Layout

At a first glance the ASRock Z97 Extreme6 looks very good with its harmonic design. In this case, ASRock is using a black PCB, two blue DIMM slots as well as blue heatsinks and the overall color scheme makes a beautiful product. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. The fact that there are angled SATA connectors, which have been moved alongside the northbridge, allow for easy installation of oversized graphics cards.



ASRock equips the Extreme6 with a twelve phase digital power for the CPU. Furthermore there are ASRock's so called "Super Alloy 9 chokes" on this motherboard, which, as the name indicates, are made from a special alloy. This alloy should help reducing operating temperature. Also ripple and DCR are lower when compared to the chokes used on previous generation motherobards. Also, the saturation current is higher (38A instead of 20A). A closer look at the voltage regulation chip, visible below, we find an ISL6379 taking care of the twelve phases regarding CPU VRM. Apart from that each phase is driven by dual stack MOSFETs with a "low-side" and a "high-side".



Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Z97 Extreme6. Officially supported are DDR3 3200(O.C.) / 3100(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) / 2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz. There is enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 1.3.



On the Z97 Extreme6, the southbridge is being cooled by a passive cooling block. A closer look at the VRM area shows that there are two additional heatsinks. Most manufacturers decide to connect the two VRM heatsinks on their higher end motherboards using a heatpipe. ASRock on the other hand simply uses aluminium heatsinks. All blocks have been milled from aluminium and they certainly add to a quality feel.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 14 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 15 - UC Bench
Page 3 - Features	Page 16 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 4 - Layout	Page 17 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 18 - Cinebench
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 19 - Bioshock: Infinite
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 20 - Metro Last Light
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 21 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 22 - Power Consumption
Page 10 - 3D Mark 11	Page 23 - Performance Rating
Page 11 - 3D Mark Vantage	Page 24 - Price Comparison
Page 12 - PC Mark 7	Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1