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ASRock Z77 OC Formula Review

By on October 19, 2012 11:02 am
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Today we take a look at the Z77 OC Formula, ASRock's first attempt at an extreme overclocking motherboard. We will go over every aspect from their new digital power delivery to the overclocking, no holds barred. This board is targeted towards extreme overclockers and has a lot of innovation, so follow us as we put it through its paces.

In recent years ASRock moved up to the number three spot when it comes to consumer motherboard makers, rapidly overtaking MSI and other smaller manufacturers. One of the reasons is because ASRock's parent company Pegatron is a huge manufacturer of motherboards for many companies including ASRock, however they don't directly sell motherboards to the public, which is what ASRock is for. That means that ASRock has a huge backing, they have enough resources to make very high-end motherboards such as ASUS’s ROG series, however the market isn’t so fit for many vendors selling extreme high-end products as the demand just isn’t there. What is surprising is that with Z77 we see a lot of enthusiast’s boards at a pretty mid-range price, and unlike before, manufacturers are focusing to make overclocking motherboards rather than workstation ones.

It is very interesting how Z77 has brought out the best in every company, you have more overclocking centric boards than ever before, which is a sign that the market is starting to finally embrace the "Power User" scene. Thus it isn't odd that ASRock is bring out a board with voltage read points for once, and some other new overclocking features. They are trying to entice a very specific group of overclockers, the extreme liquid nitrogen using overclockers. Like always we will give you an unadultered review of ASRock's new overclocking motherboard, the Z77 OC Formula. 

 

Specifications:

 

ASRock Z77 OC Formula

CPU Support

- Supports 3rd and 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 in LGA1155 Package
- 12 + 4 Power Phase Design
- Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology
- Supports Intel® K-Series unlocked CPU
- Supports Hyper-Threading Technology

Chipset

 Intel® Z77
- Supports Intel® Rapid Start Technology and Smart Connect Technology

System Bus

DMI 2.0 4X

Memory

- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
- 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 3000+(OC)/2800(OC)/2666(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB*
- Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2

Expansion Slots

- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE4: single at x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE4) or dual at x8/x8 mode)
- 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE5: x4 mode)
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
- Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™

Storage

- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® Z77, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions
- 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Marvell SE9172, support RAID (RAID 0 and RAID 1), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions

LAN

- PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
- Broadcom BCM57781
- Supports Wake-On-LAN
- Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
- Supports PXE

Audio

- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray audio support
- Supports THX TruStudio™

USB

- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Intel® Z77, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
- 4 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ188H, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
- 1 x Front USB 3.0 header by Intel® Z77 (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports), supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

FireWire

N/A

ASRock  Features

OC Formula Power Kit
- Digi Power
- Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)
- Multiple Filter Cap (MFC) (Filter different noise by 3 different capacitors: DIP solid cap, POSCAP and MLCC)
- Premium Alloy Choke (Reduce 70% core loss compare to iron powder choke)
OC Formula Connector Kit
- Hi-Density Power Connector
- 15μGold Finger (CPU and memory sockets)?
OC Formula Cooling Kit
- Twin-Power Cooling (Combine active air cooling and water cooling)
- 8 Layer PCB, 4 x 2oz copper
- GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound

Accessories

- 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- 6 x SATA Data Cables
- 2 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables
- 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel
- 4 x HDD Screws
- 6 x Chassis Screws
- 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket
- 10 x OC Stands
- GELID GC-Extreme Thermal Compound

BIOS

64MBit Flash ROM

Form Factor

- EATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 10.5-in, 30.5 cm x 26.7 cm

 

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