ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Preview
Category : 990
Published by Marc Büchel on 07.02.13
Concerning the TUF series, to which the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 from ASUS belongs, the manufacturer promises durability thanks to the use of high quality components. Furthermore this thing comes with a camouflage look, which in an elegant way, addresses a certain niche of gamers and in general users who demand quality. You also find that there are numerous connectors on this board and at a first glance it looks like this thing seems to be an excellent allrounder. 
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The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 belongs to ASUS' TUF-series motherboards regarding which the manufacturer focuses on durability. As always we're very curious what this thing is capable of from a layout and design perspective.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Specifications / Delivery
| CPU | AMD AM3+ FX/Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series Processors |
| Chipset | AMD 990FX/SB950 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz |
| Multi-GPU | Supports NVIDIA SLI, 3-Way, Quad-GPU SLI Technology Supports AMD CrossFire, 3-Way, Quad-GPU CrossFireX Technology |
| Slots | 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode) 1 x PCIe 2.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Audio | Realtek ALC892 8-Channel |
| Storage | AMD SB950 Controller 6 x SATA 6Gb/s port (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) ASMedia USB 3.0 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 at mid board) ASMedia USB 3.0 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 (4 at back panel blue) AMD SB950 12 x SUB 2.0/1.1 (8 at back panel, 4 at mid board) ASMedia PCIe SATA Controller 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port |
| I/O internal / Connectors | |
| I/O external | |
| Formfactor | ATX (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm) |
| BIOS | 64Mb Flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS GUI |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Regarding the delivery you find everything you need. Next to numerous manuals there is a SLI bridge, SATA cables, a Q-connector as well as an I/O shield.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Features
| TUF Thermal Radar | The TUF Thermal Radar monitors temps in critical parts of the motherboard in real time, automatically adjusting fan speeds to make sure the system maintains high stability without overheating. It consists of multiple sensors for various components on the motherboard, giving users the ability to monitor each one individually. The Thermal Radar automatically calculates ideal fan speeds based on different parameters selected by users for each component, keeping everything cooler and longer lasting. |  |
| Digi+ VRM | Meanwhile ASUS also provides its boards with digital power designs. Using the the right software, in this case ASUS DIGI+ VRM Utility it is not only possible to adjust voltages whilst being in Windows one can also control impedances. |  |
| ASUS Update | Allows us to check and update the latest available BIOS directly from ASUS website. | |
| ASUS FAN Xpert | FAN Xpert allows you to adjust both the CPU and chassis fan speeds according to different ambient temperatures and your PC's system loading. The various fan profiles offer flexible controls of fan speed to achieve a quiet and cool system environment. |
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| ASUS MyLogo | Allows you to change the POST Logo at system startup with any pic you want. | |
| ASUS TurboV EVO | Allows you to overclock the bus frequency, CPU voltage, IMC voltage and DRAM Bus voltage in Windows and takes effect in realtime without exiting and rebooting the OS. | |
| ASUS TPU | As soon as one activates the TPU this chips monitors all available voltages and clock speeds using the corresponding software. The difference to the EPU is that TPU will provide as much performance as possible. Therefore it can increase clock speeds and voltages. |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Layout
The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 comes with the typcial military look ASUS provided their TUF series motherboards with. Therefore the manufacturer uses colors like olive-green, black and grey. Generally it is the goal to achieve a look that automatically suggests that this is a high quality and "tough" product. The different cooling blocks also consist of ceramic. Altogether ASUS succeeded in generating a homogenous look but one really needs to like the color scheme and we think that not everybody will enjoy the military looks.
ASUS provided their latest TUF board with a digital power design, whereas the CPU gets eight phases and the memory gets two phases. Looking at the capacitors themselves you'll find ML caps around the CPU socket. These multilayer polymer capacitors offer advantages over ceramic capacitors. Super ML caps remain stable under regular as well as AC voltage, don't have any aging mechanisms and are resilient under thermal shock.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0. Officially supported are DDR3 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz with up to 32 GByte capacity. There is plenty of space to install even big aircoolers and they shouldn't interfere with memory.
The current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The southbridge got a passive cooling block which has not been integrated into the heatpipe loop of northbridge and VRM. The fact that the cooling blocks around the CPU socket aren't too big makes it comfortable to install a big aircooler. We also noticed the very high manufacturing quality of the cooling blocks and their weight which is quite immense.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Connectors and I/O
Totally ASUS equipped the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with eight angled SATA ports which should be enough for any office PC or gaming system. Unfortunately you won't find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons. ASUS also didn't equip the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with a debug display which would have been useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system.
Totally you'll find six fan headers on the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped midrange or even a high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU and their also spread over the whole board which makes them easily accessible from any position in an enclosure.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASUS equipped the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 port, two eSATA 6 Gbps ports, one gigabit ethernet port, an analogue audio panel as well as an optical out. Furthermore there also is a practical BIOS reset button.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 generally is an interesting board. If you like the Sabertooth military design, then this is definitely an attractive board with a higly level of attention to detail. This version of the AMD Sabertooth board from ASUS also looks more grown up than others before. We especially like the set of connectors this board features. There are not only more than enough SATA ports also the number of USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 ports was able to convince us. Additionally you get an extensive software bundle which let's you control lots of parameters from within Windows. | -
Design - Connectors |
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| Layout | + | - | |
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Generally the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 layout is well thought. Once more very practical are the angled SATA connectors. Unfortunately there are no practical power/reset buttons onboard and also for a debug LED you'd be looking in vain.
On the other hand the fan headers are easily accessible. We also liked the fact,
that it's possible to equip this board with up to three graphics cards. If you
should want to upgrade your gaming system a year or two after you bought this
board with another one or two graphics cards that would be no big deal. |
- Angled SATA connectors | - No Power/Reset-Button onboard - No Debug Display |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch