14 DAY TRIAL // In case, for one reason or another, you haven't been paying attention to ASUS? latest moves on the market, you might have missed the release of one of its most recent products, which is basically an AMD-based motherboard. Designed with technology enthusiasts in mind, it is build to withstand some intensive overclocking using AMD's latest AM2+ and AM2 processors. The board is based on the 790FX chipset and the SB750 Southbridge.
Simply dubbed M3A79-T Deluxe, ASUS' new mobo is set to provide its users with the ultimate in overclocking as far as AMD platforms go. Because of its chipset, the new motherboard will support HyperTransport 3.0 (HT3), a feature that is capable of delivering up to 5200 MT/s bus speeds. The board also sports quad PCIe 2.0 x16 slots with support for ATI's Quad CrossFireX technology, which will basically offer its users a high-end multi-GPU, multi-CPU desktop computer system.
As with most of ASUS' boards, the M3A79-T Deluxe is built using a color code, which will help system builders and users deal with a fast and easy system installation process. The design of the board allows it to support 140W-powered CPUs, thus ensuring that users will take full advantage of the fast CPU core frequencies. Both Northbridge and Southbridge are cooled down, for maximum efficiency, by an ASUS heatpipe solution.
The board comes with four DDR2 1066-supporting memory DIMMs and, besides the four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, it also provides 2 PCI slots. There are 6 SATA 3GB/s ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, and an eSATA 3GB/s port. The ATX board also bundles AMD's OverDrive utility, as well as ASUS' own Precision Tweaker 2 for overclocking potential. The Express Gate is an ASUS exclusive built-in operating system, which basically acts the same way as Voodoo's IOS (Instant On OS), offering users fast access to the Internet, without the need of entering Windows.