Asus launches first USB 3.0 motherboard

Asus debuted the worlds first SuperSpeed USB 3.0 motherboard, branded with the highly memorable moniker of: Asus Xtreme Design P7DP55DE-E Premium. Catchy, I'm sure you'll agree.

The new hybrid motherboard is based around Intels P55 Express Chipset which does not support the new faster USB 3.0 standard. In order to combat this Asus has gone ahead and made use of an unnamed third-party USB 3.0 controller to make everything play nicely. This move turns a blind eye to the recent rumours that Intels very own USB 3.0 friendly chipsets are to be delayed, potentially slowing down overall SuperSpeed adoption rates. So this product announcement comes as a welcome offering, despite Asus' disappointing failed dabble with USB 3.0 motherboards earlier this year.

Asus' new well equipped motherboard offers users a pair of SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, a highly generous ten USB 2.0 ports, along with two PCIe x16 graphic card slots, six 3Gb per second SATA ports, two 6Gb per second SATA ports and a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Due to the motherboard being able to make use of the 6GB per second SATA interface, ASUS claimed that super fast transfer speeds can be achieved, with a 20GB High Definition movie file transferring in less than seventy seconds.

The Asus Xtreme Design P7DP55DE-E Premium will be available next month for $299 (£180) and will ship with Windows 7 drivers.