ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review

Introduction

Well, hasn't this whole "Gen3" PCIe 3.0 thing caused uproar with the smack being clearly laid down by MSI and ASRock letting people know that they are the only companies to offer "true" PCIe 3.0 support for the next generation of LGA 1155 processors.

Already we've looked at a couple of PCIe 3.0 boards; the first was the ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 and that's the big brother to the board we're looking at today. The other was the MSI Z68A-GD80-G3. While both are great boards in their own right, the problem at the moment is that nothing can really make use of the PCIe 3.0 capabilities on offer from these boards. Saying that, though, one would argue that if you're interesting in making use of the next generation LGA 1155 chips from Intel and a PCIe 3.0 video card in the future, it's almost silly to buy a non "Gen3" motherboard.

If you want to get in on the "Gen3" action at a good price, though, the MSI and Extreme7 offering might be a little too expensive for you. The Extreme4 on the other hand could be just the board for you. Coming in at a strong price point, it might be the perfect board to get you on the PCIe 3.0 bandwagon and be ready for when PCIe 3.0 capable devices come to the market.

Of course, before we get into the performance side of things, the first thing we need to do is check out the package. Once that's done we'll take the time to have a closer look at the board itself to see exactly what's on offer before we get into the BIOS and check out the overclocking capabilities of the board. Once all that's done, it's time to get into the performance side of things and see what the ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 can bring to the table.

The Package

Unlike the Extreme7, the Extreme4 has a little bit of a smaller box; the front gives us the model number and the normal rundown of logos. The back gives us the main details regarding the board itself and a rundown on some of the main features that are on offer.

Getting into the package, we've got a fairly standard ASRock setup which includes the normal line-up of paperwork, driver CD, AUX cable, four SATA cables, two Molex to SATA power connectors, floppy connector, SLI bridge and I/O back plate.

Along with the normal goodies, we've also got a dual USB 3.0 header that can be used at the front of your case or with the included backplane can be used at the back of your case. It just depends on where you want to install it.

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ASRock Z68 Pro3-M (Intel Z68) Motherboard Review

Introduction

I'm a really big fan of the mATX platform, even more so over the last few years as we've seen that moving to the mATX platform doesn't mean you need to sacrifice the power that most full size ATX boards bring.

The release of the new Z68 chipset means a bunch of new boards from companies and today we'll be looking at our first mATX version of the new chipset. The Z68 Pro3-M from ASRock carries a very similar name to a board we've already looked at, the ASRock Z68 Pro3. Of course, the M in this case means we're dealing with an mATX version.

So, does moving to a smaller board mean we're going to see less performance? What are we missing with the move to a smaller board? Well, to answer that and more, read on. Let's start by looking at the package ASRock have put together; from then we'll move into the motherboard itself before looking at the BIOS. Once that's done we'll discuss how we went with overclocking before getting into the actual performance side of things to see just what exactly this mATX board from ASRock is able to bring to the table.

Fingers crossed we'll enjoy the same strong performance as the Pro3 version we looked at. Before we find out, though, let's get into the package.

The Package

As far as the box size goes, this is the smallest box we've seen so far when compared to other Z68 boards. That's of course due to the smaller stature of the board itself. Inside the package there's not a whole lot going on; we've got software and motherboard guide, driver CD, two SATA cables and our back I/O plate. As far as what's in the box, it's exactly the same as what we saw in the non -M Z68 Pro3.

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