At first I would like to thank ASRock for offering me a sample of their Z77 Extreme6 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!" "

XFast 555 Technology : XFast RAM / XFast LAN / XFast USB

 

 

Virtu Universal MVP - Uncompromised Game Response Performance

 

 

ASRock motherboard support Lucid Virtu Universal MVP technology that improves your PC’s visuals, with faster response times, improved video processing and smoother media playback, all with low power consumption. Brilliantly designed for gaming, Virtu Universal MVP™ switchable graphics software assigns tasks dynamically to the best graphics resource and features two exciting techniques – HyperFormance™ and Virtual Vsync™.

 

Intel® Smart Connect Technology

 

 

Intel® Smart Connect Technology keeps content always up-to-date! It means that your email, favorite apps, and social networks are continually and automatically updated even when the system is asleep. Smart Connect will periodically wake up the PC while in a sleep state and check updates for things like email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. No more waiting for the latest world news or friends’ updates to be delivered—just enable this function and you’re up-to-date and ready to go.

 

Intel® Rapid Start Technology

 

 

Intel® Rapid Start Technology gets your device up and running faster from even the deepest sleep, saving time and battery life. It quickly returns where you left off with a PC that goes from deep-sleep to full awake in a flash. The ultra-responsive capability gives your device the power to quickly resume to Windows® 7 OS within few seconds and ensures ultra-low power consumption when on standby. With Intel® Rapid Start Technology, users can jump right back into everything they were doing!

 

Intel® Smart Response

 

 

Intel® Smart Response Technology accelerates the system response experience by putting frequently-used blocks of disk data on a solid-state drive (SSD), providing dramatically faster access to user data than the hard disk alone can provide. For users who are tempted to connect the SSD and HDD on ASRock motherboard, Intel® Smart Response Technology can make the SSD become the "Cache of the HDD" to boost up the HDD access speed. ASRock motherboards with Intel® Smart Response Technology are able to drive 4X faster performance boost than a HDD-only system.

 

ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)

 

 

Fast, Easy and Free – ASRock OMG technology allows you to establish an internet curfew or restrict internet access at specified times. Administrators are able to schedule the starting and ending hours of internet access granted to other users. Normally, ISPs (Internet Service Provider) will charge for internet curfew service. The service controls “all” the PCs connected at home through network remotely but all the PCs in that network will be restricted to access the internet at pre-setup times. However, ASRock OMG is a free tool for controlling internet access of each single PC. Parents can easily control internet access through BIOS setup to protect their kids from using Internet at inappropriate time, and meanwhile, enjoy their own internet space.

 

Internet Flash

 

 

Internet Flash searches for available UEFI firmware updates from ASRock servers. System can auto-detect the latest UEFI from our servers and flash them within UEFI setup without entering Windows® OS.

 

Premium Gold Caps

 

 

Top-Class Quality Guaranteed

 

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

 

Digi Power

 

 

More Precise, More Efficient

 

By adopting digital pulse-width modulation (PWM), the ASRock motherboard 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.

 

8+4 Power Phase

 

 

This motherboard is designed with a 8 + 4 Power Phase design. It features sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. Plus, it offers unmatched overclocking capability and enhanced performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers as well.

 

No-K OC Technology

 

Overclocking is no longer for K-series CPU users only, for those CPUs that aren’t K-series, ASRock No-K OC can unleash your CPU’s power by boosting its frequency with just one click.

 

4 x DDR3 2800+(OC)

 

 

This motherboard unlocks maximum memory performance, coming with 4 DIMM slots for dual-channel memory, supporting up to DDR3 2800+ (OC) MHz!

 

 

 

Next-Gen PCI-E 3.0 Support

 

 

The ASRock motherboards support 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

 

 

 

Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals

 

 

Intel® HD Graphics, simplifies your designs by eliminating additional discrete graphics hardware, while integrating stunning visuals and performance for immersive gaming.

 

 

 

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 size.*

 

UEFI System Browser

 

 

UEFI system browser is a useful tool included in graphical UEFI. It can detect the devices and configurations that users are currently using in their PC. With the UEFI system browser, you can easily examine the current system configuration in UEFI setup.

AXTU - The All-in-1 Tuning Software

 

 

ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) is an all-in-one software to fine-tune different features in an user-friendly interface, which includes Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking, OC DNA, IES and XFast RAM. 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 OC DNA, you can save your OC settings as a profile and share with your friends. Your friends then can load the OC profile to their own system to get the same OC settings. In IES (Intelligent Energy Saver), the voltage regulator can reduce the number of output phases to improve efficiency when the CPU cores are idle without sacrificing computing performance. In XFast RAM, it fully utilizes the memory space that cannot be used under Windows® OS 32-bit CPU.

Free Bundle - Cyberlink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial

 

 

CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 trial now supports hardware transcoding and is optimized to accelerate 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!

MAGIX Multimedia Suite

The Z77 Extreme6 motherboard from ASRock comes shipped in a cardboard box with box art which matches the design of the internal heatsinks. On the frontal side we can see a large drawing representing the 555 feature of the motherboard, along with some additional logos of the supported technologies:

 

 

 

 

A short list of product specifications can be found one of the box laterals:

 

 

 

On the back, we’ll see an overview of the product features:

 

 

 

As we have seen on with the previously tested board, the box contains the bundle and documentation on the top layer:

 

 

 

On a closer look, we will find 4 SATA Data Cables, 1x I/O Panel Shield, 1x Front USB 3.0 Panel with 6 Chassis Screws and 4 HDD Screws, a Rear USB 3.0 Bracket and one ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card:

 

 

 

Besides the two leaflets that we have also found before, the board also ships with two manuals and an installation disk:

 

 

 

One of the leaflets gives us details regarding XFast LAN, XFast USB and XFast RAM:

 

 

 

The other one contains detailed information regarding the installation and operation of the VIRTU MVP technology this board supports:

 

 

 

Inside the Software Setup Guide we will find detailed information regarding the UEFI functions and options that we can customize:

 

 

 

The Quick Installation Guide is offered in multiple languages and besides the step-by-step instructions, we will also find the boot codes:

 

 

 

The motherboard is fully wrapped inside an anti-static bag:

 

 

 

The PCB has a dark brown color and all other connectors and slots are black; the heatsinks sport a catchy new design and cover the chipset along with the board VRM:

 

 

 

Near the VRM heatsinks, on the top of the PCB we will be able to find the Intersil ISL6367 Green Hybrid Digital Dual 6+1 Phase PWM Controller:

 

 

 

Two of the back USB 3.0 ports are served by the EtronTech EJ168A controller:

 

 

 

The first top PCI-Express x1 slot has nearby a MOLEX SLI/Crossfire power connector and two chassis fan headers:

 

 

 

The audio interface on this board is made available by the Realtek ALC898 7.1 High Definition Audio Codec with Content Protection:

 

 

 

Further down, on the left side of the PCB we will locate the Broadcom BCM57781 Integrated Gigabit Ethernet Controller:

 

 

 

The Super I/O chip is a Nuvoton NCT6776D:

 

 

 

The motherboard is also equipped with a Mini PCI-Express slot where we can plug a WiFi card or a SSD:

 

 

 

Nearby we’ll find the VIA Fire VT6308S 1394 Host Controller:

 

 

 

The Extreme6 board also has a PLX PEX8605 switch chip, which switches the available PCI-E lines available at the time to the devices that need them:

 

 

 

The ASMedia ASM1083 is a x1 PCI Express to 32-bit PCI Bridge, which controls the two PCI slots on the board:

 

 

 

On the bottom, we’ll be able to find the following headers (from right to left):

 

-System Panel Header

-Chassis Speaker Header

-Chassis Fan Connector

-Clear CMOS Jumper

-3x USB 2.0 Headers

-Consumer IR Module Header

-Front Panel IEEE 1394 Header

-IR Module Header

-Floppy Connector

-COM Port Header

-Front Panel Audio Header

-HDMI_SPDIF Header

 

 

 

The Dr. Debug LED display system can be found right under the chipset heatsink:

 

 

 

The UEFI chip, RESET button and POWER button are lined up on the right side of the PCB:

 

 

 

Further on we’ll be able to find 4x SATA 2 ports and 4xSATA 3; only the ports covered by the black sticker are driven by the Z77 chipset:

 

 

 

The extra two ports are operated by the ASMedia ASM1061 controller:

 

 

 

An additional USB 3.0 header is located near the 24-pin ATX power connector:

 

 

 

Two CPU fan headers can be found between the VRM heatsink and the memory slots, near the top of the PCB:

 

 

 

The board has not dropped the C.C.O. feature, so we have drilled holes for both LGA1155/1156 coolers and also LGA775:

 

 

 

Besides the top PCI-Express x1 slot we have mentioned earlier, the board is also equipped with 3x PCI-Express x16 slots and also two PCI:

 

 

 

The chipset and VRM heatsinks share the same design; the VRM ones are also linked by a heatpipe:

 

 

 

 

 

On the I/O panel, we’ll be able to find a combo PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse port, one D-SUB port, one DVI, a DisplayPort and one HDMI. Also here we’ll find a CLR CMOS button, two USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE1394 and an eSATA3 connector. The RJ45 LAN port has integrated two additional USB 3.0 ports and at the end we have the audio ports which also hold an Optical SPDIF Out:

 

 

 

The new UEFI version of the ASRock Setup Utility comes with a nice blue background and the main categories are sorted on the top side of the screen. The main section contains information about the installed UEFI version, the CPU type and running frequency, installed RAM and memory speed. Here we can also access System Browser or the Online Management Guard:

 

 

 

The System Browser window allows us to find a little more about the components connected on the motherboard:

 

 

 

With the Online Management Guard function, we can restrict the Internet access at the mentioned hours:

 

 

 

Moving further to the OC Tweaker Section, we will find some options that will pre-overclock the system like Advanced Turbo 30, Optimized CPU OC or Optimized GPU OC; also here we can also adjust the CPU ratio per all cores or per a single core, the BCLK, enable or disable Intel SpeedStep Technology, Turbo Boost or adjust the power limits:

 

 

 

Further down, we’ll be able to select a XMP profile, set the memory frequency or timings manually, but also to adjust the voltages:

 

 

 

At the end, we can save the modifications on three separate slots:

 

 

 

All needed DRAM configuration settings are located inside a separate menu:

 

 

 

 

The Advanced section contains multiple menus and here we will be also able to use the UEFI Update Utility by supplying a disk with the image or the setup program can download by itself from the Internet the required file:

 

 

 

The CPU Configuration menu lets us enable as many cores as we want, adjust power states like C3, C6, enable or disable CPU Thermal Throttling, No-Execute Memory Protection, Intel Virtualization Technology and more:

 

 

 

The North Bridge Configuration menu allows setting the primary graphics adapter, the PCI-Express link speeds or customizing IGPU functions:

 

 

 

The South Bridge Configuration menu lets us disable or enable the onboard controllers like audio, LAN, 1394 and also adjust features like Good Night LED:

 

 

 

From the Advanced Storage Configuration menu, we will be able to set the SATA controller mode from the chipset, but also enable or disable the ASMedia SATA3 controller; further down we can find the list of the detected storage devices:

 

 

 

From the same section, we can enable or disable the Intel Rapid Start and Smart Connect Technology functions:

 

 

 

 

The Super IO Configuration menu allows enabling the Floppy Controller, Serial Port or Infrared Port interfaces:

 

 

 

From the Advanced ACPI Configuration menu, we’ll be able to adjust the usual power management options:

 

 

 

The USB Configuration menu is self explanatory:

 

 

 

The Advanced Network Configuration menu allows us to customize the Internet access options:

 

 

 

The H/W Monitor section shows us the current temperatures, fan speeds and voltages; here we can also adjust the fan speeds or access the Dehumidifier function:

 

 

 

The Boot section lets us set the priority of the boot devices, set the status of Num-Lock at start-up, enable/disable the Full Screen logo, enable the Boot Failure Guard or modify the “Boot from Onboard LAN” function:

 

 

 

Inside the Security section, we can set a Supervisor, User password:

 

 

 

Finally, the Exit section gives us the possibility to save, discard or load UEFI factory defaults:

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU: Intel I5 3570K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Professional

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: Sparkle X560 Calibre

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

 

Stability at 4.7GHz could be obtained with a 1.330V value inside the UEFI and LLC Level 1, much higher than the previosly tested boards :

 

 

 

With the latest version of AIDA64 utility, we can reveal more information regarding the motherboard, the CPU IMC and the Z77 chipset:

 

Motherboard

 

 

 

Ivy Bridge IMC

 

 

 

Z77 Chipset

 

 

We will also find an interesting suite of applications; the first one would be AXTU, which allows changing the system operating parameters; the menu list is located on the left, from where we can enumerate Hardware Monitor, Fan Control and so on. The Hardware Monitor menu shows the current values for the CPU Speed, Ratio, Base Clock, Temperatures, Fan Speeds and, of course, Voltages:

 

 

 

Inside the Fan Control tab we can find the same controls as inside the UEFI interface:

 

 

 

Inside the Overclocking menu, we are able to adjust the BCLK and CPU multiplier on the fly, along with the system voltages:

 

 

 

 

 

With OC DNA, we can load and save from and to the available slots, to share them with our friends or as an extra backup:

 

 

 

 

If the system is not overclocked, we can enable power saving features inside the Intelligent Energy Saver menu:

 

 

 

XFast RAM utility can now be found in F-Stream and with it we will be able to create a RAMDisk for storing temp files or any other files (will be deleted upon reboot unless backup function is selected):

 

 

 

The Z77 Extreme6 motherboard does also come with the Instant Boot application, which considerably boosts the computer boot time:

 

 

 

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:

 

 

 

ASRock XFast USB boosts the speed of the connected USB drives like Flash or External HDDs:

 

 

 

THX TruStudio (the lite version of the Pro) is an application for audio signal enhancement. To make it work, we have to install the Realtek drivers from the ASRock Download page, otherwise, the application will report that no audio source has been found and will appear in disabled mode by default:

 

 

 

SmartView is a portal for connecting with other social websites, playing games and so on:

 

 

 

MediaEspresso Media Converter is offered in a 30-day trial:

 

 

 

Intel Rapid Start is hibernation on a hidden partition on our SSD drive, to make the system wake up faster:

 

 

 

With Intel Smart Connect, we will be able to keep the social applications updated like Facebook, email, Twitter, even when the computer is held into a sleep state:

 

 

 

An interesting set of multimedia applications from MAGIX is available for installation:

 

 

 

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 CPU Score

Cinebench R11.5 CPU Score

CrystalMark

PCMark05 System Suite

PCMark Vantage Suite

PCMark 7

3DMark 2001 Default Run

3DMark 2003 CPU Score

3DMark 2005 CPU Score

3DMark 2006 CPU Score

3DMark Vantage CPU Score

3DMark 11 Performance Score

PerformanceTest 7 CPU

SuperPI 1.5 XS 2MB

wPrime 32M

x264 Encoding

Games

Crysis

Street Fighter 4

Far Cry 2

Dirt 3

Just Cause 2

The board supports the Virtu MVP technology; to download the latest version of the application, we can go ahead and navigate to the Lucid website. The interface has multiple tabs and in the Main one, we can disable or enable the GPU Virtualization feature and set the location/behavior of the In-Game icon:

 

 

 

Virtu MVP is based on two technologies: HyperFormance and Virtual Vsync which can be enabled or disabled from the interface. HyperFormance is meant to remove redundant rendering tasks within the graphics pipeline for improving the overall game performance and frame rate; Virtual Vsync enables us to run the games at higher FPS, with no image tearing artifacts:

 

 

 

The next tab shows us the compatible applications with Virtu MVP; if a game/benchmark is not listed, we can introduce it manually into the list, by clicking on the Add button:

 

 

 

In the About tab, we can see the currently installed application version:

 

 

 

While the monitor was connected to the dedicated VGA card, we have performed some benchmarks to see the performance differences in all available modes:

 

Run 1= HyperFormance Off , Virtual Vsync Off

Run 2= HyperFormance On, Virtual Vsync Off

Run 3= HyperFormance Off, Virtual Vsync On

Run 4= HyperFormance On, Virtual Vsync On

3DMark Vantage

3DMark 11

Crysis

Street Fighter 4

Dirt 3

 

 

The Z77 Extreme6 motherboard from ASRock comes with a nice looking cooling system, which barely gets warm during load and has enough space between PCI-Express x16 slots for installing Crossfire or SLI setups with multi-slot cooling systems. As the previous high-end board we have tested from them, the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional, the Extreme6 also comes with VIRTU MVP support, support for 4x DDR3 2800+ memory in overclocking mode, premium gold capacitors and more. USB 3.0 interfaces are not entirely supported by the Intel chipset, but we have a mix with the Etron EJ168A, which controls two additional ports at the back. The board is also shipped with the 2-in-1 Frontal USB 3.0 panel, which is really handy if we do not have and older computer case which lacks USB 3.0 ports.

 

The board comes with the friendly Graphical UEFI interface, which makes the board easy to configure; the performance can be also tuned via AXTU (ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility), an application which includes Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking, OC DNA, IES and XFast RAM. Besides XFast RAM, the motherboard also comes with the free XFast USB and XFast LAN utilities, meant to boost the respective interfaces.

 

The VRM is now designed with an 8+4 Power Phase design and we had to struggle a lot for attaining a 4.7GHz stable overclock, compared to the Z77 Fatal1ty model, where it was a real walk in the park. Hopefully this issue will be fixed in the near future, to allow even higher clocks.

 

The board can be had online for about 165 Euros, which is a decent price for what is offered.

 

ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard Recommended For:

 

 

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