Starting off with the PCI Express expansion slots...

PCI Express expansion options include two x16 slots, a 2.0 x1 and x4 slot. Legacy devices are taken care of with two 32-bit PCI slots. If only one videocard is in use, the included VGA-Switch-Card directs x16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth to the blue PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot. If both x16 slots are populated with videocards, bandwidth is split to x8/x8 mode.

Six SATA 6Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) ports natively supported by the AMD SB850 chipset, and that's it for SATA. JMicron JMB361 controller supplies IDE and one eSATA port at the I/O panel. Four USB2.0 headers and one Firewire header add extra functionality, although the board does not ship with a complete set of brackets... bummer.

ASUS' M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 motherboard supports up to 16GB of DDR3 1066/1333MHz memory in four DIMMs, or 4GB for 32-bit operating systems. Memory can be overclocked to 1866MHz if the memory will tolerate it. At the far right are the Core-Unlocker and Turbo Key II switches, used to increase system CPU performance.

AMD Socket AM3 motherboards support newer 45nm chips like the Phenom II / Athlon II and Sempron processors, right through to AMDs upcoming 6-core 140W Phenom II X6. System bus is 5200MT/s, Hypertranport 3.

If you have a single PCI Express graphics card, install the VGA switch card in the grey x16 PCI Express slot. This directs all x16 lanes of PCI Express 2.0 bandwidth to the remaining (blue) PCI Express x16 slot.

Passive heatsink for the AMD 890GX chipset/Radeon HD 4290 IGP.

AMD SB850 Southbridge

The NEC D720200F1 controller is what brings two USB 3.0 ports onto the ASUS M4A89GTD-Pro/USB3 motherboard (at the rear I/O). Two PCIe lanes are dedicated to USB 3.0 bandwidth.

The USB 3.0 ports on the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 are marked in blue, and are capable of 4.8Gb/s transfer speeds, or roughly 10x the speed of USB 2.0. The green slot is a powered eSATA port care of the JMicron JMB36X.

Now let's move on with some overclocking!