Review: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard

Posted by Ed Smith

Sunday, 22 April 2012 22:25

Article Index
Review: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Motherboard
Features
Specifications
Photos, The Box and Packaging
Photos, The Motherboard
More Photos, Installation
Software DVD Tour
Benchmarks at Stock Clock Speeds
Overclocking, Overclocked Benchmarks
Verdict and Conclusion

Page 2 of 10

Features

Coming to you directly from ASRock.com's product page for the Z77 Extreme6, the features list!

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™.

HyperFormance™ :
A new technology which combines integrated and discrete graphics for uncompromised performance and improves gaming frame rates 30-70%. It’s also supported with both ATI™ and NVIDIA^® graphics cards.

- Boosts responsiveness and FPS of any game
- Improves gaming frame rates 30-70%
- Increases Vsync frame rates - 120 FPS+
- Sharpens visual quality without tearing
- Works seamlessly with hundreds of games
Virtual Vsync :
A technology designed to solve the ever lasting debate between quality and performance. Bring GPU performance from 60 FPS Vsync limit back to its maximum while keeping Vsync image quality and no tearing.
Switchable Graphics :
Dynamically assigns tasks to the best graphics resource regardless of physical cable connections. * LucidLogix Virtu MVP is only supported under Windows^® 7 OS or later versions.

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^® Smart Connect Technology is only supported under Windows^® 7 OS or later versions.

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^® Rapid Start Technology is only supported under Windows^® 7 OS or later versions.

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.

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

PCI-E architecture	Raw bit rate	Bandwidth per lane per direction	Encoding Efficiency
PCI-E 2.0	5.0GT/s	500MB/s	80%
PCI-E 3.0	8.0GT/s	1GB/s	98.5%

Note: PCIe Gen3 is supported on 3rd Generation of Intel^® Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs.

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.

Note: Intel^® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals is supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.

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.*

*Windows^® Vista™ 64bit or Windows^® 7 64bit OS is required.

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!
Limitations:

30-day trial limitation
Convert videos to the H.264 format 50 times

MAGIX Multimedia Suite

The ultimate solutions to enhance your media experience. From music management, music creation, video editing to photo management. Simply do more with your media than you ever thought possible.

mufin player
The next generation music player plays all standard audio formats, manages large music collections, helps you discover music, offers a free online hard drive and more.

Music Maker Silver
The easiest way to arrange, remix, record and create your own music. Develop your musical style now - without any prior skills.

Video easy SE
With this program you can easily edit your movies, add transitions, text and background music, and even quickly enhance image and sound quality.

Photo Manager 10
Put an end to your digital photo chaos and organize your photo collection with ease. The program is fully equipped for fast import, photo and video clip management, photo editing and presentation.

That, my friends, is a lot of features!

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