ASRock has released eight 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 Fatal1ty Professional, with four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, six SATA-600 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, and a special USB port with high polling rate for gaming mice.

To better understand the differences between the several socket LGA2011 motherboards released by ASRock, we compiled the table below. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this article, except for the X79 Fatal1ty Professional, which is the suggested price announced by the manufacturer. “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 Fatal1ty Professional motherboard.

click to enlarge
Figure 1: ASRock X79 Fatal1ty Professional motherboard