ASRock Extreme9 X79 Motherboard Review – ASRock Earns Recognition as The Overclocking King

Today we are going to test the new X79 Extreme9 ASRock Motherboard in a variety of high powered benchmarks.

This new high end enthusiast-class motherboard looks to set the tone for the high powered X79 overclocking segment and we are testing to see if it can live up to its reputation as the “Overclocking King”.

Let’s fire up the test bench, and see what she has!

 INTRODUCTION

ASRock has grown very quickly for such a relative newcomer to the game, shooting up past others to become the world’s third largest motherboard manufacturer. ASRocks “3C” philosophy of “Creativity, Consideration, and Cost-effectiveness” has certainly served them, and the end user, very well.

Today, ASRock is challenging the top two motherboards for supremacy of the market, and their “3C” approach is certainly helping them to gain traction in this respect. One of the key considerations here is the ‘Cost-effectiveness Pledge’. ASRock is leading the way with its latest line of X79 boards, looking to lock in the high performance realm with premium components priced at reasonable prices.

The ‘other’ guys in the high end enthusiast realm are known for their high prices. For enthusiasts and extreme overclockers, the cost of admission can be very steep indeed. ASRocks goal is to give these users the capabilities that they need in an easy-to-afford package.

Any build starts with the motherboard that is used, and the other high end X79 boards are landing at shockingly high prices. The amount of money charged today for a new motherboard with all the bells and whistles was unheard of just 5 years ago. With the state of the global economy, it is amazing that some of these boards are commanding these types of prices.

The LGA 1155 platform ushered in some great budget minded motherboards that are allowing for astounding performance relatively cheaply. It is hard for users to jump from a 1155 platform with a 150 dollar motherboard to the 2011 platform with a prohibitively expensive motherboard right off the bat! This is doubly so if you consider the great performance to be had with the 1155 platform as a whole. This is surely going to only make things harder for the more expensive motherboard manufacturers, and also serve to pave the way for companies such as ASRock to capitalize in the X79 market.

One of the most important aspects of any premium motherboard is its ability to handle power delivery. Power delivery and control is one of the greatest tools in an overclockers arsenal. The BIOS options necessary to capitalize on the performance are also extremely important. ASRock is addressing these considerations with a high quality VRM and 100% Japanese manufactured Premium Gold Caps, along with UEFI bios.

With a massive amount of 8 x SATA3 + 8 x USB3.0 ports this board has all of the storage and connectivity functionality that any hardcore user can appreciate! Add in 4 SATA 2 ports, and 4 USB 2.0 ports there surely is not much that one could ask for that isn’t already included.

Considering it also boasts 5 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, there is much more to this story than just the overclocking potential of this motherboard.

Today we will see if ASRock can deliver in this respect. We have a shiny new i7-3930K, dual GTX 480 SLI setup, and a 1500 Watt PSU to throw at this motherboard… so let’s get her out of the box!