Overclocking - The Hardware

The ASRock Z87 Extreme6/ac features a dual-BIOS implementation with a switch that allows you to choose which chip is in use, and there is an LED by each BIOS chip to show which BIOS is in use. RESET and POWER buttons are on the board's bottom edge, as are an internal USB port and POST-code display. The USB port is a nice treat for those doing some benchmarking. Allowing you to connect a USB drive without having to attach an additional bracket, it is great for BIOS updates and saving screenshots of your overclocks while the board is in a test bench.


The VRM design on the ASRock Z87 Extreme6/ac is a bit more basic than I had hoped. The main controller sits near the board's CPU VRM, and I found that the input drivers are broken into dual 3-part banks, with the upper VRM portion having its input drivers on the front side of the board, just above the VRM heatsink. The other bank of input drivers is on the rear of the board.


The board's CPU VRM features 12 total phases pushed by the six input drivers, with six phases above the CPU and six phases just to the left of the socket. The DIMM VRM is of a dual-phase design using more traditional analogue components.


I found an additional PCIe clockgen that helps with keeping the PCIe ports stable. For monitoring duties, I found the rather high-end Nuvoton NCT6776D Super I/O, one I have run into quite often as of late.