Asus Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard Review

Rating: 9.0.

Today AMD are launching their new 990FX chipset motherboards and we are looking at the Asus Sabertooth model which is a board loaded with a plethora of features. The Ultimate Force (TUF) Sabertooth 990FX has a 10 phase Digi+ VRM and it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots which support dual channel DDR3 1866mhz. This connects to the 990FX chipset across a HyperTransport 3.1 link.

No one will argue that Asus make some of the finest motherboards on the market. Their Republic Of Gamers (ROG) and Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboards have won many awards across the globe. My personal favourite right now is the Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58, which scored a staggering 9.5/10 when it was reviewed on Kitguru in March.

The Asus Sabertooth 990FX also supports both Quad GPU SLI and Quad CPU CrossfireX. Is this one of the best AMD based gaming motherboards on the market? On paper it certainly looks like it.

Specifications Summary

• CPU: AMD socket AM3+ for AMD FX series CPU up to 8 core. Compatible with AMD socket AM3 for AMD Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series Processors.
• Chipset: AMD 990FX/SB950
• System Bus: Up to 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport 3.0
• Memory: 4x DIMM, Max 32GB, DDR 3 1866/1600/1333/1066mhz, ECC, Non ECC and unbuffered memory.
  -Dual Channel
• Expansion Slots: 3x PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots (single @ x 16, dual @ x16, triple @ x16/x8).
  -1x PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slot (Black @ x4).
  -1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot. 1x PCI Slot
• Multi GPU Technology: Supports Nvidia QUAD SLI and AMD Quad GPU CrossfireX
• Storage: AMD SB950 Chipset:
  -6x SATA 6Gb/s ports with Raid 0,1,5, 10 support.
  2x Micron JMB362 SATA controllers:
  -2x SATA 3GB/s ports.
  -1x Power eSATA 3GB/s port (green).
  -1x eSATA 3GB/s port (red).
• LAN: Realtek 81111E Gigabit Lan Controller
• High Definition Audio: Realtek ALC892 8 channel High Definition Audio CODEC
  – Absolute Pitch 192KHz/24bit True BD Lossless Sound
  -BD Audio Layer Content Protection
  -Supports Jack-Detection, Multi Streaming, Front Panel Jack Retasking
  -Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
• IEEE 1394: VIA VT6308P controller supports 2x IEEE 1394a ports (1 port at mid board. 1 port at back panel).

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