The Z87 OC Formula is ASRocks new high-end motherboard regarding overclocking. Additionally there is a beefed up audio solution with a decent headphone amp, which makes this board more interesting for gamers too. There is even the possibility to integrate the chipset into a watercooling loop, which is certainly appealing to modder. Overall, it looks like ASRock is trying to kill several bird with one stone. Are they going to succeed?
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The Z87 OC Formula is ASRock's high-end overclocking motherboard regarding Intels latest Z87 chipset. Therefore we're really curious what they've come up with from the layout and design as well as feature perspective.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Specs and Delivery
| Chipset | Intel Z87 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3, 3000+(OC) / 2933(OC) / 2800(OC) / 2400(OC) / 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU |
|
| Slots |
|
| Sound | Realtek ALC1150
|
| Storage | Intel Z87 chipset
|
| Network |
|
| Internal Connectors |
|
| Extrenal Connectors |
|
| Forfactor | eATX (30.5cm x 30.3cm) |
| BIOS | Bios (2 x 64 Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS) |
- 1 x ASRock Flexible SLI Bridge Connector Cable
- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- 10 x SATA Data Cables
- 2 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables
- 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel with 2.5" HDD/SSD Rack
- 4 x HDD Screws
- 6 x Chassis Screws
- 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket
- 10 x OC Stands
- GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound
- 1 x WiFi Module Screw
Regarding the delivery you'll find everything you need. Under certain circumstances you might wish there was an additional SLI or CrossFire bridge in the delivery.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Features
12 + 4 Phase Power Design |
Since quite some time ASRock has been equipping its boards with digital power designs. With the OC Formula they are very proud about their quite complex solution which consists of Dual-Stack MOSFET's (DSM), three different filter caps (DIP solid caps, POSCAP's and MLCC's), as well as high quality alloy chokes. |
|
Gelid Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound |
Since this product mainly aims at extreme overclockers, NickShih tought about something quite special. He decided to bundle the board with Gelid's GC-Extreme thermal compound, since this is the best thermal grease you can get for extreme overclocking. |
|
NickShih's OC Profile |
Unexperienced overclockers might be familiar with the circumstance, that it can take ages until you've found rock solid and stable settings you make you CPU run at a much higher frequency. At this point NickShih prepared five different profiles where the perfect settings are going to be loaded instantly and you don't need to carry anymore. Therefore it's piece of cake to clock your CPU to very high frequencies. | |
Rapid OC |
What you get with this feature are two buttons, which have been placed on the motherboard directly. Their purpose is to make overclocking even easier. In fact you can change the multiplyer, BCLK as well as VCore by simply pressing the plus or minus button. |  |
Conformal Coating |
Conformal Coating is a special layer, which prevents shortcuts when spilling water or other conductive liquids over the motherboard. In this case overclockers won't have to worry anymore about accidentally spilling liquid nitrogen over the board while overclocking. |
 |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Layout
At a first glance the ASRock OC Formula leaves a very good impression with its harmonic design. The manfucaturer decided to go for a combination of black, yellow and gold, which suites nicely and in the end you get an aesthetic 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 SATA connectors which have been angled by 90 degrees allow an easy installation of oversized graphics cards. It's quite surprising to see how similar the new Z87 OC Formula is compared to the predecessor Z77 OC Formula. Apparently ASRock seems to have found a working formula, which they don't need to change regarding design.The ASRock OC Formula comes with a digital 12 phase power design. The manufacturer decided to use a Nuvoton NCT6776D Super IO Chip as well as a Nuvoton NCT7904D Hardware Monitor Chip. As we've already mentioned on the feature's page, ASRock decided to chose a complex power design where there are for example three different filtering stages to get smooth and highly constant voltages. Especially when it comes to extreme overclocking, the power design can be what tipped the scales in the end.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the OC Formula. Officially supported are DDR3 3000+(OC) / 2800(OC) / 2666(OC) / 2400(OC) / 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz. There is engough 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 OC Formula the southbridge as well as current converters got separate cooling blocks. In case of the southbridge there is a single block made from aluminium, which provides appropriate cooling. A closer look at the current converters shows that there are two individual blocks connected to one another by a watercooling channel. Furthermore ASRock decided to equip the power design coolers with a 40 millimeter fan. For extreme overclockers this is a nice addition, but if you should decide to put this board into a case and you expect low operating noise, then you'll be disappointed after at last half a year. Those small fans quite quickly show issues related to the bearing and they are also very sensitive to dust. In case of putting this board into an enclosure we recommend to unplug the fan.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Connectors and I/O
Totally ASRock equipped the OC
Formula with no less then ten angled SATA ports. This is enough for any office
setup, gaming system or overclocking setup. You'll also find practical onboard
power- and reset-buttons in the top right corner of the board. There is even a
debug display. Furthermore in this area of the board there are voltage read out
points as well as ASRocks Rapid-OC buttons which allow an overclocker to change
the multiplyer, BLCK as well as voltages on the fly.
Another improvement over the predecessor can be found when looking at the audio
solution on this board. In this case there is a new Realtek ALC1150 chip with an
EMI shielding cap on top of it. Furthermore this chip has been isolated from the
rest of the board to reduce unwanted noise. Additionally there is a high quality
headphone amplifier, which is capable of driving headphones and headsets with
impedances of up to 600 ohm.
Totally you'll find eight fan header on the OC Formula which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped high-end or overclocking-system with fresh air. The fan headers are located around the CPU socket as spread over the motherboard.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASRock equipped the OC Formula with eight USB 3.0/2.0 ports, two USB 2.0/1.1 ports, one gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI connector as well as an optical out and an analogue audio panel. Additionally there is a PS/2 connector and a BIOS reset switch.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The first
impression the OC Formula from ASRock makes us want more. Like with the
predecessor we like the individual design of this board, which actually isn't that
easy to achieve anymore. Since ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and co finally found
out that people, especially in the western part of this world, prefer
simple and decent color designs, quite a lot of color combinations have
already been chosen. The OC Formula is a motherboard that really targets extreme overclockers, but nevertheless ASRock succeeded in crafting a product that is equally attractive to the guys handling LN2 or watercooling/aircooling setups. Both worlds will be able to squeeze maximum out of their systems using this board. Apart from overclockers also gamers and modders will enjoy this board, since there is a beefed up audio solution and the chipset can be integrated into a custom water cooling loop. |
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Design - PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - 10x SATA3 (6Gbps) - Chipset Watercooling - Audio |
- 40 millimeter fan to cool power design | |
| Layout | + | - | |
|
Basically the ASRock OC Formula's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. There is also a debug display, which in this case features a high resolution display. Even the placement of the PCI-Express x16 is well chosen. There is a total of four of these slots and between two slots there is always an empty slot. We think this is a good number of PCI Express x16 slots for a overclocking/gaming motherboard altough most gamers will never use four graphics cards in their build. But still it leaves you with plenty of options if you want to plug in other expansion cards. Overclockers will also like the voltage readouts and we're quite sure overclockers will really enjoy the conformal coating layer, which basically makes this board waterproof. |
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Angled SATA
connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Space around the CPU socket - Voltage readouts - Watercooling - OC Buttons - Conformal Coating |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch