In our next Intel Z170 motherboard review we take a look at what ASRock has to offer in the affordable Extreme4 enthusiast LGA1151 board.
Product on Review: Z170 Extreme4
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASRock
Street Price: £110 GBP / $135 USD
Moving over to the Intel Z170 chipset will force system builders to purchase a new Intel Skylake CPU (6th Generation) and DDR4 memory. The initial cost of buying both of these products is a costly venture and therefore its understandable that many who are seeking to move to this new platform will be trying to keep the overall cost to a minimum. Today we’ll be looking to ASRock and their lower-tier range as we test out the Z170 Extreme4 motherboard.
ASRock’s Z170 Extreme4 is a low-cost option for those wanting to jump over to Intel Z170. This motherboard brings with it a classy design which will pair up with other hardware well and has a reasonably solid feature-set. Both of these aspects of the attributes of a motherboard only tell part of the story and thus we must test the Extreme4 in a range of benchmarks to reveal how capable this offering really is!
About ASRock
ASRock Inc. is established in 2002, specialized in the field of motherboards. ASRock strives to build up its own brand. With the 3C design concept, “Creativity, Consideration, Cost-effectiveness”, the company explores the limit of motherboards manufacturing while paying attention on the eco issue at the same time, developing products with the consideration of eco-friendly concept.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
ASRock has been growing fast and become world third largest motherboard brand with headquarter in Taipei, Taiwan and branches in Europe and the USA. The young and vibrant company targets from mainstream to enthusiast MB segments for different kinds of users, owning reputation around the world market with its reliability and proficiency.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specficiations concerning ASRock’s Z170 Extreme4, taken directly from their website:
CPU
– Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1151)
– Digi Power design
– 10 Power Phase design
– Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
– Supports Intel® K-Series unlocked CPUs
– Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking
– Supports ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine
Chipset
– Intel® Z170
Memory
– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– Supports DDR4 3866+(OC)*/3600(OC)/3200(OC)/2933(OC)/2800(OC)/2400(OC)/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
– Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
– Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB**
– Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
BIOS
– 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS)
– Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology
– ACPI 5.0 Compliant wake up events
– SMBIOS 2.7 Support
– CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA Voltage Multi-adjustment
Graphics
– Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel® Quick Sync Video with AVC, MVC (S3D) and MPEG-2 Full HW Encode1, Intel® InTru™ 3D, Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel® Insider™, Intel® HD Graphics 510/530
– Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 12
– Max. shared memory 1024MB*
– Three graphics output options: DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2
– Supports Triple Monitor
– Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 24Hz / (3840×2160) @ 30Hz
– Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2304) @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports Accelerated Media Codecs: HEVC, VP8, VP9
– Supports HDCP with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
– Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
– Supports Purity Sound™ 3
– Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps
– 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier
– TI® NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets)
– Pure Power-In
– Direct Drive Technology
– PCB isolate shielding
– Supports DTS Connect
LAN
– Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Giga PHY Intel® I219V
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Expansion / Connectivity
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE6: single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4) / x4 (PCIE6))*
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots (Flexible PCIe)
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
PCIE6 is from chipset PCIE x4 lane.
Storage
– 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 14 and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 3 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s Connectors*
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket, supports type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
*Support to be announced
M2_1, SATA3_0, SATA3_1 and SATA_EXP_0 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
**Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Connector
– 1 x COM Port Header
– 1 x TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
– 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x USB 3.0 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
– 1 x Power Switch with LED
– 1 x Reset Switch with LED
*All CPU/Chassis Fan Connectors can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
Rear Panel I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 6 x USB 3.0 Ports (Intel® Z170) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– 1 x Clear CMOS Switch
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Software and BIOS
– ASRock A-Tuning
– ASRock Disk Health Report
– ASRock USB Key
– ASRock APP Charger
– ASRock XFast LAN
– ASRock XFast RAM
– ASRock Fast Boot (Fast Boot, Restart to UEFI)*
UEFI
– ASRock EZ Mode
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock My Favorites in UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Crashless BIOS
– ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)
– ASRock UEFI System Browser
– ASRock UEFI Tech Service
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer
– ASRock Easy Driver Installer
Accessories
– 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
– 1 x Screw for M.2 Socket
Hardware Monitor
– CPU/Chassis temperature sensing
– CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer
– CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature)
– CPU/Chassis Fan multi-speed control
– CASE OPEN detection
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA
Form Factor
– ATX Form Factor
– Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1151)
– Digi Power design
– 10 Power Phase design
– Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
– Supports Intel® K-Series unlocked CPUs
– Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking
– Supports ASRock Hyper BCLK Engine
Chipset
– Intel® Z170
Memory
– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– Supports DDR4 3866+(OC)*/3600(OC)/3200(OC)/2933(OC)/2800(OC)/2400(OC)/2133 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
– Supports ECC UDIMM memory modules (operate in non-ECC mode)
– Max. capacity of system memory: 64GB**
– Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 2.0
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots
BIOS
– 2 x 128Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS)
– Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology
– ACPI 5.0 Compliant wake up events
– SMBIOS 2.7 Support
– CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA Voltage Multi-adjustment
Graphics
– Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel® Quick Sync Video with AVC, MVC (S3D) and MPEG-2 Full HW Encode1, Intel® InTru™ 3D, Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel® Insider™, Intel® HD Graphics 510/530
– Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 12
– Max. shared memory 1024MB*
– Three graphics output options: DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2
– Supports Triple Monitor
– Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 24Hz / (3840×2160) @ 30Hz
– Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2304) @ 60Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports Accelerated Media Codecs: HEVC, VP8, VP9
– Supports HDCP with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
– Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 Ports
Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
– Supports Purity Sound™ 3
– Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps
– 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier
– TI® NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets)
– Pure Power-In
– Direct Drive Technology
– PCB isolate shielding
– Supports DTS Connect
LAN
– Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Giga PHY Intel® I219V
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection)
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Expansion / Connectivity
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 Slots (PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE6: single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4) / x4 (PCIE6))*
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots (Flexible PCIe)
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)
*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
PCIE6 is from chipset PCIE x4 lane.
Storage
– 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 14 and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 3 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s Connectors*
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket, supports type 2230/2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)**
*Support to be announced
M2_1, SATA3_0, SATA3_1 and SATA_EXP_0 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
**Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Connector
– 1 x COM Port Header
– 1 x TPM Header
– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x CPU Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)
– 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)*
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
– 1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x USB 3.0 Header (Supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
– 1 x Power Switch with LED
– 1 x Reset Switch with LED
*All CPU/Chassis Fan Connectors can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.
Rear Panel I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM1142) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 6 x USB 3.0 Ports (Intel® Z170) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– 1 x Clear CMOS Switch
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Software and BIOS
– ASRock A-Tuning
– ASRock Disk Health Report
– ASRock USB Key
– ASRock APP Charger
– ASRock XFast LAN
– ASRock XFast RAM
– ASRock Fast Boot (Fast Boot, Restart to UEFI)*
UEFI
– ASRock EZ Mode
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock My Favorites in UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock Crashless BIOS
– ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)
– ASRock UEFI System Browser
– ASRock UEFI Tech Service
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer
– ASRock Easy Driver Installer
Accessories
– 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
– 1 x Screw for M.2 Socket
Hardware Monitor
– CPU/Chassis temperature sensing
– CPU/Chassis Fan Tachometer
– CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature)
– CPU/Chassis Fan multi-speed control
– CASE OPEN detection
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, DRAM, VPPM, PCH 1.0V, VCCIO, VCCSA
Form Factor
– ATX Form Factor
Unboxing & Closer Look
For this review we’ve produced a video which reveals the packaging, bundle and a close, detailed overview of the motherboard. Please check out the video below for a comprehensive look at the feature-set:
Intel Z170 Features
Intel’s initial release schedule for Skylake was planned well in advance, long before Microsoft officially announced the launch date of Windows 10. Most of August was set aside for conferences and seminars including the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco, all with the aim of taking the wraps off and going deep into the technology within this new CPU architecture. Unfortunately bringing forward the release date of ‘K-series’ SKUs has meant that they’re unable to furnish detailed technical info to reviewers and members of the press, and won’t be releasing this information until IDF. The following is information which has been released thus far.
Developed under the codename Sunrise Point, Intel’s 100-series chipset is designed to operate hand-in-hand with an Intel ‘Skylake’ 6th Generation core processor. It utilises an LGA 1151 socket, underscoring the fact that neither CPU nor motherboard are backwards compatible with any of the previous generation hardware. As a result Sunrise Point is free to add additional features not present in x90-series and earlier chipsets.
Memory and Overclocking
Most notably from a consumer perspective Sunrise Point is the first Intel mainstream computing platform to be compatible with DDR4, and most Z170 and H170 designs are indeed likely to feature this memory technology rather than continue with DDR3L (a memory spec which Skylake CPUs can also handle). Default support is at DDR4-2133, however speeds above this are possible if a Z170 motherboard and K-Series CPU are used in tandem. One year on from the release of Haswell-E DDR4 pricing is quickly becoming more bearable, and so whilst it’s an additional expense to swallow compared with Haswell/Z97 it may not be quite the price premium you expect.
With Skylake Intel are, for the first time in many generations of Core architectures, once again re-enabling fine grade overclocking of memory at the Base Clock (BCLK) level. The PCI subsystem clock is now independent of BCLK, allowing for robust overclocking support which dispenses with coarse ratios in favour of a MHz by MHz stepping to far higher levels. Pre-launch testing by board partners have ascertained that stable BCLK’s of up to 400MHz are possible (with a stepping down of CPU multiplier), a far cry from even last year’s Haswell Refresh.
It should be noted that overclocking support has also been improved through greater control over individual CPU voltage inputs. Haswell made use of a Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator on the CPU itself; in essence, the motherboard supplied one input voltage and the FIVR divided this into individual on-board component inputs. With Skylake/Z170 the motherboard chipset controls each of these voltages individually, allowing direct adjustment for greater stability where necessary. This could theoretically be a great boon to enthusiast overclockers eager to get every last smidgen of performance out of a system.
Chipset and PCH Features
As we noted in our review of the two launched Skylake CPUs, up to 16 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes exist as a direct low-latency connection between CPU and 3rd party hardware such as graphics cards. These can operate in a 1×16 lane, 2×8 lane or 1×8 lane and 2×4 lane setup for multi-GPU configurations depending on the hardware implementation chosen by the board partners, but aren’t sufficient alone to support additional hardware options such as PCI-Express storage. The Platform Controller Hub therefore provides additional PCI-Express lanes to peripheral controllers.
In contrast to Intel’s 9-series motherboards Sunrise Point can supply up to an additional 20 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes, potentially resulting in double the bandwidth compared with the 20 PCIe 2.0 lanes of the previous generation. These new lanes augment the chipset storage options, most notably in respect to PCIe storage with many designs now featuring multiple next-generation storage options rather than a singular M.2 or SATA-Express port. Whilst not the low-latency connection you require for effective graphics processing, they will be more than suitable for new high-speed storage options including RAID for PCI-Express thanks to an upgraded DMI connection between PCH and CPU.
Further augmenting the platform’s storage capabilities is the adoption of new Intel Rapid Storage Technology protocols allowing PCI-Express storage to be used as caching drives for slower media. Potentially still a niche technology, the stark benefits of next-generation SSDs over mechanical drives as well as future SSDs could be just the breakthrough Intel RST needs to capture mainstream adoption.
In an additional change from the 9-series motherboards support has been added for up to 10 native USB 3.0 ports and 14 USB 2.0 ports, with a maximum of 16 ports in some combination thereof. It should be noted that so far as we can tell USB 3.1 isn’t actually native to the Sunrise Point chipset. Implementation is up to motherboard vendors through 3rd party controllers, and it’s to their credit that many have adopted the new high-speed standard without any fuss. For some both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors are available, with Type-C the most common otherwise.
Those who make use of on-board CPU graphics can now enjoy support for up to three digital display outputs, or make use of the Intel 530 Graphics capabilities in tandem with discrete graphics. Microsoft Windows 10 (via DirectX 12) includes new options which allow disparate graphics hardware to be used in tandem, making best use of processing power where possible. Even without this, the transcoding capabilities of Intel QuickSync make it a tempting proposition for fast and efficient h.265 encoding and decoding, even if your discrete graphics hardware is formidable.
With unchanged support for six conventional SATA III storage ports, Intel 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet, Intel Audio options and comprehensive UEFI BIOS options, Sunrise Point (and by extension all Z170 motherboards) are choc-full of features. That’s not to say that there aren’t some omissions – lack of native USB 3.1 support being the most obvious, whilst native U.2 connectors are a premium feature supplied by board partners – but as a whole the platform is a significant step forward overall.
Test Setup, Methodology & Overclocking
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-6700K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASRock Z170 Extreme4
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASRock Z170 Extreme4
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2014 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Home Suite
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
Games – Tomb Raider, THIEF
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2014 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Home Suite
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
Games – Tomb Raider, THIEF
Other Software
Temperature Analysis: Real Temp
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Stress Testing Software: AIDA64 Stability Test
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z
Overclocking
Overclocking with Skylake is now fully flexible since we can adjust many variables including BCLK and ratio/multiplier.
Our current milestone is 4.8GHz with the Intel Core i7-6700K but we soon realised that Extreme4 was unable to achieve such a result. The best we could accomplish was 4.6GHz – which isn’t too disappointing by any means. To achieve this we required 1.4v and 100×46.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z170 chipset, energy results can fluctuate between manufacturers due to the features and specifications that are integrated. First of all, for the idle tests the system is cold booted into Windows and no additional applications are executed – the watts are noted on the external energy monitor we use and then the system is loaded with 3DMark FireStrike – watts are again monitored for the duration of the test and the highest rated wattage result is then noted down. Below are the results of this energy test.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. I think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process, and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.
Benchmarks: 3DMark
3DMark FireStrike Product PageFire Strike is our new showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for high-performance gaming PCs. It is our most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today. Fire Strike will only be available in the Windows editions of 3DMark initially.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: Tomb Raider & THIEF
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because gamers will want to know if there are any significant benefits. So here we have two popular and recent gaming titles which feature a dedicated benchmark tool within them to display results.
Conclusion
Throughout Intel’s mainstream enthusiast chipset releases we’ve always had a soft spot for ASRock Extreme4 as it usually offers the ideal balance of features, performance and price. ASRock’s latest Z170 Extreme4 reinforces this very notion.
Furnished with a classy matt black livery the Extreme4 is an eye-catching platform to interconnect your hardware. This motherboard is among the most stylish offerings we’ve seen and easily combines with other kit thanks to its minimalistic design.
Throughout the Extreme4, there are features which most users will be satisfied to see included. There is M.2 storage support, dual-BIOS, onboard management buttons and USB 3.1 type A/C availability.
When we put the Extreme4 through our benchmark suite the motherboard handled the broad range of tests in a variety of ways. Some of the results were clearly impressive while other results placed Extreme4 at the bottom of the comparison list. Stepping into the domain of overclocking realised a 4.6GHz achievement – 4.8GHz is our current milestone with another rival. This overclocking result is still admirable and the UEFI BIOS which accompanies Extreme4 makes it easy to attain to such an outcome. The BIOS contains a wealth of useful features for both novice and advanced users.
What makes Extreme4 such a compelling purchase is the price-tag. At just £110 GBP / $135 USD, this motherboard should be on the short-list if you’re on the hunt for a new Intel Z170 motherboard which isn’t going to cost you the earth.
The Extreme4 is a good option for those who are on a tight budget. This motherboard has a decent lineup of features, looks sleek and offers up some good performance.
VIDEO REVIEW – VORTEZ TV
Pros
+ Super-sleek design
+ Good feature-set
+ Good performance
+ Plenty of options to modify in BIOS
+ Affordable
Cons
– Is outperformed in some benchmarks
– May struggle to achieve big overclocks
+ Super-sleek design
+ Good feature-set
+ Good performance
+ Plenty of options to modify in BIOS
+ Affordable
Cons
– Is outperformed in some benchmarks
– May struggle to achieve big overclocks
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
