ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Review: Legacy Bites Back
by Ian Cutress on July 13, 2012 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- Z77
The ASRock Z77 Extreme6 looks like a good motherboard on paper. If we do direct comparisons to the Z77 Extreme4, we have more substantial heatsinks, a floppy port, the full array of video outputs and a third PCIe slot at the bottom powered from the chipset.
The board itself is slightly bigger than the Extreme4, because the Extreme4 was actually smaller-than-ATX. However, the extra real estate is costing another $35, and we are not getting anything in the way of performance that excels. A quick glance over our benchmark suite and you will notice that the Z77 Extreme6 just does not light up the charts. It is usually in the middle of the road, of even worse, at the bottom.
The main thing the Z77 Extreme6 has going for it is the overclocking. All of the auto overclocking options worked first time, and plugging in my normal overclocking technique gives us some of the best results we have ever had for 4.7 GHz. Nevertheless, I did experience issues in getting my memory kit (G.Skill DDR3-2400 9-11-11) to work properly at XMP. Another plus side is that we get that awesome USB 3.0 front bracket in the box which doubles as an SSD holder.
Software wise, we do get a nice selection of network management software as well as RAM-Disk tools for temporary files. The software needs to be all bundled together as much as possible to feel more streamlined to users, as well as pulling some of the features in the BIOS (Dehumidifier, Online Management Guard) out into the software.
The BIOS is well built and laid out appropriately. There is room to move with regards how graphical BIOS can capture the imagination of the artist, and I am told we should expect something better for the later chipsets due out this year.
Simply put, some motherboards are a joy to work with. Every corner you turn they give you a little bit more. Even if the differences to other motherboards are minor, often a little spark improves your experience. ASRock ideas such as Internet Flash and OMG are good, but their implementation needs to be refined. ASRock are on the road to becoming one of the top tier manufacturers and joining the ranks of ASUS and Gigabyte, but the Z77 Extreme6 is not it. It gives you a nice overclock that removes the performance issues at stock speeds, but I cannot find much to get excited about.
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Assimilator87 - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
I feel like for the majority of people IDE is way more useful than floppy. If ASRock is gonna put one on the board, they may as well include both. I still have a handful of IDE drives laying around, which is useful for troubleshooting, or for use in a secondary rig.hsew - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
If I really wanted a floppy drive I would buy an external USB one for 20 USD. Seems pointless to put it on a motherboard.Johnmcl7 - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Agreed, I still need to use floppy disks at work and it's no problem with new machines as a USB floppy disk drive appears to work as well as an internal drive as I've had no issues with it. Even then I don't really get this board, I could certainly see making a legacy Z77 board with a couple of serial ports, PS/2 ports, PCI and IDE ports with the rest of the board very basic would be handy for legacy enterprise use but this board is nothing like that, it seems a fairly fancy motherboard with a floppy connector strangely added.An IDE port which be handy as there are times I'm still working with IDE drives and keep some of the older P4 machines which had both sata and ide connectors for that use.
Havor - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link
Agree have not used a floppy for at least 5 years, and have not build one in my PCs for even longer, still have a USB floppy, that i used literly just once, and properly never again.Just keeping it to show the grand kids in +20y or so, "look that's what gramps use to use to install DOS and Win 3.1!"
taltamir - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
It is an issue of compatibility. Floppies are needed for ancient software you cannot replace for some reason, and such software typically does not play well with USB floppy drives.Notmyusualid - Saturday, July 14, 2012 - link
Absolutely agree.cknobman - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Just built my new gaming rig using this board which I picked up from the Egg for less than $160.I am happy with the board layout as it was easy to connect all my devices.
The BIOS was super easy to navigate and understand and my internet BIOS update worked which was pretty cool being able to update BIOS like that.
The build has only been running about 2 weeks and I am just running everything stock now making sure all components are stable. In another week or two I will try out overclocking.
I did have problems with the board recognizing my RAM. I put 16GB of cheap Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 in the board and it kept thinking it was 1333. I had to go in and force the board to think the RAM was 1600.
So far I get an occasional BSOD and it is either related to my RAM or my SSD (OCZ, I should have known better).
C'DaleRider - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
"I did have problems with the board recognizing my RAM. I put 16GB of cheap Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 in the board and it kept thinking it was 1333. I had to go in and force the board to think the RAM was 1600."Dude, that's not a problem, that's exactly the way memory is supposed to work. The JEDEC standards call for 1333 as a/the default setting when first installing memory so it'll work in any motherboard, regardless of rated speed.
Then, to achieve the rated speed spec of the memory, one HAS to enter the BIOS and set it. The motherboard won't do that natively.
cknobman - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
Ok thanks for the clarification!After reading this review I am now a little bummed about the middle/lower performance of this board compared to its competitors.
In all reality such a small difference in performance though is not my primary concern.
I think I will see much more real world benefit from the XFast USB included with this board as it seems to make a substantial impact and I do quite a lot of USB transfers (pictures, video, files).
Also nice to see this board is a good overclocker.
Samus - Friday, July 13, 2012 - link
I still wouldn't pass over the OCZ SSD as a problem. Both of mine eventually failed causing BSOD's. My Agility II didn't even last two weeks before disappearing into never-ever-land, never detected again, that is.Stick with Intel, Crucial or some other well known memory manufacture. Plextor is up and coming, too, but I still think if one is to go Sandforce, Intel 330 or 520 is your best bet.