motherboard is bricked. Then came utilities that flashed BIOS for you, if you specified the updated BIOS ROM image files located on a floppy. As these image files grew in file-size these utilities added support for bigger media, such as USB flash drives. ASRock's latest innovation could see you getting rid of storage media holding BIOS images.

ASRock has developed an update to its UEFI BIOS program that lets it update itself from the web. All you have to do is point it to a working internet connection that uses the motherboard's onboard Ethernet controller. Once configured, the utility calls home to ASRock, checks if a newer version of the BIOS is available, downloads it, and updates itself, with minimal user-intervention. The feature cuts down time spent in finding the right BIOS ROM image online, and copying it to a USB flash drive. Unlike Intel's Express BIOS Update program, it does not need the motherboard to have any storage devices connected. Upcoming ASRock motherboards could ship with the feature, and select current ones could get this feature via a BIOS update.

LucidLogix (Lucid), GPU virtualization software leader, today announced that Virtu and Virtu MVP GPU virtualization product family is now found in more than 100 Intel and AMD motherboard models, setting the standard for improved integrated and discrete GPU utilization, visual quality, power management and system responsiveness.

"High quality products and great service are what Asus products are all about. Virtu MVP adds that value across our line of motherboards, allowing users to enjoy best of both Intel graphics on one hand and on the other, enjoy discrete graphics with sharpest images and highest frame rates with MVP's Virtual Vsync," said Joe Hsieh, Asus Corporate Vice President & General Manager Motherboard Business Unit & Desktop System Business Unit. "We understand the importance of a responsive immersive gaming experience and with Virtu MVP's HyperFormance, we are able to provide that for the majority of popular PC titles."

Although ASRock was bold enough to give its upcoming entry-level FM2A75M-DGS socket FM2 motherboard the SATA 6 Gb/s equipped AMD A75 FCH, the company did not have any motherboards based on the new AMD A85 FCH chipset, on show. It's fair to assume that the company's mid-range ATX motherboard, the FM2A75 Pro4, will be topping up its socket FM2 lineup. Pictured below, the ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 utilizes everything the chipset provides, and adds a few third-party controllers.

The FM2 socket, which supports upcoming AMD "Trinity" APUs, is powered by a 6-phase VRM. There are four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting DDR3-2400+ MHz by overclocking. The socket is also wired to a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot. The second x16 slot is electrical x4, and wired to the A75 FCH. ASRock somehow found it necessary to add three legacy PCI slots, and just two PCI-Express 2.0 x1.

ASRock showed off its new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard for overclocking, the Z77 OC Formula. The new product sits several notches above its Extreme and Fatal1ty series. Its design focus is on CPU overclocking potential, with ASRock cramming in strong VRM circuitry, active-cooling for the CPU VRM area, and a load of overclocker-friendly features, at the expense of connectivity.

The CPU is powered by a 12+4 phase DigiPower VRM that uses high-current chokes, tantalum capacitors, and active cooling to the MOSFETs. The VRM active-cooler packs a coolant channel, as well as a 40 mm fan. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3-3000+ MHz memory, by overclocking. A staggering 8-phase VRM powers the memory, preventing even the slightest voltage droop.

Seeing as how some of the newest socket LGA1155 processors, such as the Core i7-3770K, competes with Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform, and how today's GPUs are beginning to benefit from PCI-Express 3.0 in x8 and x4 configurations, ASRock decided to go beyond its Z77 Fatal1ty Professional, and launched a new Extreme series model, with a focus on features and connectivity. The Z77 Extreme9 from ASRock crams has every square inch of its standard ATX size PCB with features.

To begin with, the Z77 Extreme9 uses a fairly strong 8+4 phase VRM, which is similar to that of the Z77 Extreme6. The CPU VRM MOSFETs are cooled by a fairly big heatsink, which shares its head with a neighbouring heatsink, which cools a PLX PEX8747 PCI-Express 3.0 bridge chip, which takes in the lone PCI-Express 3.0 x16 link from the processor, and drives four of the board's six PCI-Express 3.0 x16 long slots, enabling 3-way and 4-way SLI/CrossFireX capability. The other slots are electrical PCI-Express 2.0, and wired to the Z77 PCH.

World's top 3 motherboard manufacturer ASRock today announced that its entire line of Intel P67, H67 and Z68 series motherboards will support Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs by updating the latest P version BIOS & Drivers! Via an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, ASRock P67, H67 and Z68 series motherboards are resurrected. Users may expect more powerful processing speed yet lower power consumption by the world's first 22 nm 3-D Transistors.

"Besides pursuing extremes with hardcore hardware enthusiasts and die-hard gamers, making high-end technology easy and accessible for everybody is also one of ASRock's goals." commented James Lee, V.P. of Sales and Marketing at ASRock. "We have no doubt that users will be thrilled as much as we are with these updates, it will be like experiencing a brand new motherboard all over again."

CPU overclocking new record releases today! Record-breaking motherboard maker, ASRock Inc., is excited to announce that Intel's new start Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K processor was able to be overclocked to incredible 6.9 GHz with the company's newly released Z77 Extreme6 motherboard. The overclocking-friendly Z77 Extreme6 mobo was designed for optimized performance and built upon top-quality components that are ripe for extreme amounts of overclocking.

New record was created by the World's Legendary Overclocker, Nick Shih, who had been topped the Professional Overclockers League for 18 months straight. With only two-year overclocking experience, Nick Shih is a living legend who holds the world champion title as well as being multiple overclocking world-records keeper which included both 2D and 3D tests.

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.

World's top 3 motherboard manufacturer, ASRock Inc, unveils its latest Intel 7-series motherboard at 2012 Annual Global Tour. The latest 7-Series motherboard supports 2nd and 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 Processors. Featuring unique XFast 555 technology (XFast RAM, XFast LAN, XFast USB), ASRock 7-Series motherboard allows users to experience "REAL" performance boost (up to 5X better) in terms of PC's overall performance, LAN speed and USB transfer speed. ASRock has built up a reputation for building bulletproof mobos with very competitive price tag. In 2012 Global Tour, ASRock will be showcasing the long-awaited motherboards based on Intel 7-series chipsets.

ASUSTek plans to release its holdings in of a 24.5% stake Pegatron Technology, according to a report by Taiwanese business daily Commercial Times. This release is said to occur some time in May, according to the report. ASUS will generate an income of NT$2.8-3.8 billion (US$94.69-128.51 million), or NT$3.7-5 EPS, according to the report. This release will grant Pegatron more autonomy, which holds a sizable share of the notebook contract-manufacturing business, and channel brands such as ASRock.

At CeBIT, ASRock already grabbed a lot of attention with its unveiling of the X79 Extreme11 motherboard. The motherboard was detailed to great lengths then. It appears like the design was still a work-in-progress, and the company has an even newer iteration. Pictured below is this latest iteration. You will notice how ASRock redid the CPU VRM. While the one shown at CeBIT packed a 16-phase VRM, this one steps it up to 24. On the obverse side of the PCB, it squeezed in chokes for all 24-phases, and compact Driver-MOSFET (DrMOS) chips for 12 (probably the other 12 are located on the reverse side of the PCB). The first iteration shown at CeBIT used LFPAK MOSFET design. A DrMOS combines up/down FETs and driver IC into a single, space-efficient package. Companies like Renesas have held interest in innovating with DrMOS chips, even compacting them further. The rest of the board is identical to the one pictured at CeBIT, except that the Creative Sound Core3D chip has the signature plastic cover over it, which can be found on Creative's Sound Core3D discrete sound cards.

ASRock released its 2011 annual financial report, the TSEC-listed company delivered earnings-per-share of NT $11.37. The report states that ASRock shipped 7.8 million motherboards in 2011, that's 13.3% short of its 9 million goal, but the company is still optimistic about meeting its even more ambitious target for 2012, that of 10 million. Currently, Europe is ASRock's biggest market, amounting to 40% of ASRock's consolidated revenues, followed by Asia-Pacific (excl. China), with 30%, and the US with 18%. China amounts to 12% of ASRock's revenues.

World's Top3 motherboard maker, ASRock Inc, presented its multidimensional products at CeBIT 2012, including a wide range of motherboard, HTPC and IPC mobo series. For AMD section, the most shining motherboard would be the A75 Pro4/MVP. This is the first AMD motherboard supporting Lucid Virtu Universal MVP technology in the world. It allows gamers to take advantage of this new technique and enjoy the amazing performance boost from HyperFormance and Virtual Vsync.

March 6th 2012. G.SKILL, the worldwide leading high performance memory designer, has showcased the extreme dual channel memory kits, DDR3 2133 MHz 32 GB (4 x 8 GB), compatible with the latest Z77 motherboards at CeBIT 2012.

Working closely with leading motherboard manufacturers, G.Skill is ready to provide PC enthusiasts the best dual channel memory for the upcoming Z77 motherboards. On the MSI Z77A-GD65 and ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboards, G.Skill has demonstrated the 32 GB super size memory kits at DDR3 2133 MHz ultra high speed with Intel Core i7 2600K processors.

"It's just a warm-up. We are working on some faster memory kits and they will be released soon. It's going to be an exciting time" said Paul Chen, senior R&D manager at G.Skill.

Apart from two of the most notable products from ASRock's booth, the X79 Extreme11 and Z77E-ITX, ASRock unveiled almost every other 7-series chipset motherboard it has in the works. The lineup is diverse, and based on every chipset model Intel will launch in the 7-series.

The Q77M-vPro is designed for commercial desktops that are part of extremely dense local network (such as corporate networks), with an established network hierarchy, and environments that demand greater manageability and data-security. The B75M is based on the Intel B75 chipset, and designed for more mainstream business desktops for small and medium enterprises.

ASRock unveiled a feature-rich mini-ITX socket LGA1155 motherboard based on Intel Z77 chipset, the Z77E-ITX. The board makes good use of its scarce PCB real-estate, with a 6-phase VRM powering the CPU, two DDR3 DIMM slots that support dual-DDR3 2800+ MHz by overclocking, one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 expansion slot, a mini PCIe 2.0 x1 slot (for wireless cards) and lots of connectivity. With storage, there are two SATA 6 Gb/s and two SATA 3 Gb/s internal ports, and one eSATA 3 Gb/s. With display, there's one each of DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. 8-channel HD audio gigabit Ethernet, six USB 3.0 ports (4 back, 2 front), make for the rest of it.

A serious player in the PC motherboard industry, the world's 3rd biggest (in terms of volumes) at that, ASRock is one brand that has accumulated the engineering potential to make anything. It's far from finished with its LGA2011 motherboard lineup, and made sure visitors at its CeBIT booth had their jaws on the floor. Enter, the ASRock X79 Extreme11. This motherboard is designed for not just extremely-overclocked PCs, but battlestations holding their own huge storage arrays. This monster is built in the EATX form-factor.

The LGA2011 socket is powered by a 16+2 phase DigiPower VRM, which draws power from two 8-pin EPS connectors. It is wired to eight DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of quad-channel DDR3 memory with speeds of over DDR3-2400 MHz by overclocking. The memory areas are powered by 4+4 phase VRM. Apart from the 24-pin ATX connector, and the two EPS connectors, the board also draws power from two 4-pin Molex connectors. The board makes use of Japanese-made solid-state capacitors almost throughout.

ASRock is working on not one, but two motherboard models based on the Intel Z77 chipset, under its Fatal1ty Professional series. The first of the lot is a standard-ATX Z77 Fatal1ty Professional, followed by the micro-ATX Z77 Fatal1ty Professional-M. The latter is ASRock's first micro-ATX Fatal1ty motherboard. The ATX Z77 Fatal1ty Professional could go on to be ASRock's flagship Z77 motherboard. The LGA1155 socket is powered by a 20+ phase digital-PWM power circuitry, and memory by a 5-phase VRM, which make this board as much an overclockers' choice as gamers'.

Expansion slots include two each of PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both populated), PCIe 2.0 x1, and legacy PCI; and one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH). There are plenty of SATA ports, including six SATA 6 Gb/s (two from the PCH, four from additional controllers), four internal SATA 3 Gb/s, and eSATA. ASRock seems to have deployed a PCIe bridge chip to yield more PCIe lanes. USB 3.0 connectivity includes two ports via front-panel header, and possibly four ports (if not more) on the rear-panel. Since users of this board will almost certainly be using discrete graphics, display connectivity is reduced to smaller ports (such as HDMI or DisplayPort).

Motherboards based on the Intel Z77 Express chipset are on course for an April 8 launch, even if you won't find compatible 3rd Generation Core processors on shelves, on that day. Here is the first picture of a finished and good-to-go ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboard, which will be the company's flagship board based on the Z77 chipset, in its main product line.

The Z77 Extreme6 comes with the same black and gold styling found on the company's X79 motherboard lineup. The LGA1155 CPU socket is powered by a 12-phase DigiPower VRM. It is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3 memory speeds with over DDR3-2800 MHz speeds by overclocking. Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x8/x8 when both populated), wired to the CPU; one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), wired to the PCH; a PCI-Express 2.0 x1; a mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 (for wireless network cards, etc.); and two legacy PCI slots (pray why?).

The world leading motherboard brand ASRock announced today that it will be exhibiting at the CeBIT 2012 which takes place in Hannover, Germany from March 6th to 10th (Hall 17, Booth C32.) ASRock will launch a full range of the latest motherboard products and the premier home entertaining line of HTPCs, along with the exciting debut of its brand new IPC motherboard series.

ASRock will introduce an array of Intel's new 7-series motherboards, and unveil the brand new Fatal1ty X79 Professional motherboard at CeBIT 2012. Equipped with top-class components, the new ASRock/Fatal1ty X79 Professional is designed to exceed expectations of even the most dedicated gamers. Testing reveals support for up to an incredible DDR3 2624(OC) MHz, the system has very powerful OC capability and is also stable enough to completely run all the Hyper PI tests.

Lincredible phenomenon spreads around the world! Miracles did not only happen on the new basketball star Jeremy Lin, but also ASRock, the global top3 motherboard manufacturer! By updating the latest ME8 BIOS & Driver, ASRock today proudly announced their entire Intel H61 motherboard series now support Intel Rapid Start and Smart Connect Technologies! These new technologies are targeted to be supported with Intel next gen motherboard platforms, but ASRock offers an early chance to let users to experience new techniques on current H61 motherboard with 2nd Gen Intel Core Processor (Sandy Bridge).

"High-performance functions are not exclusive for high-end motherboards. ASRock's strength is to apply premium function on budget-level motherboards, making the function available by most of the users." commented James Lee, V.P. of Sales and Marketing at ASRock. "This time, miracles do happen at ASRock! Thanks to the excellent R&D team, ASRock is the first motherboard company to apply these two Intel new functions on H61 series motherboard in the world!"

Gamers need so much more from their PCs! With this concept in mind, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel worked closely with ASRock engineers to develop a well-featured motherboard based on the exciting Intel X79 chipset. Equipped with top-class components, the new ASRock/Fatal1ty X79 Professional was designed to exceed expectations of even the most dedicated gamer!

"This Fatal1ty motherboard was designed to bring your gaming performance to the highest level. The Fatal1ty X79 Professional comes with a Fatal1ty Mouse Port that delivers the precise control needed to elevate your game." said Fatal1ty. "In addition to gaming functions, the board packs 4 PCIe 3.0 slots, supporting up to 4-Way SLI and 4-Way CrossFireX. This combination will make you deadly and feared in the battlefield."

Nearly a week after unveiling its first industrial-PC (IPC) motherboards, ASRock says it is vying for ODM orders from IPC makers. When well-marketed, IPC motherboards could substantially contribute to the company's revenue, since IPC motherboards have gross margins of at least 25%, higher than that of consumer PC motherboards.

ASRock targets motherboards for use in POS (point of sale) PCs, thin clients, kiosks, panel PCs, gaming PCs, signage and devices used in surveillance, information display and retail & hospitality, the company said. So far, the company scored orders from two ODMs, with shipments set to begin in Q2, 2012. ASRock aims to obtain ODM orders from IPC vendors such as Advantech, Adlink Technology and ICP Electronics, instead of competing with them for orders for system products, ASRock said. ASRock hopes that its IPC motherboard venture will benefit it starting 2013.

World's top 3 motherboard manufacturer, ASRock Inc., specially partners with Creative Technology Ltd, the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer, to introduce the most trusted sound card in mobo industry - Game Blaster!

Gamers need so much more from their rigs. ASRock Game Blaster was designed to exceed the expectations of even the most dedicated gamer. It is the first sound card coming with both Creative 7.1 CH HD Sound Core3D Audio and Broadcom Gigabit LAN in the world.

ASRock has asserted that it is now a mature motherboard vendor, by releasing its first industrial PC (IPC) motherboards. IPC products are a more tell-tale sign of maturity than high-end PC or even enterprise ones, as IPC motherboards will be located on production-lines, where the slightest errors could cost the company a lot of production, or even endanger workers. ASRock released three products: the IMB-140, IMB-141, and IMB-142. The latter two share an identical board layout. All three models are driven by Intel Atom D2700.

The IMB-140 is heavy on connectivity, it includes three serial bus ports, dual-GbE interface, D-Sub, HDMI, and LVDS display outputs, two SATA 3 Gb/s storage interfaces, legacy PCI, and a plethora of other legacy connectivity. The IMB-141 and IMB-142 have slightly slimmer connectivity load outs, the two differ only with the latter having two GbE interfaces, while the former has one. The two have more USB interfaces, and one lesser serial bus (COM) port. The two also feature a mini-PCIe apart from a legacy PCI.