ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 Motherboard Review

A lot of people end up paying a premium and buying hardware with extra features they don’t need for fear of inevitable obsolescence, when a more sensible approach is to pick the appropriate components that fit your current needs. Also, some features which are being purported as “future proof” may not end up getting adopted or financially feasible to use in the first place for a mainstream user. Even for enthusiasts, there are plenty of sensible options when selecting a mainboard for a DIY build. One such mainboard is part of ASUS’ updated 990FX R2.0 lineup and is Windows 8 WHQL certified.

The ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 supports the latest AM3+ FX processors from AMD including the recently released FX 8300 “Vishera” family. The ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 mainboard is equipped with ASUS’ DIGI+ Power Control VRM for stable power delivery when overclocking. Two additional SATA3 6G ports are provided through an Asmedia 1061 chip onboard the M5A99FX Pro R2.0 while five SATA3 6G ports onboard and an eSATA3 6G port in the rear I/O are provided by the AMD SB950 chipset. There are two PCI-E x16 lanes for dual SLI or CrossFireX and two additional black PCI-E x16 slots wired as x4 for additional expansion cards. Since USB 3.0 is not provided natively from an AMD chipset, ASUS utilizes the ASMedia 1042 chip to provide two rear USB ports and a 19-pin USB 3.0 front panel header onboard which also supports UASP and capable of up to 3x faster charging through ASUS’ AiCharger+ feature. For an all-in-one convenient system management, ASUS also provides their AI Suite II software package to easily access, monitor, tweak and overclock their system from the desktop, even on the recently released Windows 8 operating system.