AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 Quad CrossFireX and Quad SLI A GbE ATX Motherboard Z77 EXTREME4
AsRock has turned itself into an amazing company. This motherboard is brilliant. Just last night, I was tinkering and broke some settings on the BIOS. Instead of having to dive into the case, there lies a "clear CMOS" button on the I/O panel.
Made my life a breeze!
There are premade overclocking features for your CPU, but I don't fully trust them. But who really cares, it's better to do it yourself anyway! Not worth a star knocked off.
This is for the AS Rock LGA1155 Z77 Extreme 4
I replaced an ASUS motherbaord with this one. There are a few things to note about some of the negative reviews that are unwarranted from those that will not be bothered to read the manual (even the quick start manual, not the thick instruction booklet).
If not for the impatience of a few, this board would be a 5 star board save for any true DOA boards that an unlucky person may have received. Some drivers needed to be installed before the board and some of the ports could be utilized to its potential.The Driver and software package disk that came with the board allowed individual installation or a complete suite install. I was able to find a driver and/or explanation in the instructions for every complaint lodged against this board so far (DIMM slot priority, USB ports, PCIe and SATA port priority) and was up and running the first attempt to boot.
PROS:
- This board looks and feels fantastic. Lots of CPU and Case fan plug ins. Lots of other options if you expand your external ports.
- Despite claims of flimsiness, I found the board to be just as sturdy as my previous ASUS board.
- Despite claims of the board being short, it is exactly the same width as my previous ASUS board.
- Side facing SATA ports allow the removal or adjustment of drives or other installed items in the lower bays without having to remove the connectors from the board.
- The I/O back plate was painted black (might be a con if you have a non black case) with colored port edges.
- The UEFI is an amazing leap forward from the BIOS (mouse support, GUI, internet connection for Flash updating etc)
- Accessibility to tweak your board and auto recovery when it doesn't work out (such as overclocking etc.)
- LCD error reporting instead of translating Morse Code beeps.
CONS: (minor and situational cons)
- If there is any obvious negative it is that obscenely large aftermarket coolers may have issue with its proximity to the DIMM slots. I have a CoolerMaster TX3 with a 2 fan Push/Pull; Ram will fit in all 4 slots even with this cooler. If there are raised heat sink fins it may touch the fan depending on the brand and how it is spread out, but are otherwise completely interchangeable without removing the CPU cooler fan. A larger such as the CoolerMaster 212 may not allow for this.
- Front Panel plug ins (at the front top of almost every case) are located at the bottom rear of the board. Your front panel's cabling may barely reach. This seems common among many boards, but as great as this board is it would have been nice if it had taken it one closer step to supremacy by putting those front panel audio ports in a more convenient place.
I've not built a pc in >5 years, but with this MB it was a breeze. It's big with lots of room. I placed 4 sticks of 1600 ram and a huge Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cpu cooler on my 3770k intel processor and it all fit. Also I placed a Nvidia Gigabyte 670gtx(big, long card!) without a problem. The MB has a ton of fan support for cooling. This MB is made to overclock along with my components. I'm a rookie at overclocking but the software was a breeze. I've owned this for 2 months and I am still pleased. This MB had great reviews and I'm adding my 5 star to the list.
I am thoroughly satisfied with this board. I've heard some complaints about quality and I can only say they must have had a bad batch at one point, but for me and I had two of these boards at one point, these are excellent.
Navigating the BIOS is incredibly easy and informative. The layout of the board is complete logical and won't leave your hands cramped after plugging devices in.
There's nothing I can say to detract from this product. I will be an ASRock customer from now on!
The important thing is everything works. The I/O Panel Shield was missing when I got the box but I contacted Amazon and they overnighted a replacement motherboard. (Thank you Amazon. Things like this response when things go wrong is why I order from Amazon).
This part of a ~$500 computer upgrade. Motherboard, processor, case and a new SSD drive was added to existing parts. (Note: My old motherboard / AMD processor failed). My DDR3-1600 memory was 'fast enough' so I kept it. Same with the other parts. Nothing else really need to be replaced. Almost everything went together perfectly. This motherboard is mated with a i5-3470 processor, 16GB Ram, A SSD and three other hard drives, two DVD drives. My case is a full tower from Antec (Antec will sell discontinued last years top of the line cases cheap). All this and I have two open hot-swap positions for 3-1/2" hard drives plus a hot swap 2-1/2" drive position.
Things I liked: It worked out of the box. The board does have a clean layout and is a proven board - thought of as one of the best boards in it's class with positive reviews across the world. Since I do not plan to overclock (much) and my case has excellent air flow, the stock processor cooling is more than sufficient. The board has the ability to charge an iPad while connected. I tested charging with two iPods V3&4, three iPad's version V1,2 and 4 and everything says it is charging while connected. This was a nice surprise - the Asus and Gigabyte user reviews indicated problems. The bios screen is something to behold. Onboard buttons to power on / reset / clear cmos. It has enough on board USB connectors for six (6) front panel USB plus two (2) USB 3.0 on your case front (who has that many?). The instructions say that the motherboard has specialized utilities to take advantage of Windows 8 features.
Did not like: The manual. I feel though I should shut-up about it and be grateful that I have a manual at all these days. Did not include a USB3 header to USB3 Female connector. The supplied SATA cables were 90 degree cables (needed straight). This is minor stuff. Assuming that I am able to update drivers / utilities as needed through the future of this motherboard, I'm good.
Summary: If I had a couple hundred more to spend I would probably use the same motherboard and get an i7 processor. A hundred or two more and I would get a second monitor. Any more money double the ram and raid 3T drives. Than a second video card. Than I would need a larger power supply and at this point you should be in a different processor socket.
Very easy setup and lots of features. I was a little weary going with this brand since I've been attached to MSI for so long, but this really opened my eyes to other, better things. One thing I do not like is the plug arrangement that is setup on the I/O panel in the back. It seems like it was kind of slapped together with no arrangment. For example on the top you have 2 USB3 ports, then below you have your vid attachments then 2 USB ports, then 2 USB3 ports.. I would prefer all the same ports to be grouped together. Another thing I'm not particularly crazy about is the fact that there are 2 different chipsets that provide the SATA3 connections. One is Intel which provides two of them and the other two are provided by ASmedia. I know this is a shortcoming of the Z77 design and it is just weird to me that SATA3 is so limited. I came from an AMD 890fx where you get 6 full SATA3 ports ...All from one chipset. But the Intel processor is superior to AMD and that sums it all up right there. Easily overclocked my i5 3570K to 4.5GHZ using only 1.25 volts max and so easily too. I have no doubt I can take this to 5GHZ, and someday I will. Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase and would recommend this board mostly to enthusiasts because of the dual PCI-Express 3 slots and wide options for overclocking. Shipping was ultra fast and free. THANK YOU big time for that one!
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA1366/ Intel X58/ 6DDR3-2200/ SATA3/ USB3.0/ 2-Way/3-Way ATI CrossFireX?/NVIDIA SLI/ GbE/ Raid/ eSATA/1394 ATX Motherboard