ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer/3.1 Motherboard Review

If you’re stuck with an AMD AM3+ setup then the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer/3.1 Motherboard is probably one of the best board you can get, especially now that it comes with USB 3.1 capability.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Being part of ASRock’s gaming series, it’s no surprise that the board is black and red in color, a matching theme for AMD setups too and works great with any red and black looking components.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

The board comes with ASRock’s Digi Power , 8 + 2 Power Phase Design and as you can see the socket area is clear of large heatsinks.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Nothing spectacular to highlight about the area where the DIMM slots are located either.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Going further down, one starts to realize – where da heck are the POWER / RESET buttons? This is a high-end board from ASRock and why aren’t those buttons around? And is there even a debug LED? Nope there isn’t any, which is rather sad because those features have always been around for many ASRock higher range boards for Intel camp.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Not only that the board has limited SATA connection, no SATA Express connectivity but it does come with M.2 Socket 10Gb/s (PCIe Gen2 x2 & SATA3).

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Here are the PCI-E slots, supporting both AMD CrossfireX and Nvidia SLI configurations.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

The board comes with additional PCIe Power Connector at the other end of the board, just in case you need additional power to reach PCI-E slots.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

I/O ports are important and the ASRock board does not fall short in this aspect.

– 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
– 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 5 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 4 x USB 3.0 Ports (ASMedia Hub) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x eSATA3 Connector
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Last but not least, the star of the package – the USB 3.1 add-on card.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

More details at the official product page.

User Experience

The board works as it should, I had no issues going about the UEFI and even to overclock the processor.

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer Motherboard Review

Besides the lack of on-board buttons and debug LED, I can’t fault the board on any other matter.

The Verdict

The ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer/3.1 Motherboard retails at RM 673, if USB 3.1 isn’t something you require then there’s the model without the USB 3.1 add-on card retailing at RM 614.

There are models that are of lower price than the 2 mentioned but they do not come with the power delivery design such as these 2.

goldfries recommended

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