‘Hot off the press’ we take a look at ASRock’s new Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 with a stealthy black and gold skin and the 1st to feature PCI-E 3.0
Product on Review : Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
Manufacturer and Sponsor : ASRock
Street Price: £140 inc. VAT (GBP)
Just a matter of weeks ago ASRock unveiled their Gen3 Series of motherboards. Gen3 helping to identify the integration of PCI-E 3.0. ASRock are the first to incorporate this onto their motherboards. Inside this series we have the following motherboards: Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3 / Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 / Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 / P67 Extreme4 Gen3 all featuring the signature gold solid CAPs and of course PCI-3.0. Today we will be taking a look at the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, a motherboard that supports 3-way CrossfireX and Tri-SLI and delivers many features that most enthusiasts will come to expect but at a price-tag that maybe they won’t.
This is the first ASRock Sandy Bridge motherboard we have reviewed at Vortez so it will be interesting to see how the Extreme4 Gen3 stacks up against some stiff competition from the likes of ASUS, MSI and GIGABYTE. Let’s waste no further time and begin our analysis of the Extreme4 Gen3.
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.
Techncial Specifications: Full details
Features
• Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
• Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
• 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slots, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slot, Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® Quad SLI™
• Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
• Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
• Support Intel® Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
• Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
• Supports ASRock On/Off Play, Graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
• Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
• 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™
• Free Bundle : 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel, 1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable, CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite
Packaging & First Look
The Extreme4 arrives with us in a striking box that has a metallic appearance. The front indicates all of the major technologies integrated on this motherboard whilst the back has a run-down of these features and technologies – giving you a little bit more detail.
The Extreme4 Gen3 packaging
Inside, we have the motherboard surrounded by foam for protection and the accessories in another box. Included within the accessories pack we have the following:
• User manual, Quick Start Guide, Driver CD
• Software: CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite
• 2x Molex to SATA adapters
• 4x SATA3 (6Gbps) cables
• 3.5mm Audio Cable
• SLI bridge
• IDE ribbon cable
• USB3.0 FP plate
• I/O motherboard panel
The accessories pack included with Extreme4 Gen3
Carefully removing the Extreme4 from its anti-static bag we are met with a motherboard of superb appearance. Those who have an affection for dark colour-schemes are going to love this board. The immediate and most striking elements of the Extreme4 are the gold solid CAPs that are positioned throughout the motherboard – though this is an offering placed in the mainstream segment its looks are certainly aggressive and from the outset its features are shaping up to be very promising.
An overview of the Extreme4 Gen3 – full of stealth and sleek
Closer Look
Starting with the CPU socket let’s move in for a closer look. The Extrem4 Gen3 is equipped with a 12-Phase Power Design (8+4 Digi Power). The heatsink design is oversized and covers the MOSFETs and we have a series of premium gold solid CAPs around the CPU socket and throughout the motherboard. These are 100% Japanese made and offer extended stability and endurance.
The CPU socket itself is of course LGA1155, supporting the Intel K series of 2nd Generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors. Should you have an LGA1156 CPU cooler you can fit this on the board as LGA1155 and LGA1156 use the same mounting alignment. The CPU has a single 8-pin power ATX12v1 port.
More than adequate MOSFET cooling and gold solid CAPs
Moving on, we have 4x DIMM slots for dual channel DDR3. On the Extreme4 Gen3 we have 1066MHz up to 2133MHz (OC) supported. Over in this region we also have the 24-pin power as expected.
Memory slots – dual channel DDR3
Further on we have a total of 8x SATA ports. The black ports are SATAII whilst the grey are SATAIII so we have a choice of going with 3Gbps or 6Gbps (two via Intel and two via Marvell SE9120). We have support for Intel® Rapid Storage and Intel® Smart Response Technology via the SATAIII ports.
The SATA ports with 6Gbps support via Marvell SE9120 and Intel
The Extreme4 Gen3 features a Smart Switch Design. Pictured below you can see the onboard power and reset buttons. Over at the I/O we also have a clear CMOS button with LED. These onboard buttons illuminate red when the motherboard is powered up and are extremely handy for system builders and enthusiasts.
Onboard power and reset buttons are very useful
In the same region we also have LED debug – a feature that is absent on many motherboards these days but is great for diagnosing POST issues. Again, like the onboard power buttons the LED screen emits a warm red glow. Directly above the LED debug is the Intel Z68 Chipset with a large heatsink placed on it. Strangely, the heatsink here doesn’t have any fins as a typical heatsink would have for dissipating heat and it does get rather hot under operation.
The USB3.0 header is located at the very bottom of the motherboard.
LED debug and Intel Z68 heatsink
Moving on we have the PCI-E lanes – it’s important to note that because the Extreme4 has the Gen3 branding we now have support for PCI-E 3.0. PCI-E 3.0 actually delivers 32GB/s over PCI-E that only delivers 32GB/s (x16) and because the Extreme4 Gen3 uses PLX PEX8608 we are able to have more PCI-E lanes on the motherboard: 2 PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, 1 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, 2 PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots and 2 PCI slots. In the graphics department we have support for AMD Quad CrossFireX , 3-Way CrossFireX and CrossFireX NVIDIA Quad SLI and SLI.
Although there are no PCI-E 3.0 graphics cards available yet it’s great to see that ASRock are preparing for this – this will surely be one of its unique selling points as it future-proofs the product.
Support for multi-GPU configurations and PCI-E 3.0 graphics
Finally, onto the I/O section of the motherboard. Here we have various ports including:
– 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 4 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: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
The I/O panel on the Extreme4 Gen3
Lucid VIRTU
The Extreme4 Gen3 takes advantage of Lucid’s VIRTU since it uses the Intel Z68 chipset. VIRTU is designed for the Sandy Bridge platform and assigns tasks to best available graphics resource based power, performance, and features.
As most would know, Intel Z68 takes advantage of a key feature that is found from the Intel H67 chipset – video outputs. Since the Intel 2nd Generation processors have an iGPU built-in some may want to use this as an option and also use a discrete graphics solution. What VIRTU does is – it allows the user to utilise both discrete GPU and Intel’s iGPU (built in graphics on the CPU) without the need to change hardware or switch the outputs.
VIRTU brings in many unique features, a great deal of them are associated with power management – relating to heat, fan speed, and other useful elements. There are two different modes to use when considering VIRTU:
i-Mode
This provides the user with Intel features and power saving options when not being used for 3D gaming. Display must be connected to video output on the motherboard to use this feature.
d-Mode
This mode allows gamers to enhance their 3D experience and performance – combining a discrete graphics solution and the iGPU. In this mode we can use VIRTU to assist with things like transcoding and media encoding in general. The overriding thought on this is that even entry level AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards have their own technologies for handling media encoding such as AMD Stream and NVIDIA CUDA – both of these technologies are deemed as being exceptional alternatives and don’t offer any real advantage over VIRTU using iGPU for these types of task.
Display drivers for discreet graphics card must be installed prior to VIRTU drivers.
For more information on VIRTU please go to: http://www.lucidlogix.com/product-virtu1.html
Test Setup & Overclocking
CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz)
Motherboards
– ASRock Extreme4 Gen3
– MSI Big Bang Marshal
– ASUS Maximus IV Extreme
– GIGABYTE Z68-UD4
– Foxconn Rattler P67
– ASUS Sabertooth P67
– ASUS P8P67 (LGA1155)
– Foxconn P67A-S
– ECS P67H2-A (Black Extreme)
Memory 4GB Kingston HyperX Genesis CL9 1600MHz
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D14
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 460
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W
All P67 Sandy Bridge motherboards will be benchmarked against each other using the Intel Core i5 2500K. The maximum overclock will also be included within the proceeding benchmark tests to identify performance gains as a result of tweaking CPU clock speed via the multiplier.
Overclocking
As previously mentioned in our Intel Core i5 Sandy Bridge Roundup – overclocking is achieved by altering the multiplier rather than the BCLK. So the BCLK stays at 100MHz and the multiplier is modified. So if we have 100MHz on the BCLK and 40 for the multiplier this will obviously output 4GHz. We chose to use the Intel Core i5 2500K across each of the motherboard tests and indeed for the overclocking due to its unlocked multiplier.
With overclocking simplified on Sandy Bridge, this means that achieving the best overclock couldn’t be easier. CPU voltage and multiplier just need to be modified accordingly. The ultimate milestone is 5GHz on air cooling for the Intel Core i5 2500K and so I didn’t hang about, nudging the multiplier up to 50 I soon came up against a brick wall at 1.3v – so I began modifying the voltage to cater for the large overclock until at last when I hit 1.45v the system would boot into Windows and was verified as being stable after an adequate amount of passes within LinX.
5GHz was attainable with 1.45v – a significant milestone and an impressive result for the Extreme4 Gen3. For a motherboard at mainstream pricing this will bring joy to many hardware enthusiasts out there!
Power Consumption
It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are all using the P67 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 11 – 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.
The Extreme4 Gen3 is amongst the most efficient of the motherboards we have tested at Vortez. For a product of its calibre this is impressive!
Synthetic Benchmarks: AIDA64
Get your copy of AIDA64 here!
CPU Queen
This 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.
CPU Photoworrx
This benchmark stresses the integer arithmetic and multiplication execution units of the CPU and also the memory subsystem. Due to the fact that this test performs high memory read/write traffic, it cannot effectively scale in situations where more than 2 processing threads used. For example, on a 8-way Pentium III Xeon system the 8 processing threads will be “fighting” over the memory, creating a serious bottleneck that would lead to as low scores as a 2-way or 4-way similar processor based system could achieve. CPU PhotoWorxx test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.
CPU AES
This benchmark measures CPU performance using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) data encryption. In cryptography AES is a symmetric-key encryption standard. AES is used in several compression tools today, like 7z, RAR, WinZip, and also in disk encryption solutions like BitLocker, FileVault (Mac OS X), TrueCrypt.
CPU AES test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it’s hardware accelerated on VIA PadLock Security Engine capable VIA C3, VIA C7 and VIA Nano processors; and on Intel AES-NI instruction set extension capable processors. The test is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.
CPU AES test uses only the basic x86 instructions, and it’s hardware accelerated on VIA PadLock Security Engine capable VIA C3, VIA C7 and VIA Nano processors; and on Intel AES-NI instruction set extension capable processors. The test is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.
FPU Mandel
This benchmark measures the double precision (also known as 64-bit) floating-point performance through the computation of several frames of the popular “Mandelbrot” fractal. The code behind this benchmark method is written in Assembly, and it is extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate MMX, MMX+/SSE, SSE2, SSSE3, or AVX instruction set extension. FPU Mandel test is HyperThreading, multi-processor (SMP) and multi-core (CMP) aware.
Synthetic 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.
x264 HD gives results for 2 passes when compressing an MPEG-2 clip into x264. It presents 4 separate results for each pass giving a total of 8 – all results are given in FPS. For each pass I have averaged out the results.
The Extreme4 Gen3 does an admirable job of keeping up with the ‘big boys’ and is a solid 2nd whilst under stock settings and with an overclock the motherboard sails into 1st position with ease.
Synthetic Benchmarks: Cinebench 11.5
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.
Again in similar fashion the Extreme4 Gen3 delivers great results in Cinebench by being one of the top contenders – of course with an overclock those scores soon increase
Synthetic Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA 2011
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.
Processor tests – As we have seen in previous tests the Extreme4 Gen3 is consistent with its leading streak. Showing that although it isn’t classed as a high-end product in ASRock’s portfolio is still delivers high-end performance against rivals from ASUS and MSI.
Memory tests– The results in this test are nominal but we still get a pleasing result from the Extreme4 Gen3. This is not a motherboard to be underestimated.
Synthetic Benchmarks: 3DMark 11
Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
3DMark 11 was released at the end of last year and needs little introduction. For the test settings both Performance and Extreme presets are run with ‘benchmark only’ being selected. This provides good analysis. Many will only test the performance preset, using the extreme mode we can examine the board under much more severe stressing.
There isn’t much to separate the motherboards in both our performance and extreme 3DMark 11 benchmarks. The Extreme4 Gen3 still keeps up with the competition though.
Game Benchmarks: DIRT 2, Call of Duty Black Ops, Metro 2033. UT3
It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because many of our motherboards on the test bench have features which market them directly at gamers. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.
Gaming performance across each of the motherboards is marginal, nevertheless this still indicates that it is a strong performer.
Conclusion
Being our first ASRock Sandy Bridge motherboard to come under the spotlight at Vortez, the Extreme4 Gen3 has had many stalwarts to contend with and a lot to live up to but how has it fared?
On a visual level the Extreme4 Gen3 is a masterpiece, delivering a stealthy, sleek and professional look to grace any enclosure. Black has been extremely popular option to go with for motherboards and combined with the gold solid CAPs this makes for a striking resemblance and an established brand image.
For consumers, ASRock have brought the support for PCI-E 3.0 – something many will appreciate since graphics cards that endorse this technology will soon be with us. Although PCI-E 3.0 isn’t available yet it’s great to see that ASRock are preparing for this and I am sure this will favour well in the consumers mind, as it will future-proof their purchase.
The Extreme4 Gen3 comes with a large portion of features that many enthusiasts will be thankful for. Features like onboard power switches/reset CMOS, LED debug, graphical UEFI and of course the expected features native to Intel Z68 like USB3.0, SATAIII (6Gbps), Intel Smart Response and video outputs via HDMI, DVI and VGA. The software packages included are extensive allowing you to overclock within Windows, charge popular devices such as your phone and other useful applications.
In terms of performance the Extreme4 Gen3 delivers on every level – be it processing power, memory bandwidth or encoding this motherboard battles it out with some of the big contenders using the Intel P67 chipset. In fact the Extreme4 Gen3 doesn’t only keep up with some of the premium offerings from ASUS and MSI but in some of the benchmarks it even toppled them. Compare the price of the Extreme4 Gen3 to those rivals and you have a great value for money motherboard on your hands.
Priced at approx. £140 inc. VAT (GBP) the Extreme4 Gen3 is without doubt a great value for money offering. At this kind of price-point you are looking at mainstream P67/Z68 motherboard land – in fact quite similar to that of the ASUS P8P67 and just take a look at how those two motherboards compare on the previous pages!
The bottom line is: ASRock have presented a masterpiece in the Extreme4 Gen3. It overclocks to 5GHz and beyond, delivers consistently great performance and comes at a price-tag that translates to great value for money.
Pros
+ Excellent performance
+ Overclocks very well
+ Looks sleek and stylish
+ Amazing value for money
+ PCI-E 3.0 ready
Cons
– UEFI could be more fluid
+ Excellent performance
+ Overclocks very well
+ Looks sleek and stylish
+ Amazing value for money
+ PCI-E 3.0 ready
Cons
– UEFI could be more fluid
