The company's most advanced LGA 1155 gaming motherboard

Mar 2, 2012 11:11 GMT  ·  By

At this year’s CeBIT fair, ASRock plans to expand its series of “Fatal1ty” branded gaming motherboards with a new model based on Intel’s upcoming Z77 chipset for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge LGA 1155 processors.

This new motherboard will be called the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional and will most probably become ASRock’s most advanced gaming board based on a 7-series Intel PCH.

To underline its premium position in the company’s lineup, ASRock fitted the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional with a 20+ phase digital-PWM power circuitry, as well as with two x16 PCI Express 3.0 slots that are compatible with CrossFireX and SLI setups.

An additional PCI Express x16 Gen 2.0 slot is also available (x4 electrical), which is seconded by a PCIe 2.0 x1 and a legacy PCI slot, as well as by no less than 10 SATA ports, six of these supporting SATA 6Gbps transfer speeds.

Moving to the back of the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional, TechPowerUp reports that ASRock’s creation comes fitted with both a HDMI and a DisplayPort output.

In addition, users also get four USB 3.0 ports (driven by the Intel Z77 chipset) and 7.1-channel audio with S/PDIF out, while two additional USB 3.0 ports are available through an on-board header situated right near the six SATA 6Gbps slots.

A slew of USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port and an Ethernet jack round up the connectivity list, but the rear I/O header also features a Clear CMOS switch.

Other overclocking oriented features include the presence of on-board Power and Reset buttons and a LED BIOS debug display.

No information regarding pricing or availability of this motherboard was made public by ASRock, but more details should be unveiled as we get nearer to the launch of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors.