ASRock X58 Extreme3 - An enthusiast infrastructure at a budget price

The X58 chipset from Intel this year will already be two years old, that's right... two years. It is still Intel's most expensive and high-end chipset, still very capable of delivering massive performance for socket 1366 Core i7 based processors. Though Intel is not updating this chipset technology has advanced a decent chunk. Intel is riding it out as long as they can as well, people will purchase this chipset anyway. Meanwhile, USB 3.0 is bluntly ignored by them, SATA3 (6Gbit) is also ignored by Intel. And then Intel released their Core i7 980X six-core Gulftown based processor. As you can see, three new dynamics have hit the industry in the high-end segment, and for two of them... Intel is doing absolutely nothing.

That sparked ODMs to bring these new innovations to your doorsteps by inventing solutions themselves. More costly yes, but by embedding a NEC USB 3.0 controller and Marvell SATA3 6G SATA/AHCI/RAID controller onto that motherboard you can actually bring some interesting features to the table. Combine that with the successful release of Gulftown and you have just created enough incentive to re-release X58 motherboards in an updated jacket, as that is exactly what is happening anno Q2 2010 in the motherboard market.

The biggest downside of the newly added technology is that ODMs only apply the new tech onto their most high-end motherboards. The ASUS Rampage III Extreme for example will set you back 350 EUR, the new MSI X58 XPower will likely cost 375 EUR, eVGA's new QUAD SLI ready X58 Classified motherboard tops it off at 400 EUR. So if you want that X58 based platform and want to enjoy USB 3.0 and SATA3 6G, there really are no affordable alternatives... until now that is. ASRock has released a new X58 motherboard. It's loaded with extra features yet comes with SATA3 and USB 3.0. It is up-to date, has some nice extras and get this... will cost only 165 EUR or roughly 189 USD.

That price alone sparked my interest for sure as this board would need to really blow if it's not worth that money. So today we'll have a look at the more budget conscious ASRock X58 Extreme3 motherboard.

A motherboard that surprised us in many ways, have a peek at the photo and then let's head on over to the review.