The Board - A Closer Look

The man behind ASRock's OC FORMULA product line-up isn't like others out there, and ASRock knows it, proudly printing his name right on the board's surface for all to see. Not only do they show that, they also show exactly how many layers you're getting here, with a nice little window in one corner of the X99 OC FORMULA/3.1.


So what makes up the OC FORMULA design, you might ask? First of all, it begins with buttons. LOTS of buttons. But each has a purpose, including the basic ON/OFF and RESET buttons many other boards also have. There's the "DirectKey" which will get you directly into the BIOS (I use this one so much I am worried it might wear out :P), a normal dual-digit POST LED display, and above it, a switch for you to flip between the two installed BIOS chips, so if you are like me, you can keep the BIOS the board ships with (which for me always seems to overclock best) and have another to try out a new BIOS without having to worry about losing the old BIOS. Then there's this yellow HDD Saver thing...


It takes a couple drives and does automatic back-up things, but this requires that the drives are connected with a SATA power cable that connects to a plug under that interesting yellow sticker on the board. It's there because if you want to simply push your system hard for 24/7 use, the ASRock X99 OC FORMULA/3.1 is ready to do that too.


Now, back to those buttons. Yes, more buttons. You get three buttons for real-time clock adjustments (which can be configured with software that runs inside the OS), a switch block for disabling PCIE slots, a "LN2 Mode" switch, a "Slow Mode" switch, and a pins block for you to stick your multi-meters into for real-time voltage readings. Then there's a set of four LEDs for a general indication on where things went wrong when POST pauses.


A lot of this functionality is provided by not one but two Super I/O chips, which are Nuvoton parts, a NCT6683D-T and NCT6791D mounted a fair distance apart from each other. We get fan control and such from these as well, but more on that in a bit.


To make sure your CPU has enough juice to cruise along at those crazy clocks you've planned (I've seen 5 GHz pretty easily myself, thanks), we find both an 8-pin and 4-pin EPS connector with a label that tells you to use the 8-pin EPS header because the 4-pin is for other parts on the board, not the CPU. Then there is the huge VRM heatsink that sits on the 12 Phase VRM with so many components they are even fitted onto the back of the board!


The DIMM VRM design is equally robust, with similar VRM designs on either side of the board, though one side of the board has low-profile parts that fit under the CPU VRM's large radiator, between the primary bank of DIMMs and the back I/O towers.


You can see the many things stuffed under there, with this ASMedia chip sticking out of a lower corner.


There are a couple other ASMedia chips in various locations on the motherboard, all of which are responsible for USB ports of one variety or another.


As I mentioned, there are a lot of USB ports, with the front panel ready to support four USB 3.0 ports via onboard headers. There is also a built-in Type-A port for you to slap your driver disk into, or your portable benching OS.


There are both Intel and QUALCOMM LAN controllers on the ASRock X99 OC FORMULA/3.1, so those of you who like to play favorites have a choice.


Audio is provided by some sort of CODEC, although we'll never know exactly which one because it's under a metal cover, now will we? That is, until we install the drivers and find out that it is a Realtek ALC1150, a tried-and-tested chip I know to perform very well since I've already used it. So there.