Great review as always cadaveca
Too much hate on this board?
This is their "flagship" Z77 board and it comes pretty well equipped with lots of cool extras like Wi/Fi, Bluetooth, USB 3.0 front panel for example. It specs up pretty well too with tons of USB 3.0 ports, the PLX chip for extra PCI lanes good VRM stages.
But in the end it just comes up as pretty average board in overall performance with a Premium Price.
Yes, but that average performance metric comes from added ability by the software, so for me, it's non-issue. Really when it comes down to the end game, this differences in perforamnce will not be noticed by most, and the added functionality is enough to offset the cost.
Yes, it's expensive, but what premium product isn't? The ramdrive software, in retail, costs $40-$80...and that's just that small bit of software.
Have you tried loading it up with video cards and testing PCI-E bandwidth? I'm not convinced that the PLX chip is going to offer any more bandwidth than what IVB can already do and some number will either confirm or disprove this thought. I haven't found any real numbers to show that the PLX chip offers improved performance over using what IVB already has.
Because the PLX PEX8487 is the only way to get Tri-SLI or Quad-SLi on Intel Z77 Express, there are definite performance benefits offered by the use of the PLX chip. The chip itself has it's cost, which accounts for most of the price premium this board has.
that would be only for ln2 cooling.
gene V goes to 1,92volt and some chips need it
Sure, and I am sure that ASRock has an LN2-specific BIOS that may offer more, although you may need to contact them directly to get it, as such functionality isn't for everyone. In the grand scope of things LN2 users are avery small part of our hobby, even if I find that part the most exciting.