ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3

[HardOCP News]

The gang at PC Perspective had a lot of really good things to say about the ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 in their review today. If you are in the market for a new Z68 based motherboard, you should probably check this one out.

I've had several Z68-based motherboards on my test bench in the past few months, but none with the feature set ASRock bundled with the Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3. They really took the Z68 platform to a new level and I was extremely impressed with the board's ability to handle gaming and overclocking and provide enthusiasts with advanced options to ramp up the performance of their system to new heights. ASRock has really grown as a company and continues to refine their products to meet the needs of hardcore gamers and ultra PC users looking for the best components money can buy.

 

[UZ7]

I actually like the design of the motherboard and they're improving every time. May look into them when I'm building a new rig.

 

[Slash3]

Sounds like this board more resembles the P67 Extreme4 and Extreme6 that myself and so many others have had great luck with, rather than the apparently lackluster Z68 board that Kyle ended up reviewing. Their X79 board is also looking good, any chance of one of those popping up here?

 

[Bladestorm]

Initially I was happy to finally see a Gen3 board with dual x16 slots, but now I have a couple of concerns. Only slot #2 is PCIe 3.0 capable. Doesn't that screw over future Crossfire/SLI users with PCIe 3.0 video cards since it forces them to run them in PCIe 2.0 slots? It seems to me you're better of getting one of the other Gen3 mobo's because even though their all dual @ x8, at least it's PCIe 3.0. I know PCIe 2.0 @ x16 is the same bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 @ x8, but doesn't PCIe 3.0 offer other benefits as well?

Also, does the NF200 chip work with Crossfire, and does it increase latency?

 

[Bladestorm]

Can anyone confirm or deny what I said? I'm looking to buy a new mobo very soon.

 

[qbanb8582]

Initially I was happy to finally see a Gen3 board with dual x16 slots, but now I have a couple of concerns. Only slot #2 is PCIe 3.0 capable. Doesn't that screw over future Crossfire/SLI users with PCIe 3.0 video cards since it forces them to run them in PCIe 2.0 slots? It seems to me you're better of getting one of the other Gen3 mobo's because even though their all dual @ x8, at least it's PCIe 3.0. I know PCIe 2.0 @ x16 is the same bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 @ x8, but doesn't PCIe 3.0 offer other benefits as well?

Also, does the NF200 chip work with Crossfire, and does it increase latency?

From the reviews i've seen of other boards the latency is an issue in low resolutions. like 640 x 480.

Once the resolution increases in some cases the performance was better on boards with the NF200 chip.

[H] did a review on the P8P67 WS Revolution, which had a NF200 chip. If you look at the gaming section where the did the lost planet test you'll see the results.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/05/asus_p8p67_ws_revolution_motherboard_review/6

 

[Juan_Jose]

You can only offer SLI and Crossfire support ( with Gen 3 ) when a multiplexing chip is not present on the board once a multiplexing chip is integrated you would need to have a Gen 3 version to allow for multiplexing Gen 3 lanes. At this point it is not really a issue as there are no devices and Ivy Bridge support has is not based on whether the board has multiplexing switches. As such most of this is a mute point.

The reality is if you want true Gen 3 support with no complications right now or going forward it is with X79 not p67 or z68. If you are considering 2 way then you are ok and would make more sense to probably consider a board like the P8Z68-V Pro ( assuming you are using the 2 Z68 features if note probably better to save a little and get P67 ).

Hope this helps.

 

[Undermoose]

Initially I was happy to finally see a Gen3 board with dual x16 slots, but now I have a couple of concerns. Only slot #2 is PCIe 3.0 capable. Doesn't that screw over future Crossfire/SLI users with PCIe 3.0 video cards since it forces them to run them in PCIe 2.0 slots? It seems to me you're better of getting one of the other Gen3 mobo's because even though their all dual @ x8, at least it's PCIe 3.0. I know PCIe 2.0 @ x16 is the same bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 @ x8, but doesn't PCIe 3.0 offer other benefits as well?

Also, does the NF200 chip work with Crossfire, and does it increase latency?

The release of Ivy Bridge and PCIe-3.0 GPUs is near, but what about now you say?

Z68 is a great cost effective platform, upgradeable to Ivy Bridge in the future.

Are you doing Eyefinity? multi GPU rig now? If so great!, use this board now and just wait for the dual GPU 7990 PCI-e 3.0 board in the spring and save your $$$ until then, no real need for xFire then so one PCIe-3.0 works. Or you could do the ASRock Z68 Fatality with 2 PCIe-3.0 slots, but lacks the NF200 chip for today's multi-gpu on Z68 rigs.

X79 is great, but will cost you a lot more for little in return, unless you're looking at a dual 7990 or 7990/7970 rig, then this is where you want to be and money is not an issue.

I of course love the SSD caching on my Z68, but with the X79 I'd just go pure SSD. There are x79 SSD caching hybrids too, but meh, the idea of Z68 is features and cost effective performance.

FYI, I'm running ASRock Extreme7 Gen3 with 3 Asus EAH6970 reference cards (aluminum cover type), and it's working great. I'll upgrade to an Ivy Bridge and 7990 when they hit the market.

Cheers.