Looking to save some cash while still having access to great features? We check out the mid-range Z370 Extreme4 motherboard which comes in with an attractive price-tag.
Product on Review: Z370 Extreme4
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASRock
Street Price: £150 GBP – $175 USD
Anyone considering the new Intel Coffee Lake platform and the Z370 chipset will be aware of the multitude of motherboards available. There are currently some 30+ options populating the market, and it can therefore be quite a tricky task narrowing down which solution to choose as the basis for your next upgrade.
Many of the boards we’ve looked at so far have been priced just shy of the £200 / $200 mark and today we’ll be checking out a motherboard which bears identical, if not better features for a fraction of the cost.
In the spotlight today we have the ASRock Z370 Extreme4. As has always been the case, Extreme4 moves in as a mid-range option, carrying strong features and hopeful performance. Some of these features include, dual M.2 slots, USB 3.0 and 3.1 headers and NVIDIA SLI/AMD Crossfire support.
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 specifications concerning the Z370 Extreme4:
CPU
• Supports 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 4333MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x D-Sub
• 1 x HDMI™ port (1.4b)
• 1 x Displayport™ port (1.2)
Multi-GPU
• Supports 3-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
• 8 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 slots (Supports Intel Optane Memory – 8th Gen Processor required)
RAID
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Realtek ALC 1220 Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 1 x Intel i219 Gigabit LAN controller
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 2 x Antenna Ports
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM3142) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM3142) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Intel® Z370) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Dimension
• 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )
• ATX Form Factor
• Supports 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 processors for Socket LGA1151
Chipset
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
Main Memory
• 4 x DDR4 memory slots, support up to 64GB
– Supports DDR4 Up to 4333MHz
• Dual channel memory architecture
• Supports ECC, un-buffered memory
– ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)
• Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Slots
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (Modes: 16, 8, 4)
• 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slot
Onboard Graphics
• 1 x D-Sub
• 1 x HDMI™ port (1.4b)
• 1 x Displayport™ port (1.2)
Multi-GPU
• Supports 3-Way AMD® CrossFire™ Technology
• Supports 2-Way NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Storage
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
• 8 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• 2 x M.2 slots (Supports Intel Optane Memory – 8th Gen Processor required)
RAID
• Intel® Z370 Chipset
– Supports RAID 0, RAID1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 for SATA storage devices
Audio
• Realtek ALC 1220 Codec
– 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio
– Supports S/PDIF output
LAN
• 1 x Intel i219 Gigabit LAN controller
Back Panel I/O Ports
– 2 x Antenna Ports
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM3142) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (ASMedia ASM3142) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 4 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Ports (Intel® Z370) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Dimension
• 12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )
• ATX Form Factor
Unboxing & Closer Look Video
For this review we’ve produced a video showcasing the items included in the box and a detailed rundown of the included features on this motherboard. Please click on this link or watch the video below:
ASRock UEFI BIOS Video Tour
Below is a video tour of the ASRock’s UEFI BIOS – showing a brief overview of the options available:
Test Setup, Methodology & Overclocking
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX480
Storage OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Monitor AOC U2879VF
Capture Device Epiphan AV.iO 4K
Cooling Corsair H100i GTX
Motherboard ASRock Z370 Extreme4
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz
Graphics AMD Radeon RX480
Storage OCZ Vector 180 240GB SSD
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Monitor AOC U2879VF
Capture Device Epiphan AV.iO 4K
Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU/OpenGL Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA – CPU & Memory benchmarks
POV-RAY – CPU benchmarks
TrueCrypt – CPU benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks & Memory
PCMark 8 – Home Suite & Photoshop
3DMark FireStrike – 3D Benchmark
Games – Rise of the Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
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
Like previous generations, the Intel Core i7-8700K is unlocked and also has flexible attributes in terms of the BCLK and ratio/multiplier. This makes the job of overclocking much easier.
Extreme4 was able to reach the 5GHz milestone with the 8700K but to reach such an achievement we had to increase the CPU core voltage beyond 1.4v to 1.42v. This meant that temperatures rose quite rapidly.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using the Z370 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: 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: 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: SiSoftware SANDRA
SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but we 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: POV-RAY
Persistence of Vision Raytracer’s PovRay is a free and open source 3D animator application with versions for computers with different operating systems.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
This product allows users to build their custom 3D worlds with excellent quality despite their computer’s hardware. It has adjustable options for levels of radiance, refraction, and reflection. Calculation time may vary depending on the computer model, but PovRay can adapt to many computer builds, and is supported by the open source community.
Benchmarks: TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a discontinued source-available freeware utility used for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file or encrypt a partition or (under Microsoft Windows except Windows 8 with GPT) the entire storage device (pre-boot authentication).
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: PCMark 8 & PCMark 10
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: PCMark 8 Photoshop
The PCMark 8 Applications benchmark measures system performance using popular applications from the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. You can choose which tests to run based on the applications installed on your system. Each test automatically steps through a series of actions such as opening, editing and saving a file. The results are used to calculate the PCMark 8 Applications scores for the system.
Benchmarks: 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy
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: ROT Tomb Raider & Total War: WARHAMMER
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 recent gaming titles.
Conclusion
If ASRock’s Z370 Extreme4 isn’t on your shortlist, then it definitely should be.
Choosing to play it safe, ASRock has adorned Extreme4 with a two tone theme using black and grey with a smooth matt finish. Overall this design is stylish and very desirable as it matches up with other key components allowing you to create a coordinated configuration.
It’s only when we look at the feature-set for Extreme4 that we realise how much ASRock has crammed into this motherboard to ensure it is extremely competitive. 4333MHz DDR4 is supported for those wanting to push the boundaries for memory bandwidth and there are lots of storage options including up to eight SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports and twin M.2 slots. Connectivity doesn’t have any compromises either, with a triple set up of USB headers forming two USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 for extensive front panel chassis support. We’re also very pleased to see the phasing out of USB 2.0 on the backpanel, in favour of USB 3.1. All of the brands we’ve looked at so far have used up valuable space and held onto USB 2.0, and so ASRock are to be commended for this.
The inclusion and quantity of the above features are not found on motherboards costing 30% more from the likes of GIGABYTE, ASUS and MSI. ASRock appears to have gone the extra mile with Extreme4 and they haven’t nudged up the price either – Extreme 4 is available to buy for £150 GBP – $175 making is a great value for money route to Coffee Lake.
Examining the performance figures we can see that the Extreme4 provides some consistently good results against the competition – even bettering other Z370 boards in our benchmarks. While our 5GHz overclock with the Intel 8700K was achievable, we did need to pump in more voltage than required for previously tested boards.
ASRock uncovers how overpriced some of the competition is by offering a superb option in the Z370 Extreme4. This motherboard boasts more features, better performance and costs 30% less!
Pros
+ Desirable theme/styling
+ Includes RGB features
+ Excellent performance
+ Reasonable overclocking abilities
+ Uses strengthened PCI Express & memory slots
+ Good amount of fan headers
+ Includes eight SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports
+ Arrives with two USB 3 headers AND one USB 3.1 header
+ Features dual-M.2
+ Good audio capabilities
+ Amazing value
Cons
– Big overclocks require considerably more voltage
+ Desirable theme/styling
+ Includes RGB features
+ Excellent performance
+ Reasonable overclocking abilities
+ Uses strengthened PCI Express & memory slots
+ Good amount of fan headers
+ Includes eight SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports
+ Arrives with two USB 3 headers AND one USB 3.1 header
+ Features dual-M.2
+ Good audio capabilities
+ Amazing value
Cons
– Big overclocks require considerably more voltage
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