upgraded to the Sabertooth as my old motherboard was having a few off days (although from the time i ordered the new one until the time it showed up do you think my old board played up once LOL) anyway easy to setup and install board and very easy to use UEFI Bios makes it a breeze, only problem i...

We've seen a flurry of activity from manufacturers for the release of 990FX chipset motherboards in advance of the highly-anticipated CPU launch called Bulldozer from AMD. One of those companies that's been busy is ASUS.

The ASUS Sabertooth 990FX, I bought this motherboard for my new personal home build and if I'm honest I was half captivated by the name. Something about sabertooth just struck me. So first of all let's take a look at the specifications of the board itself. * Supports AM3+ CPU up to 8 cores.

Reliability

The ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AMD AM3+ motherboard is a solid board that provides a variety of high end features, including a very simple and well done overclocking interface. This board is said to be TUF, which stands for The Ultimate Force.

USB 3.0 front panel connector; SATA 6Gb/s; Support "Bulldozer" CPU; 6 on-board fan connectors; Multi-GPU for Quad SLI or Crossfire; UEFI Bios; Military grade components; Easy overclocking; 5 year warranty

Higher priced 990FX motherboard

We've had quite a large focus on Intel lately with the shakeup of B3 revision boards and the recent launch of the Z68 chipset. Now gives a time where we can take a look at something new from AMD. Yes you heard right, AMD have launched something new; the 990FX chipset.

Stable overclocks; Similar performance to the Crosshair IV Formula; UEFI BIOS; Native USB 3.0 header support; AM3+ support; Increased DDR3 memory support; SLI support; Quad GPU support; Unique cooling technology

Colour scheme won't be to everyone's taste; No massive benefit between 890FX

In our previous review we praised Asus Crosshair V Formula mainboard, because it was beyond comparison with the participating competitors. Of course, the question we ask today is: is Asus Sabertooth 990FX better or worse? The correct answer will be: this board is different, but it is just as good.

Although the AMD 990FX is primarily a simple rebadging of the previous 890FX chipset, ASUS has taken this opportunity to make a number of new features available to AMD users. One is the addition of their UEFI specification BIOS interface, which simplifies the user experience, making setup and minor...

ASUS hit the mark with the Sabertooth 990FX! The Sabertooth 990FX was able to dig its teeth into everything we threw at it and be the dominant force in the charts! If you're in the market for a motherboard the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX should be at the top of your short list!

Well, as our testing has demonstrated this new board from Asus compares well with others in this class and the only competition thus far has been the UD7 from Gigabyte. The thing to keep in mind is that the Sabertooth does come in at a lower price point than the Gigabyte offering.

So allow me to split up this conclusion into two segments, the AMD chipset and the ASUS motherboard. We'll start off with the chipset. To be totally honest I expected more features and innovation in the 99FX chipset, pretty much this a petit overhaul of the 890FX chipset with very subtle yet small...