May 21, 2011 17:21 GMT  ·  By

With less than three weeks left until AMD officially introduces the first FX-series processors based on the Bulldozer architecture, more and more hardware makers start announcing their AM3+ motherboards, and ASRock is the latest to join the party with the 990FX Extreme4.

As its name implies, this motherboard is based on AMD's yet-unveiled 990FX chipset, which targets enthusiast users and overclockers, and offer no less than 40 PCI Express lanes.

ASRock has routed these to three PCI Express x16 slots, which are compatible with 3-way Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX setups, and the board also features a pair of PCI-E x1 slots as well as two legacy PCI ports.

Storage is provided by eight SATA 6Gbps ports, two are placed near the rear bottom edge, and for an unknown reason ASRock has also included what appears to be an IDE port.

To the right and to the left of this, the motherboard features two USB 3.0 headers, driven by an Etron controller, a BIOS debug LCD as well as Power and Reset buttons.

Two more USB 3.0 ports are available in the back of the board where ASRock has also placed the 7.1-channel (THX TruStudio certified) audio connectors together with a coaxial and an optical S/PDIF out.

Even though the Extreme4 won't certainly be ASRock's Bulldozer flagship motherboard, this can support AMD's fastest FX processors with TDPs as high as 140W.

No details regarding the price of the 990FX Extreme4 were disclosed by the company, but the board will be launched during Computex 2011.

The first Bulldozer processors are expected to arrive on June 7 at the E3 expo where AMD will launch four desktop processors based on the Zambezi core with prices ranging from $190 to $320.

Outside of ASRock, MSI and Asus are also preparing motherboards based on AMD's 900-series chipsets. (via VR-Zone)