The brand ASRock needs no introduction, the Z97 Extreme4 is their mid/high range feature rich motherboard for the latest generation of Intel processors.
The first thing that probably caught your attention would be the words SUPER ALLOW, here’s what it refers to….
– XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
– Premium Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)
– Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)
– NexFETâ„¢ MOSFET
– Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
– Sapphire Black PCB
The package content for the Z97 Extreme4 is minimalistic
– 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
– 1 x HDD Saver Cable
– 1 x Screw for M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3
The board itself is blue in color, ASRock’s range of boards come in 3 colors of which the yellow is for overclocking while red is for gaming, blue is pretty much the general purpose board with emphasis on durability – works great for me as I’m both an overclocker and a gamer.
The board is with ASRock Digi Power, 12 Power Phase design with Premium Allow Chokes. Large heatsinks surround the socket while the CPU12V socket is at the corner with sufficient clearance.
Nearby are the DIMM slots with 15μ Gold Contact that supports Dual Channel DDR3 3200+(OC).
On the other corner – 1x SATA Express, 8x SATA3 and also easy access buttons, not forgetting also the debug LED.
The board has 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 (15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE2)) and 3 PCIe 2.0 x1, supporting AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® Quad SLI™.
ASRock Z97 Extreme4’s also comes with 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Supports Purity Soundâ„¢ 2 & DTS Connect
The board doesn’t slack on the I/O port department, with
– 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port
– 1 x D-Sub Port
– 1 x DVI-D Port
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.2
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 2 x USB 3.0 Ports (ASMedia ASM1042AE) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 4 x USB 3.0 Ports (Intel® Z97) (Supports ESD Protection (ASRock Full Spike Protection))
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
