ASRock showed off its new high-end socket LGA1155 motherboard for overclocking, the Z77 OC Formula. The new product sits several notches above its Extreme and Fatal1ty series. Its design focus is on CPU overclocking potential, with ASRock cramming in strong VRM circuitry, active-cooling for the CPU VRM area, and a load of overclocker-friendly features, at the expense of connectivity.

The CPU is powered by a 12+4 phase DigiPower VRM that uses high-current chokes, tantalum capacitors, and active cooling to the MOSFETs. The VRM active-cooler packs a coolant channel, as well as a 40 mm fan. The CPU is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR3-3000+ MHz memory, by overclocking. A staggering 8-phase VRM powers the memory, preventing even the slightest voltage droop.Expansion slots include two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8, when both are populated), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH), and two PCI-Express 2.0 x1. The Z77 OC Formula packs a total of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports (four from third-party controllers, two from the PCH), and four SATA 3 Gb/s ports. HDMI is the only display output available. 8-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet (Broadcom-made PHY) make for the rest of the connectivity.

The ASRock Z77 OC Formula packs a host of overclocker-friendly features including consolidated voltage measurement points across a wide range of domains, two sets of diagnostic displays, onboard OC control buttons, and ASRock-exclusives such as XFast 555, dehumidifier, UEFI system browser, etc. ASRock quite obviously trained its guns on ASUS Maximus V Formula, with the Z77 OC Formula.