Zaključak

Sabertootheica 990FX je na kraju ostavila vrlo dobar dojam. Nije izrazito overclockerski orijentirana, no potencijala i mogućnosti za dobar OC ima zbog pregršt opcija u UEFI-u i odlične napojne jedinice. S druge strane njene su glavne karakteristike pouzdanost i opremljenost. Kvaliteta izrade je odlična, a pouzdanost se dobiva kroz korištenje kvalitetnih TUF elektroničkih komponenata i solidnog CeraM!X rashladnog sistema. Uz to se odlično uklapa i mreža temperaturnih senzora razmještenih po ključnim točkama i Thermal Radar aplikacija pomoću koje nadgledamo temperature. Količina opreme koju donosi je vrlo dobra, počevši od šest SATA 6Gbps konektora, četiri USB 3.0 konektora, Power eSATA konektora, UEFI-a, MemOK! funkcije i Firewirea. Ogroman je plus podrška za CrossFire i SLI te čak tri PCIe x16 utora koje možemo koristiti u maksimalnoj x16+x8+x8 kombinaciji. Uz petogodišnje jamstvo i cijenu od oko 180 – 190 € (u Njemačkoj) što kupac može više tražiti? Možda jedino stabilniju AISuite II aplikaciju.

S druge strane, AMD je svoju prethodnu 890FX+SB850 platformu tek malo dodtjerao i pripremio ju za novi tip procesora. Nije možda očekivani pomak unaprijed, no treba priznati kako je već i ta sada stara generacija bila dovoljno napredna i što je najvažnije pouzdana i stabilna. Najveći je zapravo pomak dodavanje podrške za SLI čime je kupcu otvorena mogućnost biranja kakav multi-GPU sustav želi. I drugi je dio buduće Scorpius platforme tu (prvi je grafika serije 6), i sada se samo procesori čekaju. Najjači će Zabmeziji kao što znamo imati do 8 jezgri i parirati će za sada najjačim Sandy Bridge procesorima.

Conclusion

Sabertooth 990FX left a good impression with us. While it is not highly overclocking oriented board, it still has a lot of potential for a decent OC result. Main reason for this is UEFI full of OC options and a great VRM to back it up. On the other hand, its main characteristics are reliability and richness of equipment. Build quality is great, and reliability is ensured through the usage of high quality TUF electronic components (capacitors, chokes and MOSFETs), and decent cooling system with CeraM!X technology. With that, great feature is the array of temperature sensors, and Thermal Radar application for monitoring. Like we said Sabertooth 990FX is very equipment rich board, and we can find six SATA 6Gbps connectors, four USB3.0 connectors (two can be used with extra bracket or front panel connector), Power eSATA connector, UEFI, MemOK! function and Firewire. Big plus with these series is the addition for SLI (alongside with CrossfireX) support, through which we can connect up to three graphics cards in x16+x8+x8 configuration. With 5 year warranty that Asus gives on this board and price of about 180 – 190 € what more can one ask for? Maybe just a fully stable AI Suite II application.

As for the AMD, they only slightly tweaked their previous 890FX+SB850 generation, prepared it for new CPU˙s and given it a SLI support. Not maybe an expected move forward, but one has to admit that that previous generation was future proof enough. So, now we have this second part of the new Scorpius platform and the only thing left to launch are the new and a long time awaited Bulldozer CPU`s.