Introduction

"Flagship" products in the tech world are more often than not used as a way to showcase engineering prowess by delivering the "ultimate package" for the product's respective category. We see this repeated time and time again with graphics cards—in a way that establishes most brand-specific designs through custom-designed coolers and beefy PCBs. When it comes time to look at motherboards, though, each flagship board product is very much an engineering demonstration, although that same idea does in part ring true. What differs with motherboards is that each brand really does have a very distinctive style that sets it apart from the rest, and ASRock is no different. ASRock has been around for quite some time as a brand, but they have not always been in the hearts and minds of enthusiasts as a whole, as their entry into the market wasn't ripe with enthusiast-focused offerings. Today, the complete opposite is true, and like with any of the other major brands out there, ASRock has a product that will meet your needs no matter what type of enthusiast you are; and when it comes to those flagship products, ASRock does have those too.

As many of you are aware, Intel will launch a new platform within the next couple weeks to replace the current Z77 Express-based lineup. Be that as it may, if you want to buy or build a PC now, Z77 Express is probably the platform you'll end up with because its full list of features, performance, and power consumption are such that enthusiasts cannot afford to ignore them yet. Intel Z77 Express-based products will still be on store shelves once Intel's latest platform launches, and they'll be very affordable as stores clear them out to make way for the new stuff. So, on that note, we at TPU bid a final farewell to Intel's LGA 1155 socket with one of those flagship products from ASRock: the Z77 Extreme11.

Specifications