Monday, May 12th 2014
ASRock Offers Ultra M.2 Gen3 x4 32 Gb/s Socket for Ultimate Transfer Speed
As motherboard manufacturers unveiled their new Intel 9 Series products one after another, we can see the proliferation of PCIe Gen2 x2 M.2 interface on Desktop motherboards very clearly. However, ASRock Inc. took the lead among other competitors once again. This time it's the Z97 Extreme6 which boasts "Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4" socket stands out. With its doubled transfer bandwidth, ASRock Ultra M.2 is able to completely break through the speed limit of SATA3 6 Gb/s and blow others away!
The Secret of Ultra M.2
Ultra M.2 is one of ASRock's creative innovations. Compared to normal M.2 with PCIe Gen2 x2 bandwidth, ASRock is the first one in the world to double the M.2 bandwidth to PCIe Gen3 x4! Furthermore, the layout of Ultra M.2 is also specially designed. On a regular motherboard design, the signal route starts from the M.2 device, goes through the onboard chipset, and finally reaches CPU. In contrast, by connecting the M.2 interface to CPU directly, ASRock Ultra M.2 has lower latency and pushes the I/O speed to a new level!
Experience The World's Fastest Speed With ASRock's Ultra M.2
The theoretical speed of Ultra M.2 is 32 Gb/s, which is 6X faster than PCIe x1 M.2, and 3X faster than PCIe x2 M.2 (Chart 1). As for Ultra M.2 vs. normal M.2 comparison, we tested the read speed of Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket and reached 1.16 GB/s, 46% faster than PCIe x2 M.2 socket (Chart 2). We also tested a PCIe x2 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket. Benefited from the direct linkage between Ultra M.2 interface and CPU, the PCIe x2 M.2 SSD read speed on Ultra M.2 socket is 8.8% faster than on normal M.2 socket. As shown in Chart 3, the lower latency of Ultra M.2 design does matter.
Designed For Tech Enthusiasts - Z97 Extreme6
As we may conclude now, ASRock Ultra M.2 is the key component to break the I/O performance barrier on current Desktop PC. With the proliferation of Ultra M.2 and M.2, the new era of I/O speed is about to come. If you are tired of the HDD performance bottleneck and looking for an ultimate I/O solution for your Desktop, ASRock Z97 Extreme6 is the only motherboard packs the world's fastest Ultra M.2 socket, ASRock Super Alloy technology, 12 Phase Power Design, Purity Sound 2, Dual LAN, SATA Express interface, ASRock Cloud and other unique features. It is definitely the best motherboard for you!
For more information, please visit:
www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme6
The Secret of Ultra M.2
Ultra M.2 is one of ASRock's creative innovations. Compared to normal M.2 with PCIe Gen2 x2 bandwidth, ASRock is the first one in the world to double the M.2 bandwidth to PCIe Gen3 x4! Furthermore, the layout of Ultra M.2 is also specially designed. On a regular motherboard design, the signal route starts from the M.2 device, goes through the onboard chipset, and finally reaches CPU. In contrast, by connecting the M.2 interface to CPU directly, ASRock Ultra M.2 has lower latency and pushes the I/O speed to a new level!
The theoretical speed of Ultra M.2 is 32 Gb/s, which is 6X faster than PCIe x1 M.2, and 3X faster than PCIe x2 M.2 (Chart 1). As for Ultra M.2 vs. normal M.2 comparison, we tested the read speed of Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket and reached 1.16 GB/s, 46% faster than PCIe x2 M.2 socket (Chart 2). We also tested a PCIe x2 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket. Benefited from the direct linkage between Ultra M.2 interface and CPU, the PCIe x2 M.2 SSD read speed on Ultra M.2 socket is 8.8% faster than on normal M.2 socket. As shown in Chart 3, the lower latency of Ultra M.2 design does matter.
As we may conclude now, ASRock Ultra M.2 is the key component to break the I/O performance barrier on current Desktop PC. With the proliferation of Ultra M.2 and M.2, the new era of I/O speed is about to come. If you are tired of the HDD performance bottleneck and looking for an ultimate I/O solution for your Desktop, ASRock Z97 Extreme6 is the only motherboard packs the world's fastest Ultra M.2 socket, ASRock Super Alloy technology, 12 Phase Power Design, Purity Sound 2, Dual LAN, SATA Express interface, ASRock Cloud and other unique features. It is definitely the best motherboard for you!
For more information, please visit:
www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z97%20Extreme6
13 Comments on ASRock Offers Ultra M.2 Gen3 x4 32 Gb/s Socket for Ultimate Transfer Speed
Pretty useless. Intel RST only support booting from Gen2 x2 devices, so I believe you cannot boot from this Gen3 x3 device. This will be fixed in the next update for Intel RST in Q4 2014. Besides that only Samsung has a Gen3 x4 device which is a enterprise solution and very expensive. Don't expect to see any mainstream devices.
I'm guessing it actually is the PCIe 3.0 lanes though, which is a nonstarter for anyone that wants to use the faster M.2 socket as well as SLI.
PCH:
- PCIE1, x1
- PCIE3, x1, shared with mPCIe slot.
- PCIE5, x2
- ASMedia USB3 controller
- ASMedia SATA controller x 2
- Realtek NIC
Doesn't explicitly say it has two ASMedia SATA controllers, but since the model listed is only 2-port and the board has 4 ports above the PCH compliment, it's a pretty safe guess.
Also doesn't say, but I bet PCIE5 is shared with the other M.2 slot.
ASRock could have added a PLX switch for the all the wackiness they wanted this board to support, but it's only an Extreme6. They can still tier up a couple more times with an Extreme9, Extreme11, Fatal1ty, Killer, and Killer Ninja Fatal1ty Platinum Pro Rev 2b.