Test System

Initial Setup

Intel's X99 Express is the most fully-featured platform to date, and the X99 OC FORMULA/3.1 is ASRock's answer to getting the most you can out of it, which includes overclocking attempts with liquid nitrogen.


However, in a stock configuration, you are going to find the gold and black color scheme to actually suit many black parts out there pretty well. There are tons of black memory sticks from all sorts of brands, and there are most definitely videocards that fit the bill as well. However, I get to play with the standard configuration I have had for quite some time now. Even though there's a fairly large heatpipe connecting the main CPU VRM heatsink to the radiator between the DIMM slots and the rear I/O ports, it's deftly bent so as to be completely out of the way.


I did not have any problems swapping hardware in and out of the ASRock X99 OC FORMULA/3.1 during testing, with lots of clearance all around for you to access the onboard buttons and such that might be put to use while trying to break overclocking records.


Once inside the OS, I ran through all my benchmarks quickly, before taking a look at overclocking. Intel's X99 Express has been around for a while now, so I knew what I wanted to try, and I was met with success easily, which, to be honest, is better than I had expected.