Mar 11, 2011 21:01 GMT  ·  By

By now, we all know that various motherboard makers have already started manufacturing AM3+ Bulldozer compatible boards, that are driven by the current AMD 800-series chipsets, and one such solution built by ASRock has been spotted in Japanese store where it was listed at $123 USD.

The news is hardly surprising considering that during the recent CeBIT 2011 fair, ASRock has showcased two AM3+ solutions based on 800-series chipsets, but this is the first time the we see such a board reach retail.

This is also the first time we lay our eyes on the 890GM Pro3 R2.0, and besides the AM3+ socket that makes it compatible with future Bulldozer processors, this micro-ATX card packs an AMD 890GX northbridge, that features ATI Radeon HD 4290 integrated graphics, and an SB850 southbridge.

The SB850 drives five SATA 6Gbps ports as well as an external eSATA port, while the 890GX northbridge is in control of a PCI Express x16 and one PCI-E x1 port.

In addition, the board also packs two regular PCI slots, four DDR3 DIMM sockets, dual USB 3.0 ports, VGA, DVI and HDMI video outputs as well as a FireWire port.

Power is delivered via a 4 +1 phase design and the motherboard features an unusual CPU retention bracket that I never saw before.

The ASRock 890GM Pro3 R2.0 has already been listed in the Japanese market and is priced at 10,280 yen, which translates into about $123 US.

According to the latest rumors, AMD plans to launch Bulldozer in June 2011 together with the 900-series chipsets, so a new range of AM3+ motherboards should be available around that time.

Bulldozer is AMD's next-generation high-performance CPU architecture that was designed from the ground up in order to eliminate some of the redundancies that come with traditional multi-core designs and a Bulldozer module should be able to deliver about 92% of the throughput of a similar native dual-core chip. (via Expreview)

Photo Gallery (5 Images)

ASRock 890GM Pro3 R2.0 AM3+ Bulldozer motherboard
ASRock 890GM Pro3 R2.0 AM3+ Bulldozer motherboard - AM3b socketASRock 890GM Pro3 R2.0 AM3+ Bulldozer motherboard - Rear I/O
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