ASRock X99 Extreme4 is World's First Windows 8.1-Certified X99-Based Motherboard

[Cristian_25H]

Even though nothing much about ASRock's next generation Intel X99 series motherboards can be revealed yet, we simply can't restrain ourselves from spilling out the good news that ASRock's X99 Extreme4 is the world's first Intel X99 chipset based motherboard to pass Windows 8.1 hardware certification. So, yeah, users may be ensured that ASRock's X99 Extreme4 will support the latest operating system from Microsoft without any problems, and bear in mind that it's coming to you real soon! Kudos to ASRock again!

Not only focusing on developing the most advanced hardware technology, ASRock also keen on bringing the latest software applications to PC users. ASRock pioneers in Windows 8.1 logo submission, and the company's offerings are the best in the overall market. So, why settle for second best? Be the first to lay your hands on the X99 Series computers with ASRock!



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[RejZoR]

Still unsure if i should go with the 3rd gen Socket 2011 platform and X99 chipset or wait for Skylake and whatever chipset it comes with it. X99 certainly looks promising in a way, though i assume it will be a dead platform from the get go like it was LGA1366 back then.

I mean, 6 cores, 12 threads, very high stock clocks etc, do want that. I'm kinda tired of all the same quad cores that we had for ages.

 

[Ferrum Master]

LGA1366 wasn't a dead platform... X series are not meant for casual people as such.

 

[dj-electric]

I'm happy for this certification. Now i can buy this with a CPU and enjoy.

....


:|

 

[Octavean]

LGA1366 was actually quite popular and well received. It was before the split between enthusiast / pro-sumer platforms like the LGA2011 / X79 / C600 series and consumer level platforms,...

I'm glad to see X99 hardware like this getting certified. It looks like things are on schedule for a late 3rd quarter or early 4th quarter release. I think I can go for an X99 LGA2011-3 platform assuming the entry level chip / processor is indeed 6 cores / 12 threads for ~$300 USD,....with the expected performance advantage.

 

[utengineer]

I see M.2 and SATA express. I am eager to see how MB OEMs will implement both on x99 with so many PCIe lanes available.

 

[visi1617]

nice of them, but it is pretty ironic that the PDF is being opened in a Windows XP machine

 

[Hood]

Oh crap, I just did the whole Z97/Devil's Canyon upgrade, now here comes the new HEDT platform, looking very tempting. All those PCIe lanes will be useful for the drives that are soon to arrive using x4 and x8 lanes, hopefully no longer requiring a second mortgage as they become more common. Storage I/O is still the bottleneck of modern systems, and it's the final frontier for massive speed improvements (memory and CPU being so fast already that only incremental speed bumps are possible). M.2 PCIe x 2 drives like the Plextor M6e are not good even as a temporary solution - mine is actually a bit slower than my 840 Pro in real world usage (the 4k reads and writes typically performed by the OS and programs). The slot takes a latency hit because of it's path through the PCH. The top sequential speeds look good on paper, but rarely come into play outside of benchmarks. I'm thinking M.2 PCIe x 8 slots will be common on X99 boards, and there's enough lanes that using M.2 shouldn't require disabling SATA ports or losing graphics lanes (unless SLI?).

 

[Scrizz]

nice of them, but it is pretty ironic that the PDF is being opened in a Windows XP machine

who opened the PDF?

 

[bpgt64]

Oh crap, I just did the whole Z97/Devil's Canyon upgrade, now here comes the new HEDT platform, looking very tempting. All those PCIe lanes will be useful for the drives that are soon to arrive using x4 and x8 lanes, hopefully no longer requiring a second mortgage as they become more common. Storage I/O is still the bottleneck of modern systems, and it's the final frontier for massive speed improvements (memory and CPU being so fast already that only incremental speed bumps are possible). M.2 PCIe x 2 drives like the Plextor M6e are not good even as a temporary solution - mine is actually a bit slower than my 840 Pro in real world usage (the 4k reads and writes typically performed by the OS and programs). The slot takes a latency hit because of it's path through the PCH. The top sequential speeds look god on paper, but rarely come into play outside of benchmarks. I'm thinking M.2 PCIe x 8 slots will be common on X99 boards, and there's enough lanes that using M.2 shouldn't require disabling SATA ports or losing graphics lanes (unless SLI?).

I just side graded out of the X79 4930k setup to a 4790k, overclocks like a monster, waiting for m.2 sata prices to come down a bit and I'll reformat. I just don't do as much crunching at home as I thought to justify a HEDT based platform....

 

[GhostRyder]

Interesting, cool that Asrock got the certification first. Might have to look at them when I buy x99 this fall!

Though I'll probably still end up with asus unless this asrock completely blows me away.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Oh crap, I just did the whole Z97/Devil's Canyon upgrade, now here comes the new HEDT platform, looking very tempting. All those PCIe lanes will be useful for the drives that are soon to arrive using x4 and x8 lanes, hopefully no longer requiring a second mortgage as they become more common. Storage I/O is still the bottleneck of modern systems, and it's the final frontier for massive speed improvements (memory and CPU being so fast already that only incremental speed bumps are possible). M.2 PCIe x 2 drives like the Plextor M6e are not good even as a temporary solution - mine is actually a bit slower than my 840 Pro in real world usage (the 4k reads and writes typically performed by the OS and programs). The slot takes a latency hit because of it's path through the PCH. The top sequential speeds look god on paper, but rarely come into play outside of benchmarks. I'm thinking M.2 PCIe x 8 slots will be common on X99 boards, and there's enough lanes that using M.2 shouldn't require disabling SATA ports or losing graphics lanes (unless SLI?).

Be wary when upgrading, the lowest cpu 5820k will have only one x16 while the 5930k & 5960x with have two x16.

And MSI released an image of their blacked out X99 that looks great over at techreport.

 

[Petey Plane]

Why on earth would you spend money on a X99 platform when you just purchased a Devils Canyon platform? In basically every game, the DC platform will almost certainly be faster than the X99. And it's been shown over and over that the real-world difference between full 16x PCIE and 8x PCIE is virtually non-existent. Same goes for RAM speeds over 2133. Unless you are running 4x SLI or CF, (and if you can afford that, a 2nd mortgage shouldn't even be necesssary), I fail to see the need for that upgrade outside of professional applications. But to each his own I guess

 

[newtekie1]

LGA1366 wasn't a dead platform... X series are not meant for casual people as such.

I believe he was referring to the fact that when the desktop 1366 platform came out it was early 2009, and by September 2009 Intel was already demoing SandyBridge.

LGA1366 was actually quite popular and well received. It was before the split between enthusiast / pro-sumer platforms like the LGA2011 / X79 / C600 series and consumer level platforms,...

It WAS the split between enthusiast and consumer levels. 1366 was "Enthusiast Desktop", and 1156 was "Performance Desktop". 775 was the last socket before the Intel made the split.

 

[Hood]

I just side graded out of the X79 4930k setup to a 4790k, overclocks like a monster, waiting for m.2 sata prices to come down a bit and I'll reformat. I just don't do as much crunching at home as I thought to justify a HEDT based platform....

Yeah, I'm happy with mine, 4.6 GHz@1.26 max vcore, and CPU scores rivaling stock 3960s. I'm just a little disappointed in the M.2 possibilities on Z97 - most slots are PCIe x2 (except for two Asrock boards which have a PCIe x4 slot). My M.2 Plextor M6e is actually a bit slower than my 840 Pro at common 4k operations, I think because the PCH has to convert the signal to SATA or some such, anyway, it takes a definite hit compared to other methods. Isn't faster storage ports the only reason to upgrade to Z97? So why did I just spend $900 on this? I'm a hardware junky...

Why on earth would you spend money on a X99 platform when you just purchased a Devils Canyon platform? In basically every game, the DC platform will almost certainly be faster than the X99. And it's been shown over and over that the real-world difference between full 16x PCIE and 8x PCIE is virtually non-existent. Same goes for RAM speeds over 2133. Unless you are running 4x SLI or CF, (and if you can afford that, a 2nd mortgage shouldn't even be necesssary), I fail to see the need for that upgrade outside of professional applications. But to each his own I guess

I probably won't upgrade to X99, even if Intel does it right. I'm just lamenting the lack of more PCIe lanes on Z97, not for SLI or Xfire, but to use for fast storage solutions. The technology is here, but a storage upgrade you can FEEL requires 4 or 8 lanes, and they just can't be spared out of only 16 lanes. As PCIe storage gains traction, new platforms will have to up their lane count to compensate (and it should have been done on Z97).

 

[Deadlyraver]

Any word on prices?

 

[newtekie1]

I probably won't upgrade to X99, even if Intel does it right. I'm just lamenting the lack of more PCIe lanes on Z97, not for SLI or Xfire, but to use for fast storage solutions. The technology is here, but a storage upgrade you can FEEL requires 4 or 8 lanes, and they just can't be spared out of only 16 lanes. As PCIe storage gains traction, new platforms will have to up their lane count to compensate (and it should have been done on Z97).

It would have been impossible to add PCI-E lanes to Z97 and maintain compatibility with the Z87 motherboards. Since the main PCI-E lanes come from the CPU, upping the number on the CPU to more than 16 would make the CPUs no longer work in older Z87 boards.

Of course they could could have added some more secondary PCI-E lanes to the PCH, but they already have 8 available, so there really isn't any need for more there. Plus, the added latency of going through the PCH basically negates the performance benefits of PCI-E attached storage.

In reality, the motherboard manufacturers should be stepping up here and adding some PCI-E switches to their boards that include M.2 slots. So they can have 32 PCI-E 3.0 lanes that can be shared between the graphics cards and M.2 storage solutions. This solution would add almost no latency, compared to routing through the PCH, and give the extra lanes we want.

 

[ensabrenoir]

.....no way around it.....currently building a mini itx z97 rig for every day usage.... and will be building a micro atx x99 (as long as that 6 or 8 core comes in at the right price) for work/epeen needs....life is an unknown variable....gotta enjoy it.

 

[ypsylon]

To be honest X58 is not dead. Not by a long shot. It still does deliver plenty of power. I know, all my PCs running on 1366.

At first I was optimistic about H-E, but then with every new press release and leaks I frankly couldn't care less now. It's technically Nehalem in more modern package (just like SB was). There is no real progress like there was between 478 and 775. It was a huge jump, but when I switched from 775 to 1366 it felt like switching Ford model T for USS Enterprise.

Sorry Intel you have to do better not just repackage old tech as a new one. There must be real PROGRESS, not just some negligible difference in every day usage. Synthetic benchmarks are for nerds who running them 365/24/7.

Some may say that there is plenty of new tech on motherboards: PCI-Ex 3, USB 3, micro SSD, blah blah. Only place where PCI-Ex 3.0 is relevant is industrial scale storage. There is no VGA (combination) in the world that can saturate 16x Gen 2.0/slot. My old 5 series -solid as rock- Adaptec RAID provides me with all RAID functionality I need and some more. SSDs are more of curiosity for me nothing more. Think these are fast? Dump on them few DIRs with 500k files each, any SSD will choke, cough and stutter as old HDD - but without the noise.

I remember some years ago discussion with one older IT guy. He said that one day I'll stop being excited about IT and just measure it all in cool and calculated way. I guess reached that stage ~3 years ago.

 

[techy1]

I love that some guys are ready to spend extra $$$ upgraiding their X97 or Ivy-E/sandy-E just to gain few % performance... more points for you (and more $$$ to intel), one could go from X97 to X99 and back to Broadwell just in 6month period (and it sounds like some are ready for this move) ... tough I do not think that Intel deserve a extra 0,01$ for their last few generations "improvements".

 

[eroldru]

ASRock does that. But I don't think high end users need a certificate. That piece of paper looks valid for OEM

 

[Aquinus]

To be honest X58 is not dead. Not by a long shot. It still does deliver plenty of power. I know, all my PCs running on 1366.

Is socket 1366 and X58 insufficient, no, it can still keep up with most tasks.
Is the platform dead? Yes, there will never be a new skt1366 CPU, motherboards for the socket aren't produced anymore, and they continue to get more and more hard to come by. There is a word for that, "dead". I think you misunderstood what "dead" means, it doesn't mean obsolete.

 

[Deadlyraver]

To be honest X58 is not dead. Not by a long shot. It still does deliver plenty of power. I know, all my PCs running on 1366.

At first I was optimistic about H-E, but then with every new press release and leaks I frankly couldn't care less now. It's technically Nehalem in more modern package (just like SB was). There is no real progress like there was between 478 and 775. It was a huge jump, but when I switched from 775 to 1366 it felt like switching Ford model T for USS Enterprise.

Sorry Intel you have to do better not just repackage old tech as a new one. There must be real PROGRESS, not just some negligible difference in every day usage. Synthetic benchmarks are for nerds who running them 365/24/7.

Some may say that there is plenty of new tech on motherboards: PCI-Ex 3, USB 3, micro SSD, blah blah. Only place where PCI-Ex 3.0 is relevant is industrial scale storage. There is no VGA (combination) in the world that can saturate 16x Gen 2.0/slot. My old 5 series -solid as rock- Adaptec RAID provides me with all RAID functionality I need and some more. SSDs are more of curiosity for me nothing more. Think these are fast? Dump on them few DIRs with 500k files each, any SSD will choke, cough and stutter as old HDD - but without the noise.

I remember some years ago discussion with one older IT guy. He said that one day I'll stop being excited about IT and just measure it all in cool and calculated way. I guess reached that stage ~3 years ago.

Here, here!

I gotta say, after nearly 9 years it blows my mind over how much money's worth I'm getting out of this rig right now!

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

To be honest X58 is not dead. Not by a long shot. It still does deliver plenty of power. I know, all my PCs running on 1366.

At first I was optimistic about H-E, but then with every new press release and leaks I frankly couldn't care less now. It's technically Nehalem in more modern package (just like SB was). There is no real progress like there was between 478 and 775. It was a huge jump, but when I switched from 775 to 1366 it felt like switching Ford model T for USS Enterprise.

Sorry Intel you have to do better not just repackage old tech as a new one. There must be real PROGRESS, not just some negligible difference in every day usage. Synthetic benchmarks are for nerds who running them 365/24/7.

Some may say that there is plenty of new tech on motherboards: PCI-Ex 3, USB 3, micro SSD, blah blah. Only place where PCI-Ex 3.0 is relevant is industrial scale storage. There is no VGA (combination) in the world that can saturate 16x Gen 2.0/slot. My old 5 series -solid as rock- Adaptec RAID provides me with all RAID functionality I need and some more. SSDs are more of curiosity for me nothing more. Think these are fast? Dump on them few DIRs with 500k files each, any SSD will choke, cough and stutter as old HDD - but without the noise.

I remember some years ago discussion with one older IT guy. He said that one day I'll stop being excited about IT and just measure it all in cool and calculated way. I guess reached that stage ~3 years ago.

New CPUs are not being produced, there are no more models coming to the platform, and almost nobody makes 1366 boards anymore. thats the definition of a dead platform. not saying it isnt usable, but it is technically dead. unusable would be obsolete, like 478 (kinda miss those days of rapid improvements. although 775 was better for that).

its kinda sad how small of a difference there is between a 980x and a 4930k at the same clockspeed though.

 

[RejZoR]

Actually, apart from Core i7 920 up to 980X, there weren't any other for this socket. It was probably the most short lived socket ever. I also had incredibly hard time finding triple channel kit for the upgrade few weeks ago (not as much availability as it was the crazy price on most). Luckily i found one on Amazon (not sure which one). Good thing about X99 is that it comes with quad channel memory, so it's easier to fit and sell of RAM sticks in pairs (or buy them).