ASRock 990fx extreme9: 1. Introduction

1. Introduction: ASRock 990fx extreme9

1. Introduction

Thank you for purchasing ASRock 990FX Extreme9 motherboard, a reliable moth-

erboard produced under ASRock’s consistently stringent quality control. It delivers

excellent performance with robust design conforming to ASRock’s commitment to

quality and endurance.

In this manual, chapter 1 and 2 contain introduction of the motherboard and step-

by-step guide to the hardware installation. Chapter 3 and 4 contain the conguration

guide to BIOS setup and information of the Support CD.

Because the motherboard specications and the BIOS software might

be updated, the content of this manual will be subject to change without

notice. In case any modications of this manual occur, the updated ver-

sion will be available on ASRock website without further notice. You may

nd the latest VGA cards and CPU support lists on ASRock website as

well. ASRock website http://www.asrock.com

If you require technical support related to this motherboard, please visit

our website for specic information about the model you are using.

www.asrock.com/support/index.asp

1.1 Package Contents

ASRock 990FX Extreme9 Motherboard (ATX Form Factor)

ASRock 990FX Extreme9 Quick Installation Guide

ASRock 990FX Extreme9 Support CD

1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card

1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI-2S1S Bridge Card

6 x Serial ATA (SATA) Data Cables (Optional)

2 x Serial ATA (SATA) HDD Power Cables (Optional)

1 x I/O Panel Shield

1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel with 2.5” HDD/SSD Rack

4 x HDD Screws

6 x Chassis Screws

1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket

ASRock Reminds You...

®

TM

To get better performance in Windows

8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

TM

/ Vista

64-bit, it is recommended to set the BIOS option in Storage

Conguration to AHCI mode.

5

1.2 Specications

Platform - ATX Form Factor

- Premium Gold Capacitor design (100% Japan-made

high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors)

- Multiple Filter Cap (MFC) (Filter different noise by 3 different

capacitors: DIP solid cap, POSCAP and MLCC)

CPU - Support for Socket AM3+ processors

TM

- Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom

II X6 /

X4 / X3 / X2 (except 920 / 940) / Athlon II X4 / X3 / X2 /

Sempron processors

- Supports 8-Core CPU

- Supports UCC feature (Unlock CPU Core) (see CAUTION 1)

- Digi Power Design

- Advanced 12 + 2 Power Phase Design

- Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)

- Supports CPU up to 140W

TM

- Supports AMD’s Cool ‘n’ Quiet

Technology

- FSB 2600 MHz (5.2 GT/s)

- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology

- Supports Hyper-Transport 3.0 (HT 3.0) Technology

Chipset - Northbridge: AMD 990FX

- Southbridge: AMD SB950

Memory - Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Technology

- 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots

- Supports DDR3 2450(OC)/2100(OC)/1600/1333/1066

non-ECC, un-buffered memory (see CAUTION 2)

- Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB (see CAUTION 3)

®

- Supports Intel

Extreme Memory Prole (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2

- Supports AMD Memory Prole (AMP)

Expansion Slot - 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE1 @ x16 mode; PCIE3

@ x4 mode; PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 (PCIE4) / x8 (PCIE5)

or dual at x8/x8 mode)

- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot

- 1 x PCI slot

TM

TM

- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX

, 3-Way CrossFireX

TM

and CrossFireX

®

TM

TM

TM

- Supports NVIDIA

Quad SLI

, 3-Way SLI

and SLI

Audio - 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection

(Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec)

- Premium Blu-ray audio support

6

LAN - PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s

®

- Intel

82583V

- Supports Wake-On-LAN

- Supports PXE

Rear Panel I/O I/O Panel

- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port

- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port

- 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port

- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port

- 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports

- 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports

- 2 x eSATA3 Connectors

- 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED

LED)

- 1 x IEEE 1394 Port

- 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED

- HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker/Rear Speaker/Central/Bass/

Line in/Front Speaker/Microphone

SATA3 - 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by AMD SB950, support

RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, JBOD and RAID 5),

NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions

- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by ASMedia ASM1061,

support NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions

USB 3.0 - 4 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ188H, support

USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

- 2 x Front USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports) by

Etron EJ188H, support USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

Connector - 8 x SATA3 6.0Gb/s connectors

- 1 x IR header

- 1 x CIR header

- 1 x COM port header

- 1 x IEEE 1394 header

- 1 x Power LED header

- 2 x CPU Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)

- 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin)

- 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin)

- 24 pin ATX power connector

- 8 pin 12V power connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)

- Front panel audio connector

- 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports)

7

- 2 x USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports)

- 1 x Dr. Debug (7-Segment Debug LED)

- 1 x Power Switch with LED

- 1 x Reset Switch with LED

BIOS Feature - 32Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support

- Supports “Plug and Play”

- ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events

- Supports jumperfree

- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support

- CPU, VCCM, NB, SB Voltage Multi-adjustment

Support CD - Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version),

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, Google Chrome

Browser and Toolbar

Hardware - CPU Temperature Sensing

Monitor - Chassis Temperature Sensing

- CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Tachometer

- CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan

- CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Multi-Speed Control

- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore

®

®

TM

OS - Microsoft

Windows

8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

/

TM

Vista

64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit compliant

Certications - FCC, CE, WHQL

- ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

* For detailed product information, please visit our website: http://www.asrock.com

WARNING

Please realize that there is a certain risk involved with overclocking,

including adjusting the setting in the BIOS, applying Untied Overclocking

Technology, or using third-party overclocking tools. Overclocking may

affect your system’s stability, or even cause damage to the components

and devices of your system. It should be done at your own risk and

expense. We are not responsible for possible damage caused by

overclocking.

8

CAUTION!

1. ASRock UCC (Unlock CPU Core) feature simplies AMD CPU

activation. As long as a simple switch of the UEFI option “AS-

Rock UCC”, you can unlock the extra CPU core to enjoy an

instant performance boost. When UCC feature is enabled, the

dual-core or triple-core CPU will boost to the quad-core CPU,

and some CPU, including quad-core CPU, can also increase L3

cache size up to 6MB, which means you can enjoy the upgrade

CPU performance with a better price. Please be noted that UCC

feature is supported with AM3/AM3+ CPU only, and in addition,

not every AM3/AM3+ CPU can support this function because

some CPU’s hidden core may be malfunctioned.

2. Whether 2450/2100MHz memory speed is supported depends

on the AM3/AM3+ CPU you adopt. If you want to adopt DDR3

2450/2100 memory module on this motherboard, please refer

to the memory support list on our website for the compatible

memory modules.

ASRock website: http://www.asrock.com

3. Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size

may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage un-

®

TM

®

der Windows

8 / 7 / Vista

. For Windows

64-bit OS with 64-

bit CPU, there is no such limitation. You can use ASRock XFast

®

RAM to utilize the memory that Windows

cannot use.

9

1.3 Unique Features

ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)

ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) is an all-in-one tool to

ne-tune different system functions in a user-friendly interface,

which includes Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking,

OC DNA, IES and XFast RAM. In Hardware Monitor, it shows

the major readings of your system. In Fan Control, it shows the

fan speed and temperature for you to adjust. In Overclocking,

you are allowed to overclock CPU frequency for optimal system

performance. In OC DNA, you can save your OC settings as

a prole and share it with your friends. Your friends then can

load the OC prole to their own system to get the same OC set-

tings. In IES (Intelligent Energy Saver), the voltage regulator

can reduce the number of output phases to improve efciency

when the CPU cores are idle without sacricing computing per-

formance. In XFast RAM, it fully utilizes the memory space that

®

cannot be used under Windows

OS 32-bit CPU.

ASRock Instant Boot

ASRock Instant Boot allows you to turn on your PC in just a few

seconds, provides a much more efcient way to save energy,

time, money, and improves system running speed for your sys-

tem. It leverages the S3 and S4 ACPI features which normally

®

enable the Sleep/Standby and Hibernation modes in Windows

to shorten boot up time. By calling S3 and S4 at specic timing

during the shutdown and startup process, Instant Boot allows

®

you to enter your Windows

desktop in a few seconds.

ASRock Instant Flash

ASRock Instant Flash is a BIOS ash utility embedded in Flash

ROM. This convenient BIOS update tool allows you to update

system BIOS without entering operating systems rst like MS-

®

DOS or Windows

. With this utility, you can press the <F6> key

during the POST or the <F2> key to enter into the BIOS setup

menu to access ASRock Instant Flash. Just launch this tool and

save the new BIOS le to your USB ash drive, oppy disk or

hard drive, then you can update your BIOS only in a few clicks

without preparing an additional oppy diskette or other compli-

cated ash utility. Please be noted that the USB ash drive or

hard drive must use FAT32/16/12 le system.

10

ASRock APP Charger

If you desire a faster, less restricted way of charging your

Apple devices, such as iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, ASRock has

prepared a wonderful solution for you - ASRock APP Charger.

Simply install the APP Charger driver, it makes your iPhone

charge much quickly from your computer and up to 40% faster

than before. ASRock APP Charger allows you to quickly charge

many Apple devices simultaneously and even supports continu-

ous charging when your PC enters into Standby mode (S1),

Suspend to RAM (S3), hibernation mode (S4) or power off (S5).

With APP Charger driver installed, you can easily enjoy the mar-

velous charging experience.

ASRock XFast USB

ASRock XFast USB can boost USB storage device perfor-

mance. The performance may depend on the properties of the

device.

ASRock XFast LAN

ASRock XFast LAN provides a faster internet access, which in-

cludes the benets listed below. LAN Application Prioritization:

You can congure your application’s priority ideally and/or add

new programs. Lower Latency in Game: After setting online

game’s priority higher, it can lower the latency in games. Trafc

Shaping: You can watch Youtube HD videos and download si-

multaneously. Real-Time Analysis of Your Data: With the status

window, you can easily recognize which data streams you are

transferring currently.

ASRock XFast RAM

ASRock XFast RAM is a new function that is included into AS-

Rock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU). It fully utilizes the memory

®

space that cannot be used under Windows

OS 32-bit CPU.

ASRock XFast RAM shortens the loading time of previously

visited websites, making web surfing faster than ever. And it

also boosts the speed of Adobe Photoshop 5 times faster. An-

other advantage of ASRock XFast RAM is that it reduces the

frequency of accessing your SSDs or HDDs in order to extend

their lifespan.

11

ASRock Crashless BIOS

ASRock Crashless BIOS allows users to update their BIOS

without fear of failing. If power loss occurs during the BIOS up-

date process, ASRock Crashless BIOS will automatically nish

the BIOS update procedure after regaining power. Please note

that BIOS les need to be placed in the root directory of your

USB disk. Only USB2.0 ports support this feature.

ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)

Administrators are able to establish an internet curfew or restrict

internet access at specied times via OMG. You may schedule

the starting and ending hours of internet access granted to other

users. In order to prevent users from bypassing OMG, guest

accounts without permission to modify the system time are re-

quired.

ASRock Internet Flash

ASRock Internet Flash searches for available UEFI firmware

updates from our servers. In other words, the system can auto-

detect the latest UEFI from our servers and ash them without

®

entering Windows

OS.

ASRock UEFI System Browser

ASRock UEFI system browser is a useful tool included in

graphical UEFI. It can detect the devices and configurations

that users are currently using in their PC. With the UEFI system

browser, you can easily examine the current system congura-

tion in UEFI setup.

ASRock Dehumidier Function

Users may prevent motherboard damages due to dampness by

enabling “Dehumidier Function”. When enabling Dehumidier

Function, the computer will power on automatically to dehumidi-

fy the system after entering S4/S5 state.

ASRock Easy RAID Installer

ASRock Easy RAID Installer can help you to copy the RAID

driver from a support CD to your USB storage device. After

copying the RAID driver to your USB storage device, please

change “SATA Mode” to “RAID”, then you can start installing the

OS in RAID mode.

12

ASRock Fast Boot

With ASRock’s exclusive Fast Boot technology, it takes less

®

than 1.5 seconds to logon to Windows

8 from a cold boot. No

more waiting! The speedy boot will completely change your user

experience and behavior.

ASRock X-Boost

ASRock’s X-Boost Technology is a smart auto-overclocking

function and is brilliantly designed to unlock the hidden power of

your CPUs. Simply press “X” when turning on the PC, X-Boost

will automatically overclock the relative components to get up to

15.77% performance boost! With the smart X-Boost, overclock-

ing CPU can become a near one-button process.

* The functionality of “Unlock CPU Cores” feature might vary by

different processors.

ASRock Restart to UEFI

®

Windows

8 brings the ultimate boot up experience. The light-

ning boot up speed makes it hard to access the UEFI setup. AS-

Rock Restart to UEFI technology is designed for those requiring

frequent UEFI access. It allows users to easily enter the UEFI

automatically when turning on the PC next time. Just simply

enable this function; the PC will be assured to access the UEFI

directly in the very beginning.

Turbo 50 / Turbo 60 Overclocking

Simply click the Turbo 50 / Turbo 60 button in UEFI, the system

performance will boost up to 50% or 60% increase by automati-

cally overclocking CPU, Memory frequency and all related volt-

age settings.

ASRock Good Night LED

ASRock Good Night LED technology can offer you a better en-

vironment by extinguishing the unessential LED. By enabling

Good Night LED in BIOS, the Power / HDD / LAN LED will be

switched off when system is on. Not only this, Good night LED

will automatically switch off Power and Keyboard LED when the

system enters into Standby / Hibernation mode as well.

13

1.4 Motherboard Layout

FS B8 00

1 ATX 12V Power Connector (ATX12V1) 21 Power Switch (PWRBTN)

2 CPU Heatsink Retention Module 22 Reset Switch (RSTBTN)

3 AM3+ CPU Socket 23 Dr. Debug (LED)

4 CPU Fan Connector (CPU_FAN1) 24 Chassis Fan Connector (CHA_FAN3)

5 CPU Fan Connector (CPU_FAN2) 25 USB 2.0 Header (USB6_7)

6 Chassis Fan Connector (CHA_FAN2) 26 USB 2.0 Header (USB4_5)

7 2 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots 27 Consumer Infrared Module Header (CIR1)

(Dual Channel A: DDR3_A1, DDR3_B1) 28 System Panel Header (PANEL1)

8 2 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots 29 Clear CMOS Jumper (CLRCMOS1)

(Dual Channel B: DDR3_A2, DDR3_B2) 30 Power LED Header (PLED1)

9 Power Fan Connector (PWR_FAN1) 31 Serial Port Connector (COM1)

10 ATX Power Connector (ATXPWR1) 32 Infrared Module Header (IR1)

11 USB 3.0 Header (USB3_6_7) 33 Front Panel IEEE 1394 Header

12 USB 3.0 Header (USB3_4_5) (FRONT_1394)

13 Northbridge Controller 34 Front Panel Audio Header (HD_AUDIO1)

14 Southbridge Controller 35 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE5)

15 SATA3 Connector (SATA3_A1_A2) 36 SPI Flash Memory (32Mb)

16 SATA3 Connector (SATA3_5_6) 37 PCI Slot (PCI1)

17 SATA3 Connector (SATA3_3_4) 38 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE4)

18 SATA3 Connector (SATA3_1_2) 39 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE3)

19 Chassis Speaker Header (SPEAKER1) 40 PCI Express 2.0 x1 Slot (PCIE2)

20 Chassis Fan Connector (CHA_FAN1) 41 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE1)

14

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Key boar d

PS2

Mou se

PS2

CPU_ FAN1

CPU_ FAN2

CHA_ FAN2

PWR_ FAN1

ATX1 2V1

CMO S

Clr

SPDI F

Opti cal

SPDI F

Coax ial

USB 3.0

T: USB 0

B: U SB1

SOCKET AM3b

eSATA

USB 2.0

FS B8 00

T: USB 0

B: U SB1

10

eSATA

IEE E1 394

USB 2.0

T: USB 2

B: U SB3

USB 3. 0

DDR3_A1 ( 64 bit, 2 40- pin mo dul e)

DDR3_A2 ( 64 bit, 2 40- pin mo dul e)

DDR3_B1 ( 64 bit, 2 40- pin mo dul e)

DDR3_B2 ( 64 bit, 2 40- pin mo dul e)

T: USB 2

Top:

B: U SB3

RJ- 45

11

CTR BA SS

Bott om:

REAR S PK

Cent er:

SIDE S PK

Top:

12

MIC IN

Bott om:

FRON T

Cent er:

LINE I N

Top:

LAN

AMD

USB3 _6_7

USB3 _4_5

990FX

CMOS

13

BATTER Y

Chipset

AUDI O

CODE C

PCIE1

41

14

40

PCIE2

990FX Extre me9

AMD

39

PCIE3

SB950

15

SATA3_ A1_A2

Super

Chipset

I/O

16

PCIE4

38

SATA3_ 5_6

17

37

PCI1

SATA3_ 3_4

32M b

Ro HS

36

BIO S

18

CHA_ FAN3

SPEAK ER1

SATA3_ 1_2

35

PCIE5

1

19

HD_A UDIO1

FRON T_1394

COM1

USB4_ 5

Dr.

CHA_ FAN1

IR1

PLED1

PANEL 1

USB6 _7

1

PLED PWR BTN

Debug

PWRB TNRSTB TN

1

11

1

1

1

11

CLRCM OS1

1

HDLED RESE T

1

CIR1

11

34

33

32

31

30

29

28

27

26

25

24

23

22

21

20

1.5 I/O Panel

1

2 4

3

5

6

9

7

10

8

11

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

1 PS/2 Mouse Port (Green) 11 Microphone (Pink)

2 Coaxial SPDIF Out Port 12 USB 3.0 Ports (USB3_2_3)

3 USB 2.0 Ports (USB01) 13 IEEE 1394 Port (IEEE 1394)

4 USB 2.0 Port (USB23) *** 14 eSATA3 Connector (ESATA1)

* 5 LAN RJ-45 Port *** 15 eSATA3 Connector (ESATA2)

6 Side Speaker (Gray) 16 USB 3.0 Ports (USB3_0_1)

7 Rear Speaker (Black) 17 Optical SPDIF Out Port

8 Central / Bass (Orange) 18 Clear CMOS Switch (CLRCBTN)

9 Line In (Light Blue) 19 PS/2 Keyboard Port (Purple)

** 10 Front Speaker (Lime)

* There are two LED next to the LAN port. Please refer to the table below for the LAN port LED

indications.

LAN Port LED Indications

ACT/LINK

SPEED

Activity/Link LED SPEED LED

LED

LED

Status Description Status Description

Off No Link Off 10Mbps connection

Blinking Data Activity Orange 100Mbps connection

On Link Green 1Gbps connection

LAN Port

**

If you use 2-channel speaker, please connect the speakers plug into “Front Speaker Jack”.

See the table below for connection details in accordance with the type of speaker you use.

TABLE for Audio Output Connection

Audio Output Channels Front Speaker Rear Speaker Central / Bass Side Speaker

(No. 10) (No. 7) (No. 8) (No. 6)

2 V -- -- --

4 V V -- --

6 V V V --

8 V V V V

15

To enable Multi-Streaming function, you need to connect a front panel audio cable to the front

panel audio header. After restarting your computer, you will nd “Mixer” tool on your system.

Please select “Mixer ToolBox” , click “Enable playback multi-streaming”, and click “ok”.

Choose “2CH”, “4CH”, “6CH”, or “8CH” and then you are allowed to select “Realtek HDA Pri-

mary output” to use Rear Speaker, Central/Bass, and Front Speaker, or select “Realtek HDA

Audio 2nd output” to use front panel audio.

*** eSATA3 connector supports SATA Gen3 in cable 1M.

16