ASUS is well known for their motherboards, and they produce what are widely regarded as some of the best boards available. Recently Bigbruin.com was able to take a closer look at the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX TUF motherboard, which is very similar to the subject of this review, the M5A99X EVO AM3+ motherboard.



The promotional image above provides a view of the ASUS M5A99X EVO motherboard, which will support all of the latest AMD AM3 and AM3+ processors, including the AMD FX Series CPU with up to 8-cores. This motherboard also features an internal USB 3.0 connection, SLI and CrossFireX, and the latest UEFI BIOS. Before taking a closer look at the motherboard provided for review, let's take a look at a little of the published information available on the M5A99X EVO. This board has so much to offer it would take pages to cover, so for more details please visit the official product page on the ASUS website.

Features:

» UEFI BIOS
» DIGI+ VRM - Herald the Arrival of a New Digital Power Design Era
» AI Suite II
» Complete USB 3.0 Solution
» AMD® Socket AM3+ for AMD® FX Series CPU up to 8-core
» Energy Efficiency All Around
» Auto System Level Up

Specifications:

» CPU
    AMD AM3+ FX™/Phenom™ II/Athlon™ II/Sempron™ 100 Series Processors
    Supports AM3+ 32 nm CPU
    Supports CPU up to 8 cores
    Supports CPU up to 140 W
    AMD Cool 'n' Quiet™ Technology

» Chipset
    AMD 990X/SB950

» Memory
    4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 Hz ECC, Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
    Dual Channel Memory Architecture
    * Due to CPU spec., AMD 100 series CPUs support up to DDR3 1066MHz. With ASUS design, this motherboard can support up to DDR3 1333MHz.

» System Bus
    Up to 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport™ 3.0

» Multi-GPU
    Support Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology
    Supports AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology

» Expansion Slots
    2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
    1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black)
    2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
    1 x PCI

» Storage
    AMD SB950 controller :
        6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray
        Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
    JMicron® JMB362 controller :
        2 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
        1 x Power eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), green
        1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red

» LAN
    Realtek® 8111E , 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s)

» Audio
    Realtek® ALC 892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
    Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking

» Audio Feature :
    Absolute Pitch 192kHz/ 24-bit True BD Lossless Sound
    DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC
    ASUS Noise Filter
    Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel

» IEEE 1394 VIA® 6308P controller
    2 x IEEE 1394a port(s)
    (1 at mid-board, 1 at back panel)

» USB Ports
    ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller :
        4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
    AMD SB950 controller :
        14 x USB 2.0 port(s) (8 at back panel, black+red, 6 at mid-board)

» Overclocking Features Overclocking Protection :
    ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

» Back I/O Ports
    1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
    1 x eSATA 3Gb/s
    1 x Power eSATA 3Gb/s
    1 x IEEE 1394a
    1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
    2 x USB 3.0
    8 x USB 2.0
    1 x Optical S/PDIF out
    6 x Audio jack(s)

» BIOS
    32 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.6, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2

» Manageability
    WfM 2.0, DMI 2.0, WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE

» ATX Form Factor
    12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )