[H]ard|OCP starts out their review of the ASRock X79 Extreme4 with a tale of two motherboards and the quality issues that they discovered. In part it is a warning and in part it offers contrast to the decent quality of the review model that they received. The board did display a few minor problems during testing, which prompted [H] to caution anyone picking this or any other ASRock board that they may need to deal with the RMA process. Assuming you get a working board the Extreme4 offers a great experience for you. The two PCIe 16x slots and single 8x slot are all PCIe 2.0 which may disappoint some who plan on upgrading their CPU or installing a PCIe SSD card. Apart from those two main issues, [H] were quite happy with this board.
"After the last couple of ASRock boards, I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to see another one. The ASRock X79 Extreme4 not only surpassed my admittedly low expectations, but proved to be the exact opposite of the last two motherboards. Grab a sandwich and read on. You don’t want to miss this one."
Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
- Intel DH67BL Intel H67 Express Motherboard Review @ PCSTATS
- Intel Core i7 3820 and ASrock Extreme4-M @ Kitguru
- Gigabyte G1.Assassin 2 @ Guru3D
- ASUS’s Dual Socket 2011 Workstation Motherboard – Z9PE-D8 WS @ VR-Zone
This past August, I was due
This past August, I was due for an upgrade and Asrock was one of the only companies that had all the features I was looking for in a Z68 board (Z68 Professional Gen3). Feature-wise, this board is fantastic.
My concerns with Asrock, is that the board I listed has only a 2 year warranty, and based on user feedback, their RMA process comes off lacking. It leaves me with the impression that their role with the end user needs improvement.
In general, I would dig seeing an improved UEFI BIOS, especially in regards to the layout and navigation. Additional features would be appreciated as well.
As the owner of Kyle’s
As the owner of Kyle’s horribly reviewed Asrock Extreme 4 Gen 3 board, I thought I’d chime in here. My experience with this board has been the polar opposite of Hardocp’s. It has been extremely stable, both with the 8gb of G.Skill 1866 ram that I’d been using until last week, and now with the 16gb of Corsair 1333 that I use. I’ve never had a problem with bsod’s, bios problems, or quality problems. I’m running my 2600k at 4.6ghz without a problem, and I’ve oc’d my two Geforce 460’s to 850mhz as well. The only real complaint I have is the bios has still only been revised once all the way back in September. I’ve also read this board can be finicky with usb 3 but I’ve not tried that yet.
I think Asrock’s Jeckyl and Hyde differences in stability has to be a lack of quality control. How Hardocp can have such a hugely different experience than I have is beyond me.