ASRock Z270 Extreme4 (with Kaby Lake)

[cadaveca]

It's here! Our first look at Intel's Kaby Lake supporting motherboards comes from none other than ASRock, with their white and black mainstream motherboard, the ASRock Z270 Extreme4. With all the base features of Intel's latest, including a bit of ASRock's engineering magic thrown in, the ASRock Z270 Extreme4 is the perfect example of what you can expect from Intel's Kaby Lake platform.

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[Ferrum Master]

You sure the THD is this poor - half percent? That's a serious hardware flaw. My tube amps have better specs lol. There must be a derp.

 

[cadaveca]

You sure the THD is this poor - half percent? That's a serious hardware flaw. My tube amps have better specs lol. There must be a derp.

Yeah derp with input. Sometimes such happens, but not all controllers show this, retest shows same, so it is what it is... on the input, not the output, even though recorded stuff plays back just fine.


BTW, nice catch!

 

[TheMailMan78]

Awesome review as always!

 

[Folterknecht]

Thanks Dave - good overview.

From launch coverage all over the web I gathered that some boards at stock speeds have way to high (secondary) voltages set for CPU resulting in very high temps or even throtteling. How did this board behave with the BIOS you used for testing? Might be worth adding to the review, especially for those less experienced users who just want to build a system and be done with it.

 

[cadaveca]

Thanks Dave - good overview.

From launch coverage all over the web I gathered that some boards at stock speeds have way to high (secondary) voltages set for CPU resulting in very high temps or even throtteling. How did this board behave with the BIOS you used for testing? Might be worth adding to the review, especially for those less experienced users who just want to build a system and be done with it.

Yeah, I'm watching reviews as well, so I'll keep it in mind. I'm always looking at how boards set voltages differently, and will be also looking to see if this has any impact on OC as well.

Looking at power consumption via 8-pin, I'm seeing the sort of temperatures that I expect with my cooler on this board, so no concerns from me there.

(I just verified; idle power consumption is 4 W, idle temp 27c, load temp 68c, 83W)

I'll add such data in next review.

 

[Alexandrus]

Review says ALC1150, picture shows ALC1220. So hard to proofread ?

 

[ChicagoDave]

Can you provide some details regarding how PCI-E lanes are allocated when one or both M.2 drives are used?

Since every motherboard can be wired differently consumers have no idea what features are given up by populating the M.2 slots.

Thank you

 

[dont whant to set it"']

@ChicagoDave sure you can find out, there are motherboard manuals.
I know its a lot to procces reading them as some descriptions are vague, if the z270 does not apeal to you, x99 paired with 40+ pcie lanes cpu perhaps?

 

[Vario]

nice board and nice review. I have had good luck with my Asrock boards in the past, probably go with one again if my 3770K ever becomes obsolete.

 

[Jetster]

Okay LED guy. Take your sales trophy and go on vacation. He must be working for all the manufactures

 

[cadaveca]

Okay LED guy. Take your sales trophy and go on vacation. He must be working for all the manufactures

LoL. I have four kids. They all really like the LEDs. Anything that is going to make PCs appealing to new users I'm personally all for. It's my girls that like the LEDs the most, too.

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah, I'm watching reviews as well, so I'll keep it in mind. I'm always looking at how boards set voltages differently, and will be also looking to see if this has any impact on OC as well.

Looking at power consumption via 8-pin, I'm seeing the sort of temperatures that I expect with my cooler on this board, so no concerns from me there.

(I just verified; idle power consumption is 4 W, idle temp 27c, load temp 68c, 83W)

I'll add such data in next review.

I dont think vcore is what he was talking about when he mentioned secondary voltages. To that end, when enabling XMP on 270 MSI boards, (at least the Xpower anyway) it jacked up System Agent and IO voltage to 1.45 and 1.4V respectively. For 4K with my CPU/IMC, I only needed 1.25 and 1.20V. WAY too high. They said it was done to ensure better stability at higher speeds even with poor IMCs. The ASUS board I tested, sets it at a more palatable 1.35 and 1.3V. Nobody has complained about degradation (its still early), but 1.45 and 1.4V is high.

 

[cadaveca]

I dont think vcore is what he was talking about when he mentioned secondary voltages. To that end, when enabling XMP on 270 MSI boards, (at least the Xpower anyway) it jacked up System Agent and IO voltage to 1.45 and 1.4V respectively. For 4K with my CPU/IMC, I only needed 1.25 and 1.20V. WAY too high. They said it was done to ensure better stability at higher speeds even with poor IMCs. The ASUS board I tested, sets it at a more palatable 1.35 and 1.3V. Nobody has complained about degradation (its still early), but 1.45 and 1.4V is high.

This board set 1.2V. I did know what he was referring too.

 

[lukart]

Is it possible to get a review on their new SuperCarrier Z270?
Looks good, but didnt saw any reviews yet.

 

[Flybyderp]

Board looks like it would compliment a white and black build nicely.

Maybe one day ill get to joining the new gen kids

 

[Hood]

Can you provide some details regarding how PCI-E lanes are allocated when one or both M.2 drives are used?

Since every motherboard can be wired differently consumers have no idea what features are given up by populating the M.2 slots.

Thank you

Each M.2 slot disables 2 Intel SATA ports when populated, so using both M.2 slots will leave you with 2 Intel SATA ports and 2 Asmedia SATA ports. I can live with that - my current board (Asus Z97 Deluxe) disables 2 Intel SATA ports even though it's a slow 2-lane M.2 slot http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z270 Extreme4/#Specification

 

[Hossein Almet]

Not sure, OC on a test bench is similar to OC on working Windows environment, because in Windows environment there are dozen of running in the background, the one u know about, and those u don't know about. It has puzzled as to why the motherboard boosts the oc setting in no time, but Windows would crash 10 or 15 second with a BSCD at that. Maybe, W10 is not good for OC.

 

[EarthDog]

Not sure, OC on a test bench is similar to OC on working Windows environment, because in Windows environment there are dozen of running in the background, the one u know about, and those u don't know about. It has puzzled as to why the motherboard boosts the oc setting in no time, but Windows would crash 10 or 15 second with a BSCD at that. Maybe, W10 is not good for OC.

You are aware that a test bench is simply an open air case, right? It has nothing to do with an OS bud...

Many motherboards default is turbo clocks. W10 is fine for overclocking man..

 

[Hossein Almet]

You are aware that a test bench is simply an open air case, right? It has nothing to do with an OS bud...

Many motherboards default is turbo clocks. W10 is fine for overclocking man..

Of course, I know that a test bench is an open air case. That is why I said it's not similar to when u oc it in a Windows environment.

 

[EarthDog]

Nope.. you don't get it...or are doing an incredibly poor job explaining what you mean as your post(s) explicitly infer you don't know the difference.

Windows is an Operating System which your computer runs in. A test bench is where your PC physically sits. Its like a case, however it is open air so you can easily work around it, swap parts etc. In other words, he IS running windows while the computer is on an open test bench with all the things running in the backround. Where the PC physically sits has nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, to do with the Operating System and whats running in the background.

 

[Hossein Almet]

Thanks for the answer. Since we are here, can I have question? What is the difference between an F6 in BIOS and reset the CMOS using the CMOS button. And if I apply an F6, I will be free to access my OC profiles later on, right?

 

[EarthDog]

Ok, so you understand now?! Windows is an Operating System, and a test bench is where the PC physically sits... they are absolutely not related.

There isn't a difference, they both reset the BIOS to factory defaults. Your OC profiles will still be there after using F6/CMOS reset. The only time you will get rid of those is when you flash to a new BIOS.

 

[Hossein Almet]

Thanks. I hope a Clock_Watchdog_Timeout won't appear again after I reboot with one of my oc profiles.

 

[EarthDog]

If you want help overclocking, start your own thread for best response.