ASRock has released seven motherboard models for the new socket LGA2011 platform, heavily betting that this platform will become more mainstream after Intel releases cheaper LGA2011 processors during this year. This time we will take a look at the X79 Extreme9, which is the most high-end (and most expensive) socket LGA2011 motherboard offered by ASRock at this time, with five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, eight SATA-600 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, and a high-end, add-on sound card called “Game Blaster.”

To better understand the differences between the several socket LGA2011 motherboards released by ASRock, we compiled the table below. The X79 Fatal1ty hasn’t been released yet. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this article. “Game Blaster” is a PCI Express x1 add-on sound card featuring a Creative Sound Core3D audio chip and a Broadcom networking chip.           

In Figure 1, you see the ASRock X79 Extreme9 motherboard.

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Figure 1: ASRock X79 Extreme9 motherboard