Monday, May 6th 2013

ASRock Z87 Motherboard Series Detailed

ASRock is serious about breaking the 1 million motherboards-shipped mark for this year. The company is going into the emerging Intel Z87 chipset-based socket LGA1150 motherboard market with an extremely strong lineup covering a wide range of price-points. The company is preparing as many as three OC series models, two Fatal1ty series ones, and six Extreme series models. A defining feature of ASRock's lineup is the introduction of onboard 802.11 ac WLAN controllers on select models. The "/ac" brand extension denotes this feature.

Three of the company's top models based on the Z87 Express chipset include the Z87 Extreme11, Z87 Fatal1ty Professional, and Z87 OC Formula. The Z87 Extreme11, available with the /ac option, is the company's flagship socket LGA1150 motherboard, maxing out the platform's feature-set, and augmenting it with an additional PCI-Express lane budget, Thunderbolt, 802.11 ac, and a plethora of connectivity options. The Extreme series targets consumers who want the most connectivity. Other models in the series include the Z87 Extreme 9(/ac), Z87 Extreme6(/ac), Z87 Extreme 4, and the micro-ATX Z87M Extreme4.
ASRock's OC series targets overclockers, and features stronger VRM circuitry and features that help overclock CPUs and graphics cards, at the expense of connectivity. The company's Z87 OC Formula does just that, in featuring a strong CPU VRM, the ability to wire out up to three graphics cards, and additional voltage domains to stabilize them. The board features connectivity options similar to the Z87 Extreme 6, and an /ac variant is available. With this series, ASRock is introducing a micro-ATX model that's fit for serious overclocking, the Z87M OC Formula.
Brand Fatal1ty's association with ASRock lasted longer than with any other motherboard maker, with the company unveiling two of its first LGA1150 motherboards bearing the badge, the premium Z87 Fatal1ty Professional, and the value-conscious H87 Fatal1ty Performance. The Fatal1ty Professional features a unique design, which targets high-end gaming PC builds. It supports 3-way multi-GPU, connectivity gamers use, Creative Sound Core3D audio, and probably Killer or Intel wired networking. The H87 Fatal1ty Performance appears to be based on H87 Extreme4 board design, with the addition of A-Style Purity audio, and probably Intel wired networking. The entire Z87-based lineup model names are tabled below.
Source: VR-Zone Chinese
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37 Comments on ASRock Z87 Motherboard Series Detailed

#26
Covert_Death
their bios themselves may not be the BEST but their customer support is top notch...

i had an incompatibility with my mouse and the UEFI ( it was inverting the axis), i emailed ASRock and 2 days later they emailed me with a custom BIOS build to see if it fixed my problem, it did, and a month later it was included in a public release. i DO prefer a company i know isn't scared to email customers and is willing to work WITH them to solve a problem, not just put them on the back burner until a fix comes out.
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#27
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
Covert_Deaththeir bios themselves may not be the BEST but their customer support is top notch...

i had an incompatibility with my mouse and the UEFI ( it was inverting the axis), i emailed ASRock and 2 days later they emailed me with a custom BIOS build to see if it fixed my problem, it did, and a month later it was included in a public release. i DO prefer a company i know isn't scared to email customers and is willing to work WITH them to solve a problem, not just put them on the back burner until a fix comes out.
I did the exact same thing. Got one BIOS build that didn't work, they sent me another one no questions asked, and that one did, and I using it to this day.
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#28
ensabrenoir
:mad: ....thanks alot asrock..... my drool nearly shorted out my system..... nearly...... now i have to use my son as an excuse to upgrade...:laugh:
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#29
m1dg3t
What's this? NO iTX?!?!?!

Bastards. :o
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#30
rtwjunkie
PC Gaming Enthusiast
bim27142How about BIOS? Asus makes crappy one nowadays... not quite sure with ASRock though...
ASRock's UEFI BIOS is very well laid out. I had never seen UEFI till I got my Z68 Fatal1ty last October (yeah, I know, I'm way slow with the times), but I found it intuitive and very easy to use, with lots of overclocking options. If that board is anything to judge, memory compatibility and overclocking are top-notch, the way ASUS used to be. :toast:
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#31
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
bim27142How about BIOS? Asus makes crappy one nowadays... not quite sure with ASRock though...
Asus had some trouble with their Z77 boards where the BIOS would become corrupt if you had a crash from a failed overclock in windows (Windows 8) which apparently had a lot of to do with the management engine. They have fixed that now with most recent BIOS update deployed to nearly all their current boards.

I think some people who do not like Asus boards, most likely do not know how to tweak them correctly, or did have some issues with them, and had to deal with Asus support. I know that Dave who does motherboard and memory reviews chooses the Asus Z77 ROG boards for when he does memory reviews and overclocking.
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#32
Cyras
First ASRock Z77 vs. Z87 compare.. and Bios Screen shot. DDR4000 Profile looks very nice ;)
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#33
NeoXF
Nice boards... Like that at least the gaming/OC ones are clean of PCI-slots...

Too bad Haswell will most probably suck.
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#35
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
wish they would use a real black PCB instead of the brownish ones.
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#36
cadaveca
My name is Dave
MxPhenom 216wish they would use a real black PCB instead of the brownish ones.
They "appear" brown due to the close proximity of copper layers to the top surface. They aren't really brown. Boards that appear "black" have a thicker top layer, more often than not.
Posted on Reply
#37
m1dg3t
@ Dave: Will you be getting any of these in for review?
CyrasITX Board..

Sweet! I see they moved things around, i wonder if the WiFi module will affect the GFX card at all? Prolly not but it just looks so close in proximity... The extra SATA ports will be welcomed for sure and the chipset sink looks better than z77e :) Still only 2 PWM fan ports :o

Connector layout looks a bit tricky, 8 pin & SATA, but i guess that depends completely on setup if they will interfere or not... I porefer to have them on the top edge of the board

Edit: My board looks black to me, might have to do with the flash/lighting?
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