ASRock P67 Extreme4 Motherboard Review

Motherboards/Intel S1155 by stefan @ 2011-01-22

The Extreme4 P67 motherboard from ASRock is a feature-rich product which incorporates the latest technologies like USB 3.0/SATA3/eSATA3, supports the Sandy Bridge CPUs from Intel and comes with a very easy to use UEFI BIOS; the motherboard comes with a 8+2 power phase design and is offered at a competitive price. In this review we use the board to push our 2500K CPU to 4.8Ghz with air cooling.

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Features, Specifications

Features

ASRock XFast USB Technology - Faster Than Your Imagination!

ASRock XFast USB Technology redefines the new standard in high performance computing. Proving once again to be the pioneer in motherboard industry, ASRock XFast USB Series Motherboards integrate with the latest XFast USB Technology which delivers the world's fastest USB data transfer speed. According to the below graph, it shows that the ASRock XFast USB technology can even boost USB 3.0 performance up to 97.7%!

C.C.O. (Combo Cooler Option)

C.C.O., stands for Combo Cooler Option, is another exclusive hardware design on ASRock boards. C.C.O. provides the flexible options to adopt different CPU cooler types and matches your socket LGA775, LGA1155 / LGA1156 CPU cooler in the respective holes. Once again, ASRock has successfully expanded the utilization of PCB by the exclusive C.C.O. design.

DuraCap

ASRock DuraCap featuring all solid capacitor design, 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors which can last 2.5 times longer lifespan.

Digi Power

By adopting digital Pulse-width modulation (PWM), the ASRock motherboard can provide CPU Vcore voltage more efficiently and smoothly. Compared to analog PWM, digital PWM can optimize the CPI power solution and provide a proper and stable Vcore for the processor.

THX TruStudio PRO™

THX TruStudio PRO™ solution ensures you the premium audio quality, effects and features for PC systems equipped with onboard audio. For instance, the TruStudio Surround technology expands your stereo content into surround sound; the TruStudio Crystalizer technology restores the compressed sound source and can let you hear every detail in riveting surround sound. Combined with the THX TruStudio PRO and the ASRock high performance HTPC system, you will be assured to enjoy a rich variety of PRO gramming and be entertained by a better way!

Front USB 3.0 Panel

The Front USB 3.0 Panel supports 2 x USB 3.0 ports and provides a 2.5” SSD/HDD rack.

AXTU - The All-in-1 Tuning Software

ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) is an all-in-one software to fine-tune different features in an user-friendly interface, which includes Hardware Monitor, Fan Control, Overclocking, OC DNA and IES. In Hardware Monitor, it shows the major readings of your system. In Fan Control, it shows the fan speed and temperature for you to adjust. In Overclocking, you are allowed to adjust the CPU frequency, ratio and some voltages for optimal system performance. In OC DNA, you can save your OC settings as a profile and share with your friends. Your friends then can load the OC profile to their own system to get the same OC settings. In IES (Intelligent Energy Saver), the voltage regulator can reduce the number of output phases to improve efficiency when the CPU cores are idle without sacrificing computing performance.

UEFI – The Revolutionary BIOS Interface

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a revolutionary BIOS utility which offers tweak-friendly options in an advanced viewing interface. Compared with traditional BIOS design, the latest UEFI utility provides lots improved functions. The major features of UEFI include:

1. Graphical Visual Experience – UEFI provides an improved visual interface with colorful icons and makes your computing environment more versatile to replace the traditional dull BIOS page.

2. Mouse Enabling – Besides keyboard control, you can freely use mouse to select your ideal settings in UEFI as well.

3. Support bootable HDD over than 2TB – UEFI breaks the limitation of 2TB bootable HDD on traditional BIOS. With UEFI, you can enjoy the bootable HDD size over than 2TB!*

ASRock SmartView

It is the smart start page for IE that combines your most visited web sites, your history, your Facebook friends and your real-time newsfeed into an enhanced view for a more personal Internet experience. ASRock motherboards are exclusively equipped with the SmartView utility that helps you keep in touch with friends on-the-go.

 

ASRock Software Suite

ASRock software suite is designed with the customer-oriented concept, delivers the best possible experience for today’s most demanding users.

 

Specifications

 

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Comment from thorgal @ 2011/01/23
Neatly done Stefan.

Also like your screenshots : which hard/software do you use for making the bios screen shots ?
Comment from jmke @ 2011/01/23
read last page first paragraph, bold part
Comment from thorgal @ 2011/01/23
Completely read over it lol.

Bios shots without some special hardware are a bit of a pain usually.
Comment from geoffrey @ 2011/01/23
via tv-out > tv-capture card you should also be able to do so
Comment from Stefan Mileschin @ 2011/01/23
Thanks for the appreciation! Really like the new UEFI and its screenshot feature.
Comment from jmke @ 2011/01/23
Quote:
Originally Posted by geoffrey View Post
via tv-out > tv-capture card you should also be able to do so
how do you tell BIOS to output image over TV-out? it defaults to the HDMI/D-SUB/DVI connector

HDMI capture card would be better

 

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