Not content to play second fiddle to other motherboard makers out there, ASRock is working on releasing a new Intel X79 motherboard for LGA 2011 processors, dubbed the X79 Extreme 11. This greatly improves the specs of the company’s current flagship, the Extreme 9.

The board, which was recently uncovered by Tweak Town, uses an extended form factor as well as a series of third-party controllers in order to augment the functionality of the Intel X79 PCH.

This enabled the company to add to the X79 Extreme 11 a series of features that enthusiasts will surely appreciate, such as the support for five PCI Express x16 slots.

Compatible with both SLI and CrossFireX 4-way GPU setups, these slots were designed to run at their full x16 speed even when populated with four graphics cards, thanks to the addition of a pair of GEN3 PLX 8747 chips.

Furthermore, these are accompanied by a total of eight DDR3 memory sockets to support a maximum of 64GB system memory when 8GB modules are being used.

Two legacy 32-bit PCI slots round up the list of expansion options available to Extreme 11 users.

As far as storage is concerned, ASRock decided that the usual SATA connectivity provided by the Intel X79 PCH is not enough for its flagship motherboard, so it installed a third-party LSI SAS2308 controller.

This adds eight SAS 6Gbps, or eight SATA III, ports to the board thus raising the number of storage devices that can be connected to the X79 Extreme 11 to 14 (10 of these will be able to work at 6Gbps speeds).

Other features include Creative Core3D audio, dual USB 3.0 on-board headers, two 8-pin CPU power connectors, on-board Power and Reset buttons, as well as a BIOS debug display.

No details regarding the release date or the price of the ASRock X79 Extreme 11 have been made official so far, but the motherboard is expected to be showcased during this year’s CeBIT fair.