14 DAY TRIAL // Expected to arrive at the Computex 2011 fair, that will take place at the beginning of June, MSI's upcoming 990FXA-GD80 motherboard for desktop Bulldozer processors has just been spotted online, revealing many of its secrets.
Just as its name implies, the 990FXA-GD80 is based on AMD's 990FX chipset, which is paired together with the SB950 south bridge controller.
The 990FX is AMD's most advanced chipset to date and it features no less than 40 PCI Express lanes that have been routed to four PCI Express x16 slots by MSI.
These support both 3-way SLI and 4-way CrossFireX configurations and are accompanied by two PCI Express x1 slots as well as by a single legacy PCI slot.
Users also get six SATA 6Gbps ports that are driven by the SB950 chip, and the motherboard features support for up to 32GB of RAM via four DIMM sockets that are compatible with 2133MHz memory.
CPU power is provided by a 10-phase power design, which supports AMD FX processors with TDPs as high as 140W.
All throughout the board, MSI has placed various overclocking friendly features, including OC Genie, Power and Reset buttons, a BIOS debug LCD and a rear mounted Clear CMOS switch.
This is accompanied by two eSATA ports, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, Firewire and Ethernet connectivity, various USB 2.0 connectors, and by 7.1-channel audio (THX Studio Pro-enabled) with coaxial and optical S/PDIF out.
Two other USB 3.0 ports are available through an angled header that is installed on the motherboard.
The MSI 990FXA-GD80 should become available shortly after Computex 2011 opens its gates (June 1), but the motherboard can also be pre-ordered for as low as €173.15.
AMD will launch its first Bulldozer processors on June 7 at the E3 expo. (via TCMagazine)
