We enjoy opening new boxes that come from ASRock. They're one of our fave motherboard providers when it comes to delivering high worth performance solutions.

We were talking with them just two weeks back about their BIOS updates for the X58 Supercomputer X58 motherboard that permits 2000+ memory clocking now with general enhancements when running all 4 x16 (x8 electrical) slots populated with the GTX295 boards. They discussed a new X58 motherboard design and questioned if we would have liked to look at it.

We naturally required and thought nothing else of it till the package arrived 1 or 2 days back.

We ripped the box open, that's till we started spotting a cleaner layout, power / reset / CMOS switches, a new 8-phase power delivery system, and a surplus of fan headers. However, the hackneyed rock that hit us on the head was the tiny note with the suggested MSRP of $169.99. Yes, that is right, we ultimately have a full specification ATX X58 based motherboard below the $170 mark without a discount or reduced feature set. While you might buy a great AMD 780G board and processor in that price range, this a quite reasonable price for an X58 product. We would have liked to supply a full review of the product before it launched, but it turned up for sale sooner than predicted.
This is excellent news for bargain hunters taking a look at upgrading to the X58 / i7 mix, awful news for us. As such, we are providing an especially fast first look (preview) of the ASRock X58 Extraordinary today with further details to follow in the future. Taking a fast look round this board, we find the final layout is glorious. ASRock placed 24-pin and 8-pin ATX power connectors, IDE / Floppy connector, and the SATA ports along the fringe of the motherboard. The board features 2 PCIe x1 slots, 2 PCI slots, and 3 PCIe x16 slots (x16 / x16 / x4). The CPU area is uncluttered and the heatsink design is like the Energy Monsoon III won't meddle with memory in the first dimm slot.

The back of the board is clean and all our varied air / water coolers that needed a back plate worked fine. ASRock comprises the standard array of elements like the Realtek ALC890 HD audio codec, Realtek RTL8111D, Thru VT6330 IEEE 1394a / IDE combo chipset, Intel ICH10R for SATA and RAID support on 6 ports, with full support for the Core i7 processor series. 5 frame fan headers offer speed but not temperature control along with full hardware monitoring and control thru the BIOS or ASRock's software application. Last but not least, ASRock actualized a new 8-phase power delivery system together with having the 1st EuP (Energy using Product, 1W or less power usage when off) compliant motherboard. The rear panel features the standard PS / two mouse and keyboard ports, optical / coaxial SPDIF out ports, 7 USB 2.0 ports, powered eSATA / USB port, Gigabit LAN port, IEEE 1394a port, and a handy Clear CMOS switch. ASRock was generous enough at this price point to incorporate Power and Reset switches together with an LED POST display. They also include an excellent accessories bundle.
You get the standard rear I / O panel cover together with one x IDE / Floppy wire, four x SATA wires, two x SATA power wires, and SLI bridge card. An educational manual and software CD is included that contains their IES, OC Tuner, and Instant Boot applications.

The board also has the new Instant Flash application that permits the user to flash the BIOS from the POST screen or through a BIOS option setup. Talking of the BIOS, the final design is geared for the general fan with many automobile overclocking options and an honest array of manual timings. ASRock includes enough options so we didn't have any issues maximizing our overclocks with air or water cooling options. We continue to think VTT voltage options should include finite (about a .05V difference between settings) settings of 0.01V steps. Overall, the AMI based BIOS design is clean and tidy.