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ASRock Joins The Fray, Shows Off X99X Killer Motherboard

By - Source: TechPowerUp | B 15 comments

ASRock has revealed its X99X Killer motherboard for the upcoming Haswell-E CPUs.

We've been deluged with X99 motherboard teases, and now we can add ASRock's upcoming X99X Killer mainboard to the list. At first blush, this motherboard appears to follow a fairly standard X99 recipe, although there are several small details that set the X99 Killer apart from the crowd (in a good way).

Let's start with the basics, though: In the center we find the LGA2011-3 socket, which is flanked by eight DDR4 memory slots for quad-channel memory. For PCI-Express expansion, there are three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots along with two PCI-Express 1x slots. The motherboard also comes with 10 SATA3 (6 Gb/s) ports, and ASRock has omitted SATA-Express connectivity.

We can't really be mad about the missing SATA-Express connectivity, though, because the board does have an Ultra M.2 port. The M.2 port is driven by four PCI-Express 3.0 lanes as opposed to the two PCI-Express 2.0 lanes we see on most boards. In short, this gives the port a staggering 32 Gb/s. We've seen this implementation before in our review of ASRock's Z97 Exteme 6 motherboard.

We also find two USB 3.0 headers, a single internal USB 2.0 port and dedicated audio in the form of Purity Sound 2. On the rear I/O panel there is a single PS/2 port, two Fatal1ty USB 2.0 ports for gaming peripherals, six USB 3.0 ports, an eSATA port, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, another Gigabit Ethernet port powered off the Killer E2200 NIC, and the 8-channel HD audio, along with an optical Toslink output.

All things considered, these features point to the X99 Killer being a solid motherboard, but what sets this apart more than anything fastest-possible storage capabilities via the Ultra M.2 port.

There's no word on pricing or availability yet, but we expect this one to be available sometime around mid-September, when we expect the Haswell-E CPUs to arrive.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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  • 6 Hide
    Onus , August 13, 2014 2:57 PM
    We can all safely assume that all major (and most/all minor) motherboard makers will offer boards with the latest chipset(s). I'm sorry, but without pricing (and to a lesser extent, availability) information, that means this "announcement" contained absolutely nothing useful.
  • 0 Hide
    lp231 , August 13, 2014 3:45 PM
    Between the 2nd and 3rd PCIe x16 is that a mSATA or mPCIe?
  • 0 Hide
    SR-71 Blackbird , August 13, 2014 4:05 PM
    Very nice looking board.
  • Display all 15 comments.
  • 2 Hide
    Shneiky , August 13, 2014 4:46 PM
    I have 2 things to say:

    I. I am die-hard ASRock fan
    II. I am a super sucker for red and black

    And even on the basis on those two - this is one hideous board. ASrock Fatality line is something it should have never existed. It always looked bad, felt bad, performed bad. Even after buys so many boards from them and being amazingly happy with each purchase - sorry ASRock, but Fatality is something that is bringing only bad to your image.
  • 2 Hide
    James Mason , August 13, 2014 4:59 PM
    Quote:
    I have 2 things to say:

    I. I am die-hard ASRock fan
    II. I am a super sucker for red and black

    And even on the basis on those two - this is one hideous board. ASrock Fatality line is something it should have never existed. It always looked bad, felt bad, performed bad. Even after buys so many boards from them and being amazingly happy with each purchase - sorry ASRock, but Fatality is something that is bringing only bad to your image.


    I kind of agree with this, I don't like the red and black of this board, but i think it's because there's too much White and also there's is too much red. The red should have been more accented, like the heatsinks and PCI lanes should have been black, with red text and clips.
  • 0 Hide
    Shneiky , August 13, 2014 5:27 PM
    ASRock > Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 the best looking board ever. Period. (even with the brown PCB).

    ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 and the inheritant Z77 Extreme 4/6 and up and the X79 Extreme line - very good looking. Even with the brown PCB again. Very sleek boards.

    ASRock Z87 Extreme - nice looking again.

    H77, H87 still looking good.

    Since forever the Fatality line is awful. The whole 97 line - well that is a disaster. Fatality 97 looks descent because the whole 97 line is looking bad and all other fatality is even worse. Am I sorry ASRock. Your die hard fan has to hand it to you. With the 90s chipset you really dropped the ball in the design department.
  • 0 Hide
    soldier44 , August 13, 2014 5:30 PM
    Never used AsRock products before but nice looking board. So the difference in the new X99 boards and current Z97 boards are support for DDR4 and ultra M.2 connectivity?
  • 0 Hide
    patrick47018 , August 13, 2014 6:01 PM
    I'd almost say that the board looks, "killer" ;) 
  • 0 Hide
    james pinnix , August 13, 2014 8:45 PM
    Meh red and black isn't my flavor I'm sad I haven't seen green or blue hell I would kill for a purple or white and black
  • 0 Hide
    ohim , August 13, 2014 11:35 PM
    If they wouldn`t put "heasinks" on normal Realtek sound chipsets and call them fancy names it would be great...
  • 4 Hide
    bemused_fred , August 14, 2014 1:09 AM
    "X99'X' motherboard"

    Now that's just silly. What next?

    "xXx_n0sC0p35_1337N000BPWN3R_I-banged-your-M0th3rb04rd3l1t3_#yoloswagxXx"?
  • 1 Hide
    Sakkura , August 14, 2014 1:57 AM
    Quote:
    Between the 2nd and 3rd PCIe x16 is that a mSATA or mPCIe?


    That's the M.2 port.
  • 0 Hide
    lp231 , August 14, 2014 5:19 AM
    the m.2 is next to the first pcie x16. So that other is another m.2? Also according to tech power up, they say this board will be available after aug 29th.
  • 0 Hide
    xaephod , August 14, 2014 9:22 AM
    So Haswell-E or Devils Canyon for gaming?
  • 1 Hide
    lp231 , August 14, 2014 9:45 AM
    Haswell is already good for gaming. Haswell-E gives you more cores and board supports x16/x16 in 2-way SLI or CFX. Some socket 1150 boards does x16/x16 as well.