# ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X KILLER (Intel LGA 1150)



## cadaveca (May 15, 2014)

Hide your childrens, hide your wives! A KILLER is here! ASRock's Fatal1ty Z97X KILLER is on my test bench, after arriving in a plain white box. The only true Fatal1ty here is hopefully the one in the name, or this red and black gamer had better go back to training camp!

*Show full review*


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Jun 2, 2014)

The naming scheme alone makes me want to murder a basket full of kittens in the most horrific way possible. Fatal1ty is an overused branding that seems to be synonimous with gamers but isnt - yet brands like to use Fatal1ty branding as a selling point to signify that their product is supposed to be uberL337 for noobs that have no idea who Fatal1ty even is let alone what he does or has done for the gaming community.

'Killer' on the other hand is a word thats so overused and beaten to death and the name of this motherboard lacks creativity and also originalty


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 2, 2014)

*sigh* yet another board with dickish EPS plug placement. At least they had the decency to face the clipping side down. Asus keeps getting worse and worse on their $200+ boards, now they have their clipping side up and every build I do with a H110 or X60 requires me to chop up a power supply cable. I guess Gigabyte is the only brand still doing practical build testing with their boards.


----------



## ChaoticG8R (Jun 2, 2014)

Looks like the Z97i has hit your test bed, how much longer for it's completion?  Thanks Dave!!!


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 2, 2014)

Already done, just waiting it's turn for the spotlight. I've been doing good lately, four other reviews beyond that nearly done, two already fully done (but aren't boards).


----------



## souleet (Jun 3, 2014)

Hi Dave!  How come they got Editor's choice but have a 8.7 rating and BIOS issue?


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 3, 2014)

souleet said:


> Hi Dave!  How come they got Editor's choice but have a 8.7 rating and BIOS issue?


Excellent question.

It should be scored 9.7!!!

The BIOS issue is minor. OC performance and power consumption shows this is simply a tuning problem, since my manual tuning, which is nothing special, bright this board in line with everything else with my test CPU. I just wish that "stock", on all boards, was really "stock". I've moaned for a couple years now in every review about board makers that do tune their BIOS for stock performance should include a voucher for the Intel Tuning Plan, but in this case, it's a GAMING board, and most users that buy such a board expect a bit extra in that department.

As to SATA Express issue, my test drive is an ASUS Hyper Express enclosure, and it doesn't work with ANY board but ASUS boards properly.

Score fixed! I feel really bad for missing that, to be honest.


----------



## ryanmartin (Jun 3, 2014)

If I'm not mistaken this motherboard costs $159.99 (for example see Newegg) not $199.99. Of course if you're including sales TAX then it might be worth pointing that out because that's one of this board's main selling points (the price)


----------



## evilacg (Jun 3, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Excellent question.
> 
> It should be scored 9.7!!!
> 
> ...



http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/?category=Motherboards still shows 8.7 on this board.


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 3, 2014)

ryanmartin said:


> If I'm not mistaken this motherboard costs $159.99 (for example see Newegg) not $199.99. Of course if you're including sales TAX then it might be worth pointing that out because that's one of this board's main selling points (the price)













http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157505


Why Newegg sells it for $50 more here, I dunno.

Also please note that I write my reviews sometimes many weeks before they are published. When it comes to product pricing, there are bound to be errors at times.


----------



## ChaoticG8R (Jun 3, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> Why Newegg sells it for $50 more here, I dunno.



Oh Canada


----------



## newtekie1 (Jun 3, 2014)

The board is more reasonably priced in the US, Newegg has it for $158 right now.  Though it was $169 a week or so ago.  I think ASRock has dropped the price a little after hearing some feedback from their reviewers.


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 4, 2014)

I got the box and accessories by courier today. $160 seems pretty fair, puts it with MSI GAMING 5 price-wise, yet offers SATA Express. They just need to tune the BIOS a bit, but only for those running stock. Like, following CPU VID would be nice. 

Since I wrote this, and now, a BIOS may have fixed that already. Minor stuff.

Of course, now that I have a manual and such, there's some HDD power-saving stuff built-in as well, with SATA cord in the box that powers the drives, and powers them down too. This board actually has a lot going on for the US price.


----------



## Jetster (Jun 5, 2014)

Nice review Dave


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Jun 8, 2014)

would i be correct in saying that its a '*Killer* motherboard that could cause some *Fatal1tys*' ??


----------



## cadaveca (Jun 8, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> would i be correct in saying that its a '*Killer* motherboard that could cause some *Fatal1tys*' ??


You know, I have to say, I was trolling through the Twitch website, and I found Fatal1ty streaming CS:GO. So I guess he's still playing competitively, which was good to see, but he didn't have many viewers. Not that I get any more, I might have had 10 at most.


----------



## Kissamies (Jun 10, 2014)

I'd rather have an Intel network chip, than some "gaming" crap what is pure marketing for CoD playing kids. Just my opinion, don't get mad.


omg, like from Dave! Cheers for that!


----------



## ChaoticG8R (Jun 13, 2014)

cadaveca said:


> You know, I have to say, I was trolling through the Twitch website, and I found Fatal1ty streaming CS:GO. So I guess he's still playing competitively, which was good to see, but he didn't have many viewers. Not that I get any more, I might have had 10 at most.



Trolling or Strolling Sir?!


----------



## valentyn0 (Jun 14, 2014)

Dont know where you get that  $ 200 price tag when i bought this, a week ago for 150 bucks...


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157505

LE: nvm, u Canada /sigh


----------



## Gabkicks (Jul 6, 2014)

I've had this board for a little over a week now. It ran my 4790k at 44x multiplier on default heh. My corsair h100i just came so I will play around with overclocking a bit.


----------



## Jetster (Jul 11, 2014)

Nice review.


----------



## newtekie1 (Jul 12, 2014)

So I'd like to point out something to anyone considering this motherboard(or any Asrock Z97 Board with SLI). While they have went through the effort to use true black PCBs that look really nice, they even point this out as a feature in the marketting for a lot of their boards, they include poop brown colored SLI bridges!  OMG, they are so ugly!  I've bought a Z97X Killer and a Z97 Extreme6, and both have come with poop brown SLI bridges.

I tried talking to Asrock about this(as well as some pretty nasty BIOS bugs on the Z97 Extreme6) but haven't heard anything back on the SLI issue.  And actually I'm kind of disappointed with the answer I got for the BIOS issue.  They told me to return the board to the retailer for a replacement and hope the new board doesn't have  the BIOS bug.  Not sure how getting a new board that is the same model would sold a BIOS bug...


----------



## Hrhrhr (Aug 18, 2014)

i really can't decide which one should i get
ASRock FATAL1TY Z97X Killer
or
Asus Z97-A
i think asrock has more feature but asus is better brand and has better bios.
both has same price in my local store

i'm gonna use it with Intel Core i7 - 3.6GHz - 4790 and not planning on overclocking


----------



## Dave54321 (Oct 24, 2014)

What is going on with those Metro fps benchmarks with this board losing by 70fps?


----------



## sprsk (Nov 15, 2015)

In your review u say

*No Intel Thunderbolt*
I was trying to decide between *Z97 Pro4* and *Fatal1ty Z97 Killer/3.1 
*
http://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?SelectedModel=Z97+Pro4&SelectedModel=Fatal1ty+Z97+Killer/3.1http://www.asrock.com/mb/compare.asp?SelectedModel=Z97+Pro4&SelectedModel=Fatal1ty+Z97+Killer/3.1

as you can see there is  " *1 x Thunderbolt™ AIC Connector* "

if u look at *Z97 pro4 *there is an explanation _ " *Please update to the latest BIOS to support Thunderbolt™ technology. " 
_
*So does it support Thunderbolt or NO  ? ? ?*


----------



## cadaveca (Nov 15, 2015)

sprsk said:


> In your review u say
> 
> *No Intel Thunderbolt*
> I was trying to decide between *Z97 Pro4* and *Fatal1ty Z97 Killer/3.1
> ...


AIC = Add In Card. An explanation as to what this is exactly is on the product page, just scroll down. It clearly states there that the AIC card is not included with the package. So it supports adding in a thunderbolt device.

Also, the ASRock Z97 Killer/3.1 is not the same board as the one reviewed here.


----------



## sprsk (Nov 15, 2015)

Tnk u mate ...  , but u ro correct ... i need to buy separate card to use it


----------

