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 for 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 phases regarding the CPU. Furthermore there are ASRocks so called "Super Alloy 9 chokes" on this motherboard, which, as the mane indicates, are made from a special alloy. This alloy should help reducing operating temperature. Also ripple and DCR are lower than with the chokes used on previous generation motherobards. Apart from that, 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 block have been milled from aluminium and they certainly add to a quality feel.
ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Preview 