ASUS 790X motherboard surfaces

The website XFastest has acquired two images of ASUS' new M4A79XTD EVO motherboard. Behind this somewhat cryptical name lies a motherboard that is meant for overclockers. The board is based on AMD's 790X chipset and matching SB750 southbridge. It supports all Athlon II and Phenom II processors with AM3 socket, including possible 140 Watt TDP models.

ASUS' new AM3 motherboard features a brown PCB combined with numerous blue cooling elements, a color setting that might not be liked by everyone. Thanks to the 8+2 phase power design, this board should be perfectly suited for overclocking, which requires stable CPU voltages. The four memory slots are compatible with DDR3 memory and ASUS guarantees stability for modules of up to 1800 MHz.

The M4A79XTD EVO has two PCI-Express 16x slots that are CrossfireX-compatible. When two cards are used, the bandwidth will be shared to an 8x/8x configuration. Also present are two regular PCI and PCI-Express 1x slots, as well as a total of seven internal SATA 3 Gbps connectors. The integrated ASUS Express Gate allows users to boot a simple operating system that will provide them with basic functionality such as a webbrowser and Skype.

Like most ASUS motherboards, this model also features the familiar EPU chip, which keeps the power consumption of the processor as low as possible. Remarkable is the text 2oz Copper PCB on the board; this is a feature we also saw in Gigabyte's Ultra Durable series of motherboard. By using extra thick copper connections in the PCB, less resistance is present which allows for a lower power consumption. The copper also improves the signal quality, which could benefit overclockability.

The new M4A79XTD EVO has 7.1 onboard audio, Gigabit LAN, FireWire, USB and eSATA. It's to be released later this month at a still undisclosed price.

ASUS M4A79XTD EVO motherboard for overclockers

Tags: crossfire ddr3 esata firewire overclocking phenom sata socket-am3 usb athlon

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