ASRock 890GX Extreme3 Mainboard Review (with Phenom II X4 960T and Phenom II X3 710)
Bluetooth 6 May 2010

Last week, we presented the ASRock 880G Extreme3 mainboard. Today, we take a look at the bigger brother the 890GX Extreme3 mainboard. Some what alike, both board features very similar specifications and functionalities. In fact, we aren’t able to find much difference between the two other than the 890GX Extreme3 uses the AMD 890GX north bridge which clocks it’s internal GPU at 700MHz instead of 560MHz on the 880G Extreme3.

The 890GX Extreme3 has a very complete feature set. It has  ASRock DuraCap (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors with Advanced V8 + 2 Power Phase Design which can supports CPU up to 140W. This board also supports the Phenom II X6 6 core processor. The most interesting would be the UCC which allows it to unlock the hidden cores e.g. the Phenom II X4 960T, enabling the two hidden cores and ‘convert’ it into a  6 core processor.

As for memory wise, it supports Dual Channel DDR3 1800(OC). Graphics capability is better as it comes integrated with AMD Radeon HD 4290 graphics, DX10.1 Class iGPU, Shader Model 4.1, Max. shared memory 512MB. It also has a 128MB DDR3-1333 side port memory which can be overclocked to DDR3-1670 without any issues. The Radeon HD 4290 is also capable of decoding HD videos using UVD2, thus playing back of bluray is chicken feed.You can choose to use Multi VGA Output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI. 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection, DAC with 110dB dynamic range (VIA® VT2020 Audio Codec with QSound) will definitely make it a good choice for a home entertainment box. If integrated graphics is not to your liking, you can always upgrade it to Hybrid CrossFireX, 3 way or quad CrossFire X.

In terms of peripheral connectors, this board supporst 1 x eSATA3 Connector, 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 2 x IEEE 1394 ports. For overclockers, you would be delighted with the Smart Swith Design : 1 x Power Switch with LED, 1 x Reset Switch with LED, 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED and Dr. Debug (7-Segment Debug LED). There is also a comprehensive BIOS options in the BIOS like 30% Overclock etc.

Other software that comes free include  ASRock Instant Boot, Instant Flash, OC DNA, OC Tuner, IES, Multi-Speed Fan Control, CyberLink DVD Suite – OEM and Trial; Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB – Trial

 ASRock 880G Extreme3 Mainboard
Bluetooth 23 Apr 2010

Today, AMD introduces a newer chipset for it’s AMD series of processors, the Phenom II X6 6 core processors. This new chipset AMD 880G / SB850 isn’t something new to most of our readers. If you have been following our news, you would probably aware that this chipset is very similar to the AMD 890GX but with a lower GPU clock speed at 560MHz. Although it is slightly slower, you will be surprised by the GPU stability ~1GHz which most of the 890GX have issues attaining stability without proper cooling.

Anyway, overclocking aside, let’s take a look at what ASRock 880G Extreme3 has to offer. Firstly, this board is Phenom II X6 ready. It supports ATI™ Quad CrossFire™, 3-Way CrossFireX™, CrossFireX™ and Hybrid CrossFireX™ with its Integrated AMD Radeon HD 4250 graphics, DX10.1 Class iGPU, Shader Model 4.1, Max. shared memory 512MB. For connectivity, it has 1 x eSATAIII connector, 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 2 x IEEE1394 ports.

The ASRock 880G Extreme, shares something similar to the 890GX Extreme3. Both supports the ASRock UCC chip unlocking feature. Throw in a Phenom II X3 710 and it becomes a quad core with the feature turned on in BIOS. Likewise a Phenom II 550BE will become a quad core too. This is only made possible with the UCC chip has the ACC feature found in SB750 no longer works on the SB850.

Other than this unique feature, the board also uses 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors. It also supports  Turbo 50 Technology, ASRock Instant Boot, Instant Flash, OC DNA, OC Tuner, IES, Multi-Speed Fan Control.

For the multimedia buffs, this board is suitable for your bluray needs. It has a 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection, DAC with 110dB dynamic range (VIA® VT2020 Audio Codec with QSound) , Premium Blu-ray audio support and it has a free Software: CyberLink DVD Suite – OEM and Trial; Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi MB – Trial.

Below are pictures of the packaging and on next pages, we present you the mainboard layout, chipests on board and BIOS options available.

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ASRock is soon to launch another series of mainboard based on the AMD 880G chipset. The first of this series if the ASRock 880G Extreme3 mainboard based on the AMD 880G+SB850 chipsets.

As it is also a Extreme3 board, it comes equipped with USB3, SATA3 and eSATA3. On top of that, this board also features the UCC unlocking chip. It is able to unlock the hidden cores on your Phenom II 550BE or Phenom II X3 710 processor and turn it into a quad core.

If UCC on the ASRock 890GX Extreme3 can unlock the upcoming quad core processor to a 6 core, I am sure the 880G Extreme3 should have that capability too.

Below are some pictures of the packaging and mainboard. Watch out for our review of this board on OCWorkbench.

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