ASRock X79 Extreme4 Review

[siopao1984]

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ASRock is well known for making entry level motherboards at a cheap price, however recently they have started to turn their wheels into the enthusiast market segment, and for that they have adopted nicer styling such as the gold and black theme as well as added features enthusiasts want. We recently took a look at their Z68 Extreme7 Gen3, one of their highest end products, but with the launch of the X79 platform ASRock decided to go even higher to an Extreme9 and Extreme11, however today we will look at a board which is much more affordable, the X79 Extreme4. Like always I will take an in-depth look at the hardware and then the performance of that hardware through different benchmarks. Then we can see how the Extreme4 stacks up to high-end boards such as the X79-UD7 and BigBang X-Power2. So buckle up and get ready for the ride.

The X79 chipset has all the goodies one could ever imagine, except for a few things. First off it is missing USB 3.0, something we hope to see with Intel's Z77 chipset. Second it is missing all of those additional SAS or SATA6GB/s ports we saw on earlier X79 prototypes. That was a lot of SATA/SAS ports and now we have none of it, so we basically have a redo of the Z68 chipset just without SSD Caching and iGPU support.What is more interesting about the LGA2011 platform is what is the CPU has in store for us. Even though the current LGA2011 CPU's lack virtualization and PCI-E 3.0 certification, they still have many features. Quad channel memory controller with supreme overclocking abilities is a plus as is PCI-E 3.0 which can't be claimed until the second stepping gets PCI-SIG certification. We seem to take for granted the 40 PCI-E lanes and native Quad SLI/CF support. With LGA2011 we have Intel moving back to satisfy the overclocker, of course not how we would like, but BLCK straps are nothing to push to the side. Specifications:

	MSI X79 BigBang X-Power II
CPU Support	- Supports Intel® Core™ i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 Socket - Digi Power Design - Advanced 6 + 2 Power Phase Design - Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology - Supports Hyper-Threading Technology - Supports Untied Overclocking Technology
Chipset	Intel X79 Express
Memory	- Quad Channel DDR3 memory technology - 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots - Supports DDR3 2400+(OC)/1600/1333/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory - Supports DDR3 ECC, un-buffered memory with Intel® Workstation 1S Xeon processors E5 16xx/26xx/46xx series in socket LGA 2011 - Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB* - Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2
Multi-GPU Support	- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ , 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™ - Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ , 3-Way SLI™ and SLI™
Expansion Slots	- 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE1 @ x16 mode; PCIE3 @ x16 mode; PCIE4 @ x8 mode) - 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots - 2 x PCI slots
Storage	- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® X79, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions - 3 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
LAN	- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® X79, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions - 3 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
Audio	- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec) - Premium Blu-ray audio support - Supports THX TruStudio™
USB	- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by ASMedia ASM1042, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s - 1 x Front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) by ASMedia ASM1042, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
FireWire	N/A
Back Panel I/O Ports	I/O Panel - 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port - 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port - 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port - 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port - 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports - 1 x eSATA3 Connector - 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports - 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) - 1 x IEEE 1394 Port - 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED - HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Internal I/O Connectors	- 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions - 5 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors - 1 x IR header - 1 x CIR header - 1 x COM port header - 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header - 1 x IEEE 1394 header - 1 x Power LED header - CPU/Chassis/Power/SB FAN connector - 24 pin ATX power connector - 8 pin 12V power connector - SLI/XFire power connector - Front panel audio connector - 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports) - 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) - 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
Form Factor	- ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm

Read more: ASRock X79 Extreme4 Review by VR-Zone.com

[siopao1984]

The box is that of a typical ASRock board; it is very simple, it looks like it is made of brushed aluminum.



Accessories are pretty sparce, nothing like the Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 we looked at a while ago.

• Manuals and Driver DVD
• 3-Way SLI Bridge
• 2-Way Short SLI Bridge
• 4x Black SATA6GB/s Cables
• I/O Shield

The board is pretty standard for an X79 board, we have 4-DIMMs which is the same as others in the price range except for the ASUS 8-DIMM standard. We have a tiny fan over the PCH which was practical if the X79 chipset has SAS enabled, but since it is disabled the TDP isn't high enough to warrant active cooling, and thus the fan isn't really needed. We have the ability to run 3-Way SLI on this board and it is nice to see that ASRock provided the bridge for that. The PCB is brown... black I mean, just like MSI and ASUS the mainsteam black PCB used comes up brown when light is shined on it because of the copper traces which seep their copper color through the thin black layer giving the board a brown tint. You can see that where there are not traces it is black, but where there are traces it is brown. However the black slots and the darkened socket color make up for it, as well as the gold painted capacitors which contrast well with the brown.



Back I/O Panel:

• PS/2 Keyboard
• PS/2 Mouse
• ClearCMOS button
• S/PDIF Coaxial and Optical
• 2x USB 3.0
• 6x USB 2.0
• RJ-45 Ethernet
• IEEE 1934A
• eSATA3GB/s(Revision 2.0)
• 7.1 Audio

The socket has a metallic tint to it. The VRM is 6+2 phases, which might or might not be enough for extreme overclocking the high TDP SB-E CPUs. We see a standard socket layout; there are two capacitors between each set of DIMMs and the socket which is what we like to see, as well as a lot of output capacitors for the VRMs, including the VCCIO VR. You can also spot a MOLEX power connector which is meant for extra PCI-E power if you are OCing your GPUs and want to run 3-Way SLI or CF. The 24-pin ATX connector is located pretty north of its usual spot which might be an issue for the cases with bottom mount PSUs, but is great for cases with the PSU mounted at the top. The 8-Pin is in the usual location, with the latch facing away from the DIMMs. We see a total of 3 fan connectors here, two of them are next to the CPU socket area, however on the same side.



Here we have the PCH heatsink with the pesky little fan. As fans get smaller their CFM become much lower, it isn't linear with fan size, so a small fan can only push a few CFM, which is almost worthless compared to an 80mm fan. There are a substantial amount of SATA ports, the gray are SATA 6GB/s and the sticker says to use Intel before using the ASMedia ports. The USB 3.0 port and straight angled SATA 6GB/s port are moved north for front panel devices to plug into, which is a great thing to see. There are two fan connectors in this region, as well as the power and reset buttons. The addition of the POST code display is just wonderful for overclockers and for general builders as it lets the user know what is going on at that very moment.



Here we have 3 PCI-E 16x slots. So below I will list what each operates at.

• PCI-E 3.0 16X @ 16X
• PCI-E 2.0 1X@1X
• PCI
• PCI-E 3.0 16X@16X
• PCI
• PCI-E 3.0 16Xslot @ operating at 8X always.
• PCI-E 2.0 1X@1X

So the first and second PCI-E 16x slots are wired for 16X at all times, since there are only 40X PCI-E 3.0 lanes from the CPU, the last 16X slot is wired for 8X at all times. That is why the 2-Way SLI connector is so small, because you don't want to run 2-Way in the first and last PCI-E 16X slots because then you would only get 16X/8X instead of 16X/16X. PCI slots are native to the X79 PCH, and the 1X slots all operate at PCI-E 2.0 as that is what the PCH provides.

[siopao1984]

So without the heatsinks we can more clearly see how the VRM and the PCH area are designed.



ASRock is using 6 phases for the CPU Cores(vCore) and 2 for the CPU VCCSA(System Agent), now you are wondering how does ASRock get all that power to the power hungry SBe CPUs with only 6 phases, and the answer would be that you don't need 8 or 12 or 16 phases to run a SBe CPU to 5 GHz and beyond. The truth is you just need a certain amount of power, and you can easily provide 30-40A of power per each phase if you use good parts or ones that have high current ratings. In the case of this board they are using very nice inductors, about 35-40A per phase. If you are wondering why the number of MOSFETs isn't just 2 per phase it is because only the 2 phases for the VCCSA use two MOSFETs per phase. ASRock decided to use 3 MOSFETs per phase, one high-side MOSFET is ONSemi 4927N which are rated for about 38A per phase at 25C, and two low-side MOSFETs are about 40A per phase at 25C. Normal operation of course isn't at 25C, more like 50C+ so make sure that you have a fan blowing over the VRM area when you are OCing. The VRM parts are selected to support overclocking.



So above is a CHiL CHL8328 a digital 8 phase controller with VRD12 certification. It is important to note that the ASRock X79 boards will be the last boards of ASRock to use CHiL or IR digital controllers, instead for Z77 ASRock has switched to using the analog controllers such as those from Intersil and STMicro devices. This controller is only found on ASUS boards because it is a part only sold to ASUS, however ASRock was able to use it because they buy in bulk with ASUS. The switch from digital to analog shouldn't be one that is widely observed because ASRock never implemented all the benefits of digital power control such as those settings you find in ASUS UEFI which allow you to control different parameters of the VRM. ASRock has only ever implemented LLC and some current limits, not all the OVP, OTP, transient controls, and temperature and power balance controls which are available with CHiL and IR digital power controllers. This could be because they don't use CHiL drivers, instead they use drivers from STMicro for their VRM, which could limit the amount of digital controls which can be implemented. You can see those drivers used below, and the same drivers were used on the Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 we looked at a while back.



Eight ST6743 drivers are used and are mounted on the backside. If you are wondering, yes drivers get hot beucase they switch on and off thousands of times per second, but the copper in the PCB should cool them down.



DRAM uses a single phase along with a Richtek single phase PWM with integrated driver. Each set of 2 DIMMs uses one phase each.



We are happy to see that ASRock is using the ALC898 which is a high quality 108dB SNR chipset which most high-end X79 boards are using. However we would have liked to see some more capacitors, but we will check audio performance later in the review. The nuvoTon NCT6776F provides SIO capabilities as well as the PS/2 ports on the back. A VIA VT6315N provides two IEEE 1394A ports. A Broadcom BCM57781 provides GBit LAN capabilities. Two ASMedia ASM1061 provide 4 extra SATA6GB/s ports, and two ASM1042 provide a total of four USB 3.0 ports.

[siopao1984]

ASRock's UEFI isn't so fancy as some of the others, but it gets the job done. It was pretty easy to use, and had a lot of good aspects to it such as it wasn't too confusing to find what you needed to do.



Above is the OC menu.



Main screen is above.



You can save profiles as well.



Voltage control.



DRAM timings.



Advanced configuration.



You have the ability to turn off the LEDs inside the power&reset and POST code, but you cannot control the fan on the PCH.



SATA Configuration.



Included Software:



System Temperature and fan monitoring through AXTU which is ASRock's Extreme Tuning Utility.



Here we have OC tweaking options.



XFast Utility.



THX Studio for the Audio.

[siopao1984]

Test Setup:

CPU Intel Core i7 3960X
Motherboards X79 Extreme4, X79 BigBang, X79-UD7
Memory G.Skill Ripjaw-Z DDR3 2133 8GB Quad Channel Kit
Cooler Corsair H100
SSD Samsung 830 64GB
PSU Corsair AX1200


Overclocking:
In the beginning we weren't able to easily hit 2400mhz memory nor 5ghz, it took a bit of tuning. ASRock's LLC is still reversed, which poses a problem to those who don't know. The lack of voltage read points makes it even worse. However once we setup the current capabilities correctly we were able to proceed with overclocking. This board did require a bit of voltage to hit proper memory speeds, but for the VCore we didn't have to use much. This board was able to keep up with the other two, the BigBang and the UD7, so it isn't bad for OCing at all, and they have more phases, this proves that phases don't mean much. The quality of the phases however does.





Quick SuperPI to test memory stability, 5GHz wasn't very good with stability as the heat was too much for our cooler. Our CPU is a bad ES stepping which requires a lot of power, and thus puts out a lot more heat than your average retail CPU.

[siopao1984]

Benchmarks are all ran at the same speed on every board with Turbo Mode, we were lucky in that all the boards on hand are able to be modified so that their turbos OC to the same speed per core. So these tests are also a test at the transient response of the VRM as well to how fast it can get the speed up there.

CPU Benchmarks:












Memory Benchmarks:






3D/Gaming Benchmarks:

[siopao1984]

Audio:



The audio codec performed as most ALC898 codecs perform. It did pretty good. The RMAA 5.5 tests do a good job of analyzing the input, the part which cannot be controlled is the cable used. Everything looks good except for harmonic distortion, which is still good.


SATA:



Everything looks alright, the 4K speeds and sequential are slightly lower than they should be, but AS-SSD is a harsh benchmark.



DPC Latency:



Everything looks good except when we open the ATXU program, same as on both of our other boards the DPC spikes, however it resides after the program has finished opening. It is better than some other cases we have seen, watching a video provides us with a decent baseline, and everything looks fine.

[siopao1984]

Conclusion

ASRock actually did a nice job with this board, it is a good value for the price, and has some nice features. We really like the addition of POST code and buttons to the Extreme4 line, and we do like the inclusion of the ATXU software to help newer overclockers OC. However while we are enthusiasts, there are also those who like to use auto OC programs, which ASRock does have built into their BIOS. They didn't work so well for us, but they have worked well for other people. The design is pretty stylish, and looks like a fancy board, we do wish that all manufacturers would build true black PCBs like one manufacturer currently does, so if ASRock did that then we could say its boards are among the best looking. However the addition of gold painted capacitors really gets people hyped up for some reason, they should wait to see what ECS did to their Z77 boards. We are glad ASRock isn't doing crazy stuff like that.




This board is loaded to the brim with connectivity, however it doesn't have much USB 3.0, something the GIGABYTE boards and the ASRock boards this round share. We keep seeing two back panel USB 3.0 ports and one internal USB 3.0 port per board, which we think could be a bit augmented for a premium platform such as X79. The PCH fan needs to go and some voltage read points need to be added considering they don't cost anything. The POST code display also needs to be moved along with the buttons to a place where a 3rd GPU won’t block them. Also more DIMMs wouldn’t be bad, but at $215 USD we aren’t going to complain about that or voltage read points. This board really is a decent overclocker despite is 6 phases, it really can support a high SBe OC, which results in around 200W to 300W, so it is nice to see the quality for the VRM is up there. However watch out, the VRM got pretty toasty at 5GHz. While the PCI-E slot locks aren’t the best, the DIMM one-side entry is nice, but make sure your memory is secured before powering on the system or else your memory could get fried. All in all we do thing this board is one heck of a bang for your buck, bringing features of more expensive boards into an affordable price range. Its performance is good as its audio, SATA, gaming, CPU, and memory performance keep up with two of the highest end X79 boards on the market. This board is worth checking out at its good price.

Pros
Great VRM Quality
Stylish Heatsinks and Color Scheme
Good OC abilities
SLI Spacing is well thought out
Performance is Great

Cons
Low Phase Count & High Heat
Position of POST Code Display
PCI-E Slot Locks are hard to use
Only 4-DIMMs instead of 8