ASRock Z87 Extreme4 Review

The black and gold theme is back for Intel 8 Series. Can the Z87 Extreme4 meet the high expectations for LGA1150? Tested with Intel Core i7 4770K.

Product on Review : Z87 Extreme4
Manufacturer and Sponsor : ASRock

Street Price: £155 inc. VAT (GBP)

In recent years ASRock have stepped up to the table with some impressive hardware across the Intel and AMD platforms. Their black and gold styling generated both interest and intrigue – paving the way for attention to detail upon motherboard aesthetics. It seems that since Sandy/Ivy Bridge with their respective chipsets, motherboard styling is as important as the features that come integrated, and ASRock are back yet again with some black and gold action for their Intel 8 Series motherboards.

Today, as tradition would have it – we are taking a look at the Z87 Extreme4. This motherboard is regarded as ASRock’s mid-range mainstay and their Z77 version last year was quite frankly a great value for money offering. Are we to expect the same qualities and characteristics with Z87 Extreme4 too? Only time will tell.

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.

Technical Specifications

A-Style
– Home Cloud
– Purity Sound™
– HDMI-In
CPU
– Supports 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 / Xeon® / Pentium® / Celeron® in LGA1150 Package
– Digi Power Design
– 12 Power Phase Design
– Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
– Supports Intel® K-Series unlocked CPU
– Supports ASRock BCLK Full-range Overclocking
Chipset
– Intel® Z87
Memory
– Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
– 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots
– Supports DDR3 2933+(OC)/2800(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
– Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB*
– Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2
– Distortion-Free Slot
BIOS
– 2 x 64Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with Multilingual GUI support (1 x Main BIOS and 1 x Backup BIOS)
– Supports Secure Backup UEFI Technology
– ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events
– SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support
– CPU, DRAM, PCH 1.05V, PCH 1.5V 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 4400/4600
– Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 11.1
– Max. shared memory 1792MB
– Multi VGA Output options: D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort
– Supports Triple Monitor
– Supports HDMI Technology with max. resolution up to 4K × 2K (4096×2304) @ 24Hz
– Supports DVI-D with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920×1200 @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution up to 4K × 2K (4096×2304) @ 24Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDCP function with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort ports
– Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) playback with DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort ports
Audio
– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray audio support
– Supports Purity Sound™
– 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier
– TI NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets)
– Direct Drive Technology
– EMI shielding cover
– PCB isolate shielding
– Supports DTS Connect
LAN
– Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
– Giga PHY Intel® I217V
– Supports Intel® Remote Wake Technology
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Expansion / Connectivity
Slots
– 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 (PCIE2); dual at x8 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4); triple at x8 (PCIE2) / x4 ) (PCIE4) / x4 (PCIE5)
– 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
– 2 x PCI slots
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™
Storage – 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® Z87, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 12 and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug (SATA3_A0 connector is shared with eSATA port)
– 1 x eSATA connector by ASMedia ASM1061, supports NCQ, AHCI, Hot Plug and Port Multiplier
Connector
– 1 x IR header
– 1 x COM Port header
– 1 x Power LED header
– 2 x CPU Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
– 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin)
– 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin)
– 1 x 24 pin ATX power connector
– 1 x 8 pin 12V power connector
– 1 x Front panel audio connector
– 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports)
– 1 x Vertical Type A USB 3.0
– 2 x USB 3.0 headers (support 4 USB 3.0 ports) (ASMedia Hub)
– 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
– 1 x Power Switch with LED
– 1 x Reset Switch with LED
– 1 x Clear CMOS Switch
Rear Panel I/O
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI-Out Port
– 1 x HDMI-In Port
– 1 x DisplayPort
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x eSATA Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports
– 4 x USB 3.0 Ports
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Unique Feature
– ASRock A-Tuning
– ASRock Instant Flash
– ASRock APP Charger
– ASRock XFast USB
– ASRock XFast LAN
– ASRock XFast RAM
– ASRock Crashless BIOS
– ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)
– ASRock Internet Flash
– ASRock UEFI System Browser
– ASRock UEFI Tech Service
– ASRock Dehumidifier
– ASRock Easy RAID Installer
– ASRock Easy Driver Installer
– ASRock Interactive UEFI
– ASRock Fast Boot
– ASRock Restart to UEFI
– ASRock USB Key
– ASRock FAN-Tastic Tuning
– Hybrid Booster:
– CPU Frequency Stepless Control
– ASRock U-COP
– Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)
– Good Night LED
Support CD
– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar, Start8, MeshCentral, Splashtop Streamer
Accessories
– 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
Hardware Monitor
– CPU/Chassis Temperature Sensing
– CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Tachometer
– CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Allow Chassis Fan Speed Auto-Adjust by CPU Temperature)
– CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control
– Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore
Form Factor
– ATX Form Factor
– Premium Gold Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors)
OS
– Microsoft® Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit compliant
Certifications
– FCC, CE, WHQL
– ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

Packaging & First Look

Something that becomes immediately apparent even on the packaging is ASRock’s new elegant styling. It appears that with this new batch of Intel 8 Series motherboards, the emphasis is on minimalism compared to previous generations of motherboards. There is also a big push for ASRock A-Style.

As is typical of motherboard packaging, the reverse details more information surrounding the main features and the technical specifications are also listed too.

Inside, all of the items are well packaged and the motherboard itself is protected inside an anti-static bag.

A change in styling for ASRock

Along with the motherboard, there are just a few other items included which are listed as:

• 4x SATA3 6GB/s Cables
• Rear IO shield
• Case Badge
• Documentation: user manual, software guide
• Driver CD/Utilities
• NVIDIA SLI bridge (Solid)

The bundle includes various items

Our initial impressions of Z87 Extreme4 are somewhat varied. Compared to Z77 Extreme4 the styling is almost a step-back – the Z77 Extreme4 was the ‘talk of the town’ – it attracted lots of attention due to its heatsink design and colour configuration. With Z87 Extreme4 its as though ASRock are playing things down. The motherboard PCB is much more brown in colour and the heatsinks are non-descript and quite dull.

There is certainly still appeal towards this motherboard, but comparing it to the predecessor we are slightly disappointed.

Black and gold is the order of the day

On the next page we will take a closer look at the various aspects of this board.

Closer Look

We’ll now move in for a closer look at the different features found on Z87 Extreme4, starting with the socket area. This motherboard is of course designed to work with Intel’s 4th Generation of processors – Haswell. The socket is LGA1150 but has the mounting holes for LGA115X so if you have a cooler that has been used on another socket such as LGA1155 then it will work fine here too.

Extreme4 uses a 12 phase power design(Digi VRM) and has 8-pin EPS power for the CPU. ASRock have used a dual heatsink design to cool the MOSFETs but these heatsinks are independent and not joined via a heatpipe as we sometimes see. As mentioned previous the heatsink design is low key compared to previous generations and even a little lack-lustre. In true ASRock tradition the Extreme4 features gold sold CAPs throughout which not only make the board look attractive but are made in Japan and promise to deliver stability and long-life.

We are glad to see that ASRock have included dual CPU fan headers next to the memory slots for the latest dual fan air coolers and ALCs.

12 Phase Power Design

Turning our attention to the memory slots – there is dual channel DDR3 support. Extreme4 can accommodate up to 32GB and 2933+(OC) memory.

Also in this region are dual USB 3.0 headers which will give the USB 3.0 functionality at the front of the computer case.

Dual channel DDR3 support – up to 32GB

Further along the motherboard are eight SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports. No longer do we have SATA 2, and since SATA 3 is backwards compatible older SATA 2 devices will work fine anyway, their speed will just be capped. Six of the ports are controlled via Intel Z87 and the other two are via ASMEDIA ASM1061.

Although Extreme4 has dual BIOS there is no switch present on the motherboard but rather a jumper switch to jump from BIOS to BIOS – the pins for this are next to the SATA ports.

A total of eight SATA 3 (6GB/s) ports

ASRock have positioned a large, minimalist heatsink over the Z87 chip which should provide sufficient cooling.

Also running along the bottom edge of the motherboard are the onboard power and reset buttons – these are extremely useful for enthusiasts who are using this motherboard on a test bench. The other features in this area are the battery and LED Debug. LED Debug displays different codes throughout POST and can help identify any problems should they occur. The codes will correspond to the user manual.

Intel Z87 heatsink and features at bottom of Extreme4

Extreme4 has support for many different options when we arrive at the PCI Express area. These include support for 2-way NVIDIA SLI and 3-way AMD CrossfireX.

1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot (Running @x16)
1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (Running @x8)
1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (Running @x4)
2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot
2 x PCI Legacy slot

If you want to use a single graphics card the then the best slot to use is the top PCI-E 3.0. Speed will drop depending on the amount of cards used on this motherboard, as per the specifications. ASRock have decided to leave PCI legacy support on this motherboard whilst other vendors are generally choosing to make it redundant. There are’ fors and againsts’ for including these slots on the motherboard but at least the Extreme4 will support older devices.

NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossfireX support

ASRock have equipped Extreme4 with a dedicated audio chip. The audio is based around ‘Purity Sound’. Here is what ASRock has to say about this particular feature:

Purity Sound is a combination of several hardware, software audio solutions and technologies that will satisfy even the pickiest audiophiles. Including 7.1 CH HD audio with Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, 115dB SNR DAC with Differential Amplifier, TI® 5532 Premium Headset Amplifier which supports up to 600 ohm headphones, cap less Direct Drive technology, EMI shielding cover, PCB isolate shielding and support for DTS Connect.

We’ll cover Purity Sound later in the review.

Dedicated audio via Purity Sound

Lastly we come to the rear IO section, here there are plenty of ports to take advantage of, including the following:

– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI-Out Port
– 1 x HDMI-In Port
– 1 x DisplayPort
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x eSATA Connector
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports
– 4 x USB 3.0 Ports
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

With Intel Haswell featuring an IGP there are outputs should the user require onboard graphics. Here there are four options to choose from, VGA, DVI, Displayport and HDMI.

The Gigabit LAN (RJ45) port obtains its functionality from the Intel Z87 chipset rather than Realtek which were found on the previous generation of Intel motherboards.

The Rear IO featuring numerous display ports

ASRock UEFI BIOS

Just like most other vendors, ASRock have a UEFI BIOS on their Extreme4. The interface is easy to use – options are accessible via the mouse. The motion isn’t as fluid as we would like but we still think its a move in the right direction.

Other than the standard options, ASRock also include a handy online management tool for tweaking access to the internet. Also included is a useful “Systems Browser” which gives up to date information regarding specific zones on the motherboard.

ASRock A-Style Purity Sound

ASRock have equipped the Extreme4 with improved audio capabilities over conventional onboard audio. There are a number of hardware components and technologies which have been implemented in order to deliver such quality. On offer is 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec) and Purity Sound which features the following:

– 115dB SNR DAC with differential amplifier
– TI NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets)
– Direct Drive Technology
– EMI shielding cover
– PCB isolate shielding

ASRock A-Style Home Cloud

Cloud services are fast becoming part of everyday living and ASRock are keen to push this as a feature of their new 8 Series motherboards. With A-Style users can remotely access their computer via smartphone/tablet – so long as Windows 8 has been used as the OS.

ASRock have produced a video to demonstrate this feature below. Although it’s very helpful in showing how Home Cloud works, we aren’t certain the use of “Porn” in its title (even with the intention being witty) is at all professional. Families can/will be using this feature.

Test Setup & Overclocking

Test Setup

CPU Intel Core i7 4770K (Haswell) 3.50GHz
Cooling Noctua NH-U14
Motherboard MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
Memory 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz CL10 DDR3
Graphics XFX R7970 Black Edition
Storage Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
PSU Corsair HX1050 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU

Benchmarks

Cinebench 11.5 – CPU Score
x264 HD 4.0 – 1st and 2nd pass encoding
SiSoftware SANDRA 2013 – CPU & Memory benchmarks
AIDA64 – CPU benchmarks
3DMark FireStrike – DX11 3D Benchmark
3DMark 11 – DX11 3D Performance and Extreme preset
Games – Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Metro Last Light

Other Software

Temperature Analysis: Core Temp
Stress Testing Software: LinX
CPU Specification Monitoring: CPU-Z

Overclocking

The introduction of Z87 brings a return to BCLK overclocking. This will in turn deliver more flexibility for Overclockers compared to previous generations where the BCLK was locked to 100MHz and only the ratio could be adjusted.

We managed to squeeze 4.5GHz out of the 4770K with Z87 Extreme4. Whilst this is a good result it’s another step away from the record with this particular chip we have – 4.7GHz. Furthermore it required just as much voltage – 1.34v and exceeded 90C under full stress via LinX. Anything over 4.5GHz resulted in a BSOD and instability.

ASRock’s BIOS was considerably different to other vendors we used, inasmuch that to ensure voltage was passing through correctly Override, Cache and Input required modification. So far we haven’t come across such a procedure to overclock the CPU – novice users may find it tricky to understand this mandatory requirement.

With the 4.5GHz overclock being our best, we will take this into our benchmark suite and test both stock and overclocked results on the subsequent pages. Our comparison results will obviously grow in the forthcoming weeks as we review more and more Z87 motherboards.

Power Consumption

It’s interesting to note the power consumption across all motherboards. Although they are using Z87 chipsets, 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 Page

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.

Benchmarks: Cinebench

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.

Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA

3DMark 11 Product Page

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 FireStrike

3DMark FireStrike Product Page

Fire 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: 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 is a very popular 3D performance benchmark suite 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 – at 720p and 1080p.

Benchmarks: Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, Metro Last Light

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 a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.

Settings
Tomb Raider
– 1920×1050 2xAA – Very High Quality *Benchmark tool*
Crysis 3
– 1920×1050 2xAA – Very High Quality *FRAPS – 1st scene/gameplay*
Metro Last Light
– 1920×1050 16xAF – Very High Quality *FRAPS – 1st scene/gameplay*

The gaming titles selected demand GPU power over CPU power – in each test the difference is rather marginal. VSync is disabled in all titles.

Conclusion

It’s become tradition to review the Extreme4 motherboard for each Intel launch at Vortez. We have been impressed by the Z68, Z77 but what we do think about the new Z87 variant?

On the performance front, Extreme4 delivered some good results compared to the other motherboards we have reviewed thus far. Overclocking only demonstrated better results in the benchmarks too. One particular aspect which Extreme4 excelled in was the energy efficiency – showing that it offers the best idle and load efficiency.

During our overclocking efforts, we managed to get 4.5GHz out of our Intel Core i7-4770K. Whilst this may not be the best result we have had, it’s still quite impressive. The only niggle is that we found the settings within the BIOS a little tricky to modify for the overclock. Three different areas of voltages were required to be altered and it was a case of trial and error to get on the road to success.

We like the new features that come with ASRock’s new A-Style. The use of Home Cloud is something which all levels of user can come to appreciate and make use of. The plethora of storage ports is another strong point of this motherboard as it makes way for no shortage of options in this particular department.

But on the aesthetics side, we can’t help but feel a little disappointed by the lack-lustre design. ASRock stunned enthusiasts when they first introduced the Extreme4 Gen3 a few years ago and then stepped up another level with the Z77 Extreme4 but this new Z87 Extreme4 doesn’t have the same appeal. The design appears to be non-descript and they are certainly playing it down. We aren’t sure whether ASRock are choosing to move away from the dazzle they once brought but this minimalist approach to the aesthetics is a step-back in our opinion.

The price is another area which we aren’t too keen on. Again, the Z77 Extreme4 was a great value for money solution when it was first introduced – it could be bought for as little as £115. The Z87 Extreme4 however is £155, yet it has a very similar feature-set and comes in at the same level. Furthermore, in this price-range other vendors have motherboards which are of a much higher calibre than Extreme4 so by ASRock placing it at this price they aren’t doing themselves any favours unfortunately.

The ASRock Z87 Extreme4 performs well and has some interesting features but its price and aesthetics are questionable. The Z87 Extreme4 is a mixed bag, it has strengths and it also has its weaknesses and therefore we feel our bronze award is a valid achievement.

Pros
+ Impressive performance at stock settings
+ Onboard features
+ Plenty of storage options
+ A-Style Cloud support –Bluetooth control (Win8 required)

Cons
– Price bump
– Lack lustre aesthetics
– Not as straight forward to overclock in BIOS
– Couldn’t overclock as well as other motherboards