The Board - A Closer Look

The silver lettering a nice contrast to its bright red colors, the board proudly lays claim to the fact that it is a Z97 board. My board's Super I/O looks as though it's growing gray hairs, however.


ASmedia supplies both the TMDS switch and added USB 3.0 ports.


Audio is supplied by a custom-designed Realtek ALC1150 circuit, with areas of isolation here and there, though it is not as complete as on some other products I have seen.


The dual-phase DIMM VRM has those NexFET MOSFET packages, while the 8-phase CPU VRM, supplied by the single 8-pin EPS connector shown above, likely uses Dual-Stack MOSFETs. I actually did not remove the cooler to check as I do not see a reason for ASRock to advertise their presence otherwise.


USB 3.0 ports on the front panel are driven by the Intel Z97 PCH. Intel has improved the performance of the controllers it integrates with their PCH chipsets enough for me to be glad to see the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X KILLER use the design. The Killer E2200-Series NIC is hidden under a metal EMI shield.


As on the majority of Intel Z97-based products, there is a single M.2 port. It offers speeds of up to 10 Gb/s. Drives are still not widely available. I have to admit I kind of like the ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X KILLER so far. Let us put it to the test to see if I stay impressed.