Verdict and Conclusion
Asrock has come a long way through the years. There is no way I would have thought Asrock could make a board this good when I first used an Asrock board in 2007. It has not exactly been overnight, but they now put out some top of the line boards that compete with the big boys.
When it comes to hardware, this board is fantastic. You get loads of power phases, 4-way SLI and Crossfire capabilities, and a couple of PCI slots. For those out there who want to stick with their trusty PCI sound card, or whatever other PCI device this is a very welcome addition.
The layout of the board is very spacious, but not overly large which is something I like. One thing I really wish Asrock added was voltage read points on the board. For extreme overclockers that can be huge to easily read voltages since they are not always what the board says they are in the bios.
The bios from the factory was quite stable throughout testing. The fact that it works with all different types of ram really impressed me. Tons of boards out there absolutely will not clock well with memory that uses Hyper IC. Those that have memory using Powerchip IC, BBSE, HCF0,D9GTR,Hynix or Hyper IC need not worry if they will work using this board. All of the above were tested and found to clock great throughout testing.
With all of the testing I did throughout this review I did not spend too much time on performance numbers. Well, that is due to the fact that pretty much all motherboards are going to perform within a percent of eachother in any given test. While there are anomolies, they are few and far between. I wanted to focus on the features of the board and the stability of it instead of numbers that would be very similar.
Being the owner of an Asus rampage 4 extreme motherboard, I have to say the X79 professional is easily the poor mans Rampage 4. In fact I will even go so far to say that the X79 Professional is BETTER. It does not implement a billion features that nobody will ever need, it overclocks the same, and it costs about half as much. If that isn’t a win, I don’t know what is.
The price on the X79 Professional can be found for around $280 USD. To put that into perspective, that is only around $15-20 more than the X79-UD3 I previously reviewed. In my eyes this board is an absolute steal for the X79 platform. It includes most of the features that are included on boards that cost twice as much, and does not include the features you will never need.
Pros:
- 4-Way SLI/Crossfire
- 10 SATA ports
- PCI slot
- Overclocks like a champ
- Solid Price
- Latest bios is rock solid
Cons:
- No voltage read points
- Could use a second 8-pin power plug
- Fatal1ty branding can be annoying in the bios
- Bios needs a little work as far as visuals
Final Verdict:
If you are looking for a great overclocking board but do not want to spend a ton of money, this is your board. The X79 Professional easily exceeded my expectations for a board at this price. It easily gives boards that cost twice as much some real tough competition. I have to say it quickly became my favorite X79 motherboard I have had the opportunity to get my hands on.
9.3/10
