FRONTPAGE ASRock Z87 Extreme6 Motherboard Review

[Overclockers.com]

Another day, another LGA1150 motherboard. This time around it's the ASRock's Z87 Extreme6, a motherboard that sits somewhere between their mid-range and high-end offerings. During the last few CPU generations, ASRock has been known for making quality boards for a competitive price. Let's see if the same holds true for the Haswell platform.

... Return to article to continue reading.

 

[dudleycpa]

Very interesting review! The load line calibration is different - nice that you pointed out that level 2 worked the best. The bios seems underwhelming.

Currently $190 on the egg. $170 at microcenter.

 

[Boulard83]

Another good reading !

 

[Ajay57]

Did you see any problems with freezing in the Bios and USB ports not working with that Board?? Thanks for the through review. AJ.

 

[dudleycpa]

Was wondering about:

"Typically, if power loss occurs during the BIOS update process, then the BIOS will most likely be bricked. However, Crashless BIOS allows the BIOS to continue updating when regaining power after a power loss. The only requirements to use this feature is that the BIOS files have to be in the root directory of the USB drive and a USB 2.0 port has to be used."

Are the USB 2.0 ports labeled? I'm guessing that they're two above the PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port?

 

[EarthDog]

USB2 ports are black. USB3 ports are blue.

EDIT: After looking at the board, you are correct.

 

[dudleycpa]

USB2 ports are black. USB3 ports are blue.

EDIT: After looking at the board, you are correct.

Thanks for the post! Goes to show that a blind monkey can hit a barn! Wait, I apologize if anyone reading this is a monkey!

 

[MattNo5ss]

Very interesting review! The load line calibration is different - nice that you pointed out that level 2 worked the best. The bios seems underwhelming.

Currently $190 on the egg. $170 at microcenter.

The voltage monitoring in the BIOS is underwhelming, but everything else about it works well.

Did you see any problems with freezing in the Bios and USB ports not working with that Board?? Thanks for the through review. AJ.

I did see BIOS freezing when trying to maximize my OC, just a result of instability. No issues with the USB ports on this board. Of course, USB3.0 drivers need to be installed.

Was wondering about:

"Typically, if power loss occurs during the BIOS update process, then the BIOS will most likely be bricked. However, Crashless BIOS allows the BIOS to continue updating when regaining power after a power loss. The only requirements to use this feature is that the BIOS files have to be in the root directory of the USB drive and a USB 2.0 port has to be used."

Are the USB 2.0 ports labeled? I'm guessing that they're two above the PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port?

USB2.0 ports are the two black ports on the back panel I/O, the internal USB port, and the two internal headers (4 ports).

 

[Nimblor]

I have the z87m extreme4. It is good seems just like the extreme6 only shorter with a few less ports. I liked your outdoor photos. AsRock on the porch! When are you going to take a motherboard to the beach?

 

[dejo]

I have this board and really like it. the only issue that I have is trying to get my samsung micro rams to run at speeds and timings I know they are capable of, have the same issue on the giga z87 ud4h board though, so I must just be missing something. cant get 2400 to run no matter what. xmp rams do work with that enabled, but setting manual timings is back to no post.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Subtimings are critical on Haswell dejo. Write down the sub timings that are set by xmp and then set those manually also. It should work then.

 

[dejo]

thanks Jeremy. I dont have xmp ram at 2400+ but Mark (psyko) does and actually has the board for now just playing with it. I may try to borrow his and put them in and see what each board says and match my sammys to his gskill, as I think they have the same chips on them

 

[hokiealumnus]

Good idea. To give an example - I use 2600, C10 RAM for GPU reviews. It will not run 1866 / 9-9-9-24 by just setting those parameters alone. I had to load XMP to get all of the sub-timings programmed in, THEN move to 1866 / 9-9-9-24 and set all other timings per XMP. Then I saved the BIOS profile so I didn't have to do that mess again. Works like a charm now, but it was unstable before doing that. Hence my advice about sub-timings on Haswell being a big deal.

 

[MattNo5ss]

High RAM frequency is something I couldn't test since the best RAM I have is some 1600 6-6-6-20 Hyper ICs.

It sounds like a secondary/tertiary timing issue to me as well, but that's just a guess on my part.