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.

Go to page 2 >>>

ASRock 890GX Extreme3 mainboard has the UCC function which can unlocked the 2 hidden cores within the Phenom II X4 960T, turning it into a 6 cores processor.

Some users were wondering if there are any stability issues. We ran Hyper PI 32M stability tests on 4 core turned 6 core Phenom II 960T processor and the 32M tests completed without any issues.

See the screen shots below on page 2

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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ASRock Inc., the global leading motherboard manufacturer today proudly announced its brand new AMD 890GX Extreme3 motherboard supporting ASRock UCC function that allows CPU cores upgrade from X4 to X6 of AMD’s upcoming PhenomII X4 960T processor. This will be a value-added news to ASRock motherboard functionability and practicability and we believe that computer enthusiasts will be definitely attracted by our cutting-edge AMD motherboards.

How many cores do you desire? The answer must be “as many as possible”. It seems a daydream for most users; however, ASRock brings magic to our fan again and makes your dreams come true! ASRock has exclusive equipped with an ASRock UCC chip and specially tuned UCC (Unlock CPU Core) function in the BIOS of their 890GX Extreme3 motherboard to unlock the mind-blowing performance of AMD’s upcoming PhenomII X4 960T CPU. Just a simple switch of the BIOS option ‘UCC’, users can unlock the extra CPU core to enjoy an instant performance boost! Enabling the UCC function in BIOS, AMD PhenomII X4 960T CPU might be upgraded to X6, users are able to take advantage of ASRock superior 890GX Extreme3 Motherboard. (*The success rate of this enhancement depends on the individual CPU.)

See Page 2 for CPU-Z, BIOS screen shots >>>

On the 26th this month, AMD will soon be releasing it’s six core Phenom II X6 CPUs, codenamed “Thuban”. The Phenom II X6 will feature 6MB of L3 cache and six cores, together with a new feature that is similar to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology which boosts a 400MHz (unconfirmed) to its base frequency during high cpu load.

According to various sources, the new Phenom II X4 “T” processors are basically are based on the same cores as the Phenom II X6. So, if you’re lucky, you would be able to unlocked the 2 remaining cores, turning your X4 into a X6. It should also feature the same 6MB of L3 cache and Turbo Boost like technology. The Phenom II X4 960T is said to spec at 3.3GHz and the 940T running at around 3GHz.

In fact, at post time, we have confirmation from a tester that he is able to recover the 2 hidden cores, turning the Phenom II X4 960T into a hex core Phenom II X6 at the same clock speed. The board used is a AMD 890GX+SB850 mainboard.

Looks like the first board being able to achieve this is the ASRock 890GX Extreme3 – read about it here.

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