ASRock 990FX EXTREME4: 1. Introduction

5

ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

1.  Introduction

Thank you for purchasing ASRock 

990FX Extreme4

 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

fi

 guration 

guide to BIOS setup and information of the Support CD. 

Because the motherboard speci

fi

 cations and the BIOS software might  

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

notice. In case any modi

fi

 cations of this manual occur, the updated ver-

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

fi

 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

fi

 c information about the model you are using.

www.asrock.com/support/index.asp

1.1  Package Contents

ASRock 

990FX Extreme4

 Motherboard 

(ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm)

ASRock 

990FX Extreme4

 Quick Installation Guide

ASRock 

990FX Extreme4 

Support CD

1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card

1 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA 66/100/133 IDE Ribbon Cable

1 x Ribbon Cable for a 3.5-in Floppy Drive

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

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

1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable (Optional)

1 x I/O Panel Shield

1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel

4 x HDD Screws

6 x Chassis Screws

1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket

 ASRock Reminds You...

To get better performance in Windows

®

 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

TM

 / Vista

TM

 64  

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

fi

 guration 

to  AHCI mode. For the BIOS setup, please refer to the “User Manual” in  

our support CD for details.

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

1.2  Specifications

 Platform

- ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm

- All Solid Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality 

  Conductive Polymer Capacitors)

 CPU

- Support for Socket AM3+ processors

- Support for Socket AM3 processors: AMD Phenom

TM

 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

)

- Advanced V8 + 2 Power Phase Design

- Supports CPU up to 140W

- Supports AMD’s Cool ‘n’ Quiet

TM

 Technology 

- FSB 2600 MHz (5.2 GT/s)

- Supports Untied Overclocking Technology (see 

CAUTION 2

)

- Supports Hyper-Transport 3.0 (HT 3.0) Technology

 Chipset 

- Northbridge: AMD 990FX

- Southbridge: AMD SB950

 Memory 

- Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Technology (see 

CAUTION 3

)    

- 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots

- Support DDR3 2100(OC)/1866/1600/1333/1066/800 

  non-ECC, un-buffered memory (see 

CAUTION 4

) 

- Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB (see 

CAUTION 5

) 

 Expansion Slot 

- 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots  (PCIE2/PCIE4: x16 mode;

  PCIE5: x4 mode)

- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots

- 2 x PCI slots

 - 

Supports 

AMD

TM

 Quad CrossFireX

TM

, 3-Way CrossFireX

TM

  and CrossFireX

TM

- Supports NVIDIA

®

 Quad SLI

TM

 and SLI

TM

 Audio 

- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection 

  (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec)  

- Premium Blu-ray audio support

 LAN 

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

- Broadcom BCM57781

- Supports Wake-On-LAN

- Supports Energy Effi cient Ethernet 802.3az

- Supports PXE

Rear Panel I/O 

I/O Panel

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port 

- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port

- 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port

- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port

- 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports

- 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports

- 1 x eSATA3 Connector

- 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 (see 

CAUTION 6

)

 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 Marvell SE9120, support  

  NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions

  (SATA3_8 connector is shared with eSATA3 port)

 USB 3.0

- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ168A, support USB 1.0

  /2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

- 1 x Front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) by 

  Etron EJ168A, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

Connector

- 8 x SATA3 6.0Gb/s connectors

- 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) 

- 1 x Floppy connector

- 1 x IR header

- 1 x COM port header

- 1 x IEEE 1394 header

- 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header

- 1 x Power LED header

- CPU/Chassis/Power FAN connector

- 24 pin ATX power connector

- 8 pin 12V power connector

- CD in header

- Front panel audio connector

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

- 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports)

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

Smart Switch

- 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED 

- 1 x Power Switch with LED

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

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- 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

 Unique Feature

- ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) (see 

CAUTION 7

)

- ASRock Instant Boot  

- ASRock Instant Flash (see 

CAUTION 8

) 

- ASRock APP Charger (see 

CAUTION 9

)

- ASRock XFast USB (see 

CAUTION 10

)

- ASRock On/Off Play Technology (see 

CAUTION 11

)

- Hybrid Booster:

    - CPU Frequency Stepless Control (see 

CAUTION 12

) 

    - ASRock U-COP (see 

CAUTION 13

)

    - Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)

- Turbo 50 / Turbo 60 CPU Overclocking

 - 

Turbo 

UCC

Hardware 

- CPU Temperature Sensing

Monitor

- Chassis Temperature Sensing

- CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Tachometer

- CPU Quiet Fan

- CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control

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

 OS

 - 

Microsoft

® 

Windows

® 

7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

TM 

/ Vista

TM

 64-bit / XP

   / XP 64-bit compliant

 Certifi cations

- FCC, CE, WHQL

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

  (see 

CAUTION 14

)

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

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

CAUTION!

1.  ASRock UCC (Unlock CPU Core) feature simplifi es AMD CPU activa-

tion. As long as a simple switch of the UEFI option “ASRock 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 CPU only, and in addition, not every AM3 

CPU can support this function because some CPU’s hidden core may be 

malfunctioned.

2. 

This motherboard supports Untied Overclocking Technology. Please read 

“Untied Overclocking Technology” on page 39 for details.

3.  This motherboard supports Dual Channel Memory Technology. Before 

you implement Dual Channel Memory Technology, make sure to read the 

installation guide of memory modules on page 14 for proper installation.

4.  Whether 2100MHz memory speed is supported depends on the AM3/

AM3+ CPU you adopt. If you want to adopt DDR3 2100 memory module 

on this motherboard, please refer to the memory support list on our web-

site for the compatible memory modules. 

ASRock website    http://www.asrock.com

5.  Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be 

less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows

®

 7 / 

Vista

TM

 / XP. For Windows

®

 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such 

limitation. 

6.  For microphone input, this motherboard supports both stereo and mono 

modes. For audio output, this motherboard supports 2-channel, 4-chan-

nel, 6-channel, and 8-channel modes. Please check the table on page 3 

for proper connection. 

7.  ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) is an all-in-one tool to ne-tune 

different system functions in a user-friendly interface, which is including 

Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking, OC DNA and IES. In Hard-

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

it shows the fan speed and temperature for you to adjust. In Overclock-

ing, you are allowed to overclock CPU frequency for optimal system per-

formance. In OC DNA, you can save your OC settings as a profi le  and 

share with your friends. Your friends then can load the OC profi le to 

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 the third-party over-

clocking tools. Overclocking may affect your system 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.

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

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their own system to get the same OC settings. In IES (Intelligent Energy 

Saver), the voltage regulator can reduce the number of output phases to 

improve effi ciency when the CPU cores are idle without sacrifi cing  com-

puting performance. Please visit our website for the operation procedures 

of ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU). 

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

8.  ASRock Instant Flash is a BIOS fl ash utility embedded in Flash ROM. 

This convenient BIOS update tool allows you to update system BIOS 

without entering operating systems fi rst like MS-DOS or Windows

®

. With 

this utility, you can press <F6> key during the POST or press <F2> key to 

BIOS setup menu to access ASRock Instant Flash. Just launch this tool 

and save the new BIOS fi le to your USB fl ash  drive,  fl oppy disk or hard 

drive, then you can update your BIOS only in a few clicks without prepar-

ing an additional fl oppy diskette or other complicated fl ash utility. Please 

be noted that the USB fl ash drive or hard drive must use FAT32/16/12 fi le 

system. 

9.  If you desire a faster, less restricted way of charging your Apple devices, 

such as iPhone/iPod/iPad Touch, ASRock has prepared a wonderful so-

lution for you - ASRock APP Charger. Simply installing the APP Charger 

driver, it makes your iPhone charged 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 

continuous charging when your PC enters into Standby mode (S1), Sus-

pend to RAM (S3), hibernation mode (S4) or power off (S5). With APP 

Charger driver installed, you can easily enjoy the marvelous charging 

experience than ever.

ASRock website: http://www.asrock.com/Feature/AppCharger/index.asp

10.  ASRock XFast USB can boost USB storage device performance. The 

performance may depend on the property of the device.

11.  ASRock On/Off Play Technology allows users to enjoy the great audio ex-

perience from the portable audio devices, such like MP3 player or mobile 

phone to your PC, even when the PC is turned off (or in ACPI S5 mode)! 

This motherboard also provides a free 3.5mm audio cable (optional) that 

ensures users the most convenient computing environment.

12.  Although this motherboard offers stepless control, it is not recommended 

to perform over-clocking. Frequencies other than the recommended CPU 

bus frequencies may cause the instability of the system or damage the 

CPU.  

13.  While CPU overheat is detected, the system will automatically shutdown.

Before you resume the system, please check if the CPU fan on the 

motherboard functions properly and unplug the power cord, then plug 

it back again. To improve heat dissipation, remember  to  spray  thermal       

grease between the CPU and the heatsink when you install the PC sys-

tem.

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ASRock  990FX Extreme4  Motherboard

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14.  EuP, stands for Energy Using Product, was a provision regulated by Eu-

ropean Union to defi ne the power consumption for the completed system. 

According to EuP, the total AC power of the completed system shall be 

under 1.00W in off mode condition. To meet EuP standard, an EuP ready 

motherboard and an EuP ready power supply are required. According to 

Intel’s suggestion, the EuP ready power supply must meet the standard 

of 5v standby power effi ciency is higher than 50% under 100 mA current 

consumption. For EuP ready power supply selection, we recommend you 

checking with the power supply manufacturer for more details.