The new motherboard supports USB 3.0 connectors with a data-transfer rate of up to 5 Gbps, which developers of the spec says is up to 10 times faster than Hi-Speed USB, officially called USB 2.0. Such connectors are used to attach peripherals, such as printers, external hard drives and portable media players, to a PC.

The SuperSpeed rate means transferring a 20 GB high-definition movie between a peripheral device and a PC with Asus's new motherboard would take less than 70 seconds, according to the vendor. A 4 MB song could be transferred in less than a hundredth of a second.

The Asus motherboard uses the Intel P55 Express Chipset, which does not support USB 3.0. Therefore, Asus uses a third-party controller. Intel in August 2008 released a draft specification for an interface that would allow a SuperSpeed USB controller to act as a bridge between a computer's processor and the operating system.

Other specifications of the Xtreme Design P7P55D-E Premium include two USB 3.0 and 10 USB 2.0 ports and four PCIe slots. The board also supports the latest DDR3 system memory and ships with Windows 7 drivers.

The motherboard is scheduled to be available next month for $299.