At first I would like to thank ASRock for offering me a sample of their Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Motherboard for review.

 

About ASRock:

"ASRock Inc., established in 2002, target at entry to mainstream segment MB business, is an energetic company with the combination of technology and humanity. Devoting efforts to bring customers the innovative and reliable motherboards with the design concept of 3C, "Creative, Considerate, Cost-effective", ASRock has successfully established a well-known leading brand of the best price-performance motherboard in the industry. ASRock products' high recognition stems from company’s devotion to bring the most cost-performance products to users.

Besides creative features and solid products, ASRock engineers also pay special attention to EMI, thermal, acoustics and details to achieve complete customer satisfaction. In addition to price-performance, creative and considerate features, ASRock also pay special on the issue of eco-environmental protection with the released of ROHS products and energy saving functions to save the environment.

To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, ASRock provides great products with speed-to-market, cost and service to customers.

Facing the constantly changing technologies of motherboard, ASRock will always keep the vision of the future and develop future-proof products upon our 3C design concept to our customers.

It is the commitment to our customers and products, like the spirit presented in our maxim:

"Motherboard, We Master It!" "

Product Features:

 

XFast LAN Technology

 

 

ASRock XFast LAN is a smart productivity tool to help you manage your priorities of internet applications, simplify your digital life and accomplish more. The innovative features include : Internet Application Prioritization, Lower Latency in Game, Traffic Shaping and Real-Time Analysis of Your Data. It's the smartest way to control your web programs.

 

 

ASRock XFast USB Technology - Faster Than Your Imagination!

 

 

ASRock XFast USB Technology redefines the new standard in high performance computing. Proving once again to be the pioneer in motherboard industry, ASRock XFast USB Series Motherboards integrate with the latest XFast USB Technology which delivers the world's fastest USB data transfer speed. According to the below graph, it shows that the ASRock XFast USB technology can even boost USB 3.0 performance up to 5X faster!

 

 

Next-Gen PCI-E 3.0 Support

 

 

By adapting PCI-E 3.0 quick switch IC onboard, Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 supports the Next-Gen PCI-E 3.0! PCI Express 3.0 can maximize the bandwidth for the next-gen PCI Express 3.0 VGA cards, provide ultimate graphics performance.

 

Get PCI-E 3.0 Benefits

• Higher bit rate - 8.0GT/s

• Higher bandwidth per lane - 1GB/s

• Higher efficiency - 98.5% encoding efficiency

• 100% backward compatible with previous PCI-E 2.0 / 1.0 standard

 

 

 

Premium Gold Caps

 

 

All the capacitors on the Fatal1ty Series gaming motherboard are luxury, Premium Gold Caps. These 100% Japan-made solid capacitors are sleek, high gloss caps with a premium gold coating representing long life and stable performance.

 

V12+6 CPU Power Phase

 

 

The Fatal1ty Series motherboard is designed with a V12+6 Power Phase, featuring sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. The Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 offers unmatched overclocking capability and enhanced performance with the lowest temperatures for PC gaming enthusiasts.

Digital PWM Design

 

 

Digital Pulse-width modulation

By adopting digital pulse-width modulation (PWM), the Fatal1ty Series can provide CPU Vcore voltage more efficiently and smoothly. Compared to analog PWM, digital PWM can optimize the CPU power solution and provide a proper and stable Vcore for the processor.

 

Lucid Virtu™

 

 

With Lucid Virtu software, next-generation PCs with 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ processor platforms will dynamically assign tasks in real time to the best available graphics resource based on power, performance and features.

 

 

 

Intel® Smart Response Technology

 

 

For users who are tempted to connect the SSD and HDD on motherboard, the Intel® Smart Response Technology can make the SSD become the "Cache of the HDD" to boost up the HDD access speed.

 

 

 

PLX PEX8608 chip onboard

 

 

Fatal1ty Motherboard breaks the limitation and offers sufficient PCI-E lanes solution by embedding PLX PEX8608 chip onboard.

 

 

 

With PLX PEX8608 chip, it generates more PCI-E lanes for PCI-E devices, so that all PCI-E devices are able to work at the proper speed simultaneously!

 

Fatal1ty Mouse Port

 

 

Fatal1ty Mouse Port is a customizable technology for PC gamers that is a part of F-Stream. After plugging the USB mouse into the Fatal1ty Mouse Port and running F-Stream, gamers can use Fatal1ty’s personal preferred mouse polling rate at 500 Hz. F-Stream also provides the flexibility for gamers to adjust the mouse polling rate from 125 Hz to 1000 Hz. This is helpful for professional gamers to experience smoother game play and faster response time to the mouse.

 

Limitations:

1. Some USB mice may not support 1000 Hz mouse polling rate.

2. The Fatal1ty mouse port does not support USB 2.0 mouse.

3. The Fatal1ty mouse port may not support some wireless USB mice.

4. The Fatal1ty mouse port does not support the USB mouse which is connected to the USB hub.

 

On/Off Play Technology

 

 

Even when the system is powered off (in ACPI S5 mode), On/Off Play Technology still allows users to enjoy the great audio experience from the portable audio devices through the PC speaker.

 

Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals

 

 

 

 

Fatal1ty F-Stream – The All-in-1 Tuning Software

 

 

The Fatal1ty F-Stream tuning program is an all-in-1 software utility that supports overclocking and hard-ware tuning such as energy usage, H/W monitor, fan speed control and Fatal1ty Mouse Port Configuration. In Hardware Monitor, it shows the major readings of your system. In Fan Control, it shows the fan speed and temperature for you to adjust.

 

 

 

In Overclocking, you are allowed to adjust the CPU frequency, ratio and some voltages for optimal system performance. In Mouse Polling, gamers can freely adjust the mouse polling rate. In Energy Saving, the voltage regulator can reduce the number of output phases to improve efficiency when the CPU cores are idle without sacrificing computing performance.

 

THX TruStudio

 

 

THX TruStudio is specially designed to bring the same great audio experience found in live performances, films, and recording studios to the PC.

 

Graphical UEFI – The Revolutionary BIOS Interface

 

 

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a revolutionary BIOS utility which offers tweak-friendly options in an advanced viewing interface. Compared with traditional BIOS design, the latest UEFI utility provides lots improved functions.

 

 

 

The major features of UEFI include:

1. Graphical Visual Experience – UEFI provides an improved visual interface with colorful icons and makes your computing environment more versatile to replace the traditional dull BIOS page.

2. Mouse Enabling – Besides keyboard control, you can freely use mouse to select your ideal settings in UEFI as well.

3. Supports 3TB bootable HDD* - UEFI breaks the limitations of 2TB bootable HDD on traditional BIOS. With UEFI, you can enjoy 3TB bootable HDD.

 

Dual LAN – Teaming

 

 

Dual LAN with Teaming function enabled on this motherboard allows two single connections to act as one single connection for twice the transmission bandwidth, making data transmission more effective.

 

Free Bundle - Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial

 

 

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 trial now supports Intel® Quick Sync Video hardware transcoding and is optimized for second generation Core i7, i5, and i3 processors to accelerated conversion of all your favorite media files for your favorite portable players. Now you can easily display your favorite movies, songs and photos on iPhone, iPad, PSP, XBox, Youtube, Facebook etc. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs as much as you want and enhance your videos to new levels with TrueTheater Technology. Try it today!

 

Limitations:

30-day trial limitation

Convert videos to the H.264 format 50 times

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

The Z68 Fatal1ty Professional Gen3 motherboard from ASRock comes with similar packaging as the P67 variant we have tested before; on the front side of the box, we can see a photo of the famous gamer, Johnathan Wendel, also known as Fatal1ty, along with the full name of the product:

 

 

 

The top cover opens like a book, to reveal the motherboard:

 

 

 

On the left side we can also see a description of the main product features:

 

 

 

The back side of the box offers a small description of the motherboard components and we do also get to see the full list of specifications:

 

 

 

After we have removed the outside packaging, we will find the motherboard sitting in a secondary black protective box, along with the accessories:

 

 

 

The rest of the bundle is located in a smaller enclosure, with two partitions:

 

 

 

As bundle, we can find:

 

6x SATA Data cables

1x 80-conductor Ultra ATA 66/100/133 IDE Ribbon Cable

1x Ribbon Cable for 3.5-in Floppy Drive

1x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card

2x SATA HDD Power Cables

1x 3.5mm Audio Cable

1x HDMI to DVI Adapter

1x I/O Panel Shield

1x Front USB 3.0 Panel + Rear USB 3.0 Bracket

4x HDD Screws (for installing a HDD or SSD onto the provided bracket)

6x Chassis Screws (for fixing the bracket onto the chassis)

 

 

 

As documentation, we get a Quick Installation Guide, two leaflets, one regarding VIRTU technology and the other regarding XFastUSB, a Software Installation Guide and a DVD with drivers and applications:

 

 

Inside the Software Installation Guide we find information on how to set up the UEFI and what represents each option:

 

 

 

The Quick Guide gives us information on how to perform the hardware installation, and at the end we can find the UEFI error codes, shown by Dr. Debug:

 

 

 

The moterboard has a clean layout and the colors chosen by the manufacturer are the ones that represent the Fatal1ty brand:

 

 

 

Between the VRM and the I/O connectors, we can find a lot of controllers; one of them is the ASMedia ASM1042, which is an USB 3.0 controller:

 

 

 

Next to it, there are two ASMedia ASM1442T high speed TMDS level shift ICs for the two HDMI output interfaces:

 

 

 

 

This board is equipped with two Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet controllers, which support teaming function:

 

 

 

 

A secondary ASM1042 USB 3.0 controller can be found close to the Realteks:

 

 

 

In the same area, we can find one of the available fan headers:

 

 

 

Further down, on the left side of the PCB there is the CD1 internal audio connector:

 

 

 

The audio interface is provided by the Realtek ALC892, which is a high performance multi-channel High Definition Audio Codec with proprietary lossless content protection:

 

 

 

Next to it, there is the Super I/O chip, Nuvoton NCT6776F:

 

 

 

The PCI slots are powered by the ASM1083 PCI Express-to-PCI forward bridge:

 

 

 

On the bottom of the board, we have a System Panel Header, two Chassis Fan connectors, the Front Panel IEEE 1394 Header, one Clear CMOS Jumper, two USB 2.0 Headers, the COM Port Header, one Floppy Connector, the HDMI_SPDIF Header, Infrared Module Header and the Front Panel Audio Header:

 

 

 

Near the CLRCMOS jumper, we also have the Chassis Speaker Header, the Power LED Header, the Power and Reset buttons with LEDs underneath and, of course, the Dr. Debug LED diagnostics display:

 

 

 

The PCI-Express x16 slots have enough space between them to fit dual-slot video cards in SLI or Crossfire:

 

 

 

The large Fatal1ty logo heatsink covers the PLX PEX8608 switch chip:

 

 

 

Near it there is a smaller heatsink, covering the Z68 chipset:

 

 

 

The UEFI chip is also nearby:

 

 

 

No less than 10 SATA ports come with this motherboard; ASRock advises us that we should use the SATA 0 to 5 ports for boot devices, in order to experience a short boot up time; the remaining 4 ports are linked to the ASMedia controller:

 

 

 

 

Compared to the P67 Fatal1ty Professional, the Z68 Fatal1ty has the USB 3.0 header moved to a much more convenient place; near it we can find the IDE connector and the 24-pin ATX power connector:

 

 

 

Between the memory slots and the ATX power connector, an additional fan header can be found:

 

 

 

Also, between the slots and the VRM heatsink on top of the CPU socket, we can locate two more fan headers:

 

 

 

The top left corner houses the 8-pin +12V power connector:

 

 

 

The shape of the VRM heatsinks is similar to the ones we have seen on the P67 board, but now their color is different:

 

 

 

 

The board features C.C.O., which means that we can install older coolers or water blocks onto the CPU:

 

 

 

The I/O Panel ports are the following (from left to right):

 

-2x USB 2.0 Ports

-1x PS/2 Keyboard Port

-VGA/D-Sub Port

-2x HDMI Ports

-Clear CMOS Switch

-2x USB 3.0 Ports along with one LAN Port

-one eSATA3 Connector along with a IEEE 1394 Port and two USB 2.0 ports (the last is the Fatal1ty mouse Port)

-2x USB 3.0 Ports along with one LAN Port

-Optical SPDIF Out Port + analog audio jacks

 

 

 

While looking at the UEFI interface from the Z68 Professional Gen3 board, we can see that the look has been preserved from the P67 Professional series. In addition to that, we can now change the skin with a second variant, named Fatal1ty 2, right from the Main tab; as on the other motherboards, the Main menu allows us to see the currently installed UEFI version, the CPU type, current CPU speed and so on:

 

 

 

The OC Tweaker is the menu where we will spend most of our time in case we want to perform overclocking; some preset overclocking values are also available, but it’s best to modify the values manually like the CPU Ratio, PLL Overvoltage option, Intel SpeedStep and so on:

 

 

 

From the same tab we can access the DRAM Configuration menu, along with the voltage settings:

 

 

 

At the end of the OC Tweaker menu, we can save our settings in three separate slots:

 

 

 

DRAM configuration tab allows us to choose one of the available XMP profiles or customize manually the timings:

 

 

 

 

The Advanced tab offers us additional options that we can modify, concerning CPU, USB interface, NB, SB, Storage Configuration, Super IO and so on:

 

 

 

Inside the CPU Configuration menu, we can set how many CPU cores we want enabled, we can enable or disable certain CPU states, CPU Thermal Throttling or Intel Virtualization Technology:

 

 

 

The first USB Configuration menu allows us to set some options regarding Legacy USB Support, but also we can modify the USB hardware delays and time-outs:

 

 

The North Bridge Section mostly lets us configure the options regarding integrated GPU and depending on how these are modified, we can customize the Virtu feature:

 

 

 

The South Bridge Section lets us enable or disable the main motherboard interfaces like LAN controllers, 1394 or onboard audio CODEC. The behavior of the LEDs also gets modified here by accessing the Good Night LED and Onboard Debug Port LED options:

 

 

 

The Storage Configuration menu gives us control over the ASMedia SATA3 controller and here we can also set the operating mode for the chipset SATA controller:

 

 

 

The Super IO Configuration menu lets us disable or enable the onboard FDD controller, along with the Serial and Infrared ports:

 

 

 

The ACPI Configuration menu holds most of the power management options:

 

 

 

From the second USB Configuration menu, we can enable or disable the USB buses:

 

 

 

Inside the H/W Monitor tab, we can adjust the fan speed settings for all available headers:

 

 

 

The Boot tab lets us set the priority of the boot devices, set the Full Screen Logo or enable/disable the Boot Failure Guard feature:

 

 

 

The Security tab lets us specify a Supervisor and a User password:

 

 

 

Finally, the Exit tab lets us save, discard changes on exit or load the manufacturer defaults:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 2500K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua U12P SE2

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM

Video: Sparkle X460 Calibre 1GB

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

Stability at 4.8GHz could be obtained with a similar voltage as on the P67 Fatal1ty Professional board:

 

 

 

 

With the latest version of AIDA64 utility, we can reveal more information regarding the motherboard, the CPU IMC and the Z68 chipset:

 

Motherboard

 

 

 

Sandy Bridge IMC

 

 

 

Z68 Chipset

 

 

 

The ASRock Windows system customization utility is named F-Stream Tuning and offers monitoring, fan control, overclocking capabilities or Energy Saving options. In the first tab, we can find the Hardware Monitor, where we can see the current clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds and voltages in real time:

The Fan Control tab allows us to customize the speed of the installed fans:

The Overclocking tab permits us to modify the clock frequencies, CPU ratio and voltages on the fly:

In the place of the OC DNA tab, we can now find the Fatal1ty Mouse Port customization menu, where we can set our preffered Polling Rate, up to 1000Hz; if we do not have the mouse installed in the appropriate port, these options will not be available:

Finally, in the Energy Saving tab, we can turn on the big green button. This option works when the system is at stock settings:

 

 

ASRock XFast LAN is another application on the installation disk, that helps optimize the Internet connection. After the application has been installed, we will see on the desktop the Real-Time Analysis status window, with which we can easily recognize which data streams we are currently transferring:

 

 

By using the advanced settings of the software, we can configure the priorities of the currently installed Internet applications, or add new ones to the list:

 

 

The Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 board comes bundled with THX TruStudio (the lite version of the Pro) application for audio signal enhancement; the Pro version is also available on the installation disk, but upon the setup launch, we are warned that “no compatible hardware is found”:

 

 

 

The Extreme4 Gen3 motherboard does also come with the Instant Boot application, which boosts considerably the computer boot time:

 

 

 

The ASRock XFast USB is used for boosting the transfer rates of the storage devices plugged on the USB ports; it functions really well as we could see from the previously reviewed boards featuring the exact same technology; as we can see from the GUI, we can choose for each storage device if we want to run in Normal or Turbo mode, by clicking on the respective icons:

 

 

 

The Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 comes with the Lucid VIRTU solution which was designed for Intel Sandy Bridge platform with Intel Processor Graphics enabled. VIRTU has two operating modes:

 

-i-Mode → saves power by using the Integrated GPU, we benefit from the Intel's advanced media feature on Sandy Bridge, and switches to the 3D discrete GPU only when needed; for using this mode, we have to plug the monitor in any of the motherboards' video outputs, and the Primary Display Adapter has to be selected “Onboard” inside the UEFI; a small performance drop can be seen when running 3D applications;

-d-Mode → does not save power, we continue to benefit from the Intel's advanced media feature on Sandy Bridge, and we get full 3D performance from the discrete GPU.

 

The main tab of the VIRTU application gives us the possibility to enable/disable the feature, choose where to put the VIRTU logo when an application is ran, or to adjust the slider regarding performance optimization:

 

 

 

Depending on the chosen mode, the middle tab inside the VIRTU GUI will change to “Applications” or “Games”; in the presented case, we are in d-Mode and the application lets us add our productivity applications that use Sandy Bridge advanced media features, like video media encoders:

 

 

 

The last tab informs us regarding the current version of the installed application:

 

 

 

The motherboard comes also bundled with the ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite, which is composed from different applications for being able to edit multimedia content:

 

 

ASRock has also bundled a media converter application, CyberLink MediaExpresso, but unfortunately it is offered in Trial mode, only available for 30 days and with certain limitations:

 

 

 

Synthetic

AIDA64 CPU Queen

AIDA64 PhotoWorxx

AIDA64 Zlib

AIDA64 AES

AIDA64 CPU Hash

AIDA64 FPU VP8

AIDA64 FPU Julia

AIDA64 FPU Mandel

AIDA64 FPU SinJulia

Cinebench R10

Cinebench R11.5 CPU Score

CrystalMark

PCMark05 System Suite

PCMark Vantage Suite

3DMark 2001 Default Run

3DMark 2003 CPU Score

3DMark 2005 CPU Score

3DMark 2006 CPU Score

3DMark Vantage CPU Score

3DMark11 Performance Score

PerformanceTest 7 CPU Mark

SuperPI 1.5 XS 2MB

wPrime 32M

 

Games

 

Crysis Very High DX10 1920x1200

Street Fighter 4 1920x1200

Far Cry 2 Ultra DX10 1920x1200

VIRTU i-Mode provides the user with Intel Sandy Bridge special features and power saving options when no 3D gaming is used. For using Lucid VIRTU solution in i-Mode, the display must be always connected to Sandy Bridge motherboard video output.

VIRTU d-mode is provided for demanding 3D gamers to achieve uncompromised 3D performance of the discrete GPU installed in the system. In this mode, VIRTU also allows the user to utilize Intel's new platform special features such as transcoding, while the display is connected to the discrete GPU.

Here we will compare the 3D performance in both modes to see how much the performance drops in different games.

Aliens vs Predator

 

Call of Juarez

 

Dirt 3

 

Far Cry 2

 

Just Cause 2

 

Street Fighter 4

 

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

 

Unigine: Heaven 2.1

 

The Z68 Fatal1ty Professional Gen3 motherboard is still a very attractive product, thanks to its PCI-Express 3.0 capabilities (which are enabled when an Ivy Bridge CPU is installed into the socket), and the attractive bundle.

 

The overall board layout is revised compared to the P67 Fatal1ty Professional version so this time we have a more conveniently placed USB 3.0 header. What is interesting is the fact that ASRock decided to keep the Floppy and IDE connectors on the board, considering that a lot of users are not using these interfaces any more and are taking unnecessary PCB space.

 

The UEFI interface is easy to use and for entry level users we also have some pre-defined profiles. The UEFI now features an option which allows us to change the background into a different one (something that reviewers and people requested on the forums, and ASRock listened).

 

The cooling system is visually attractive so it’s best to install the board into a case with a side window, to benefit from the extra eye candy.

 

A lot of software is bundled with the motherboard, some being full versions and some in Trial mode.

 

The Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Motherboard can be found at online shops for about 220 Euros.

 

ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 Motherboard Recommended For:

 

I would like to thank again to ASRock for making this review possible!