It’s been well over 18 months since I last had the privelage of working on an ASRock motherboard that supported Intel processors. At that time, the Core 2 Processor was king of the hill. Even then, their affordable motherboards did quite well measuring up to the competition in basic performance. Unfortunately at the time, ASRock wasn’t exactly pushing their platforms out for the enthusiasts. But, just like all things tech, their image has continued to evolve.
With Core i7 being the hot platform of the moment, pricing makes budget platforms appealing as well as profitable. That’s an area ASRock has repeatedly found to be a great place to market since we can’t all afford $250 plus motherboards to go with our Core i7 processors. That’s why the under $200 price of the ASRock X58 Extreme is such an attractive proposition.
Features and Specifications
When checking out the specs, I had to make sure this was indeed an ASRock board. It offers many of the same performance specs as some of the upper echelon, uber-overclocking motherboards out there. The first thing that stood out is that it supports Intel 3500 Series Xeon as well as the Core i7 processors. What’s the difference you ask? Not a whole lot other than the fact that the Xeon is tuned to better handle Server based applications whereas the Core i7 is geared towards the desktop.
The X58 Extreme fully supports nVidia SLI and ATI CrossfireX video cards. It’s built into the BIOS and just requires an SLI bridge to function. You’ll find that besides the two blue 16x PCI Express slots, there are two 1x PCIX and two standard PCI slots making this an ideal platform for peripheral lovers making the move to Core i7.
Since the X58 Chipset has been such an eager performer, it’ll not suprise you that the X58 Extreme supports Triple Channel 1066 MHz up to 2000 MHz DDR3 memory. Sure, the specs say “Overclocked”, but that’s common on any X58 platform. And to compliment this, you’ll find Instant Boot, Instant Flash, Smart BIOS, OC Tuner, and Intelligent Energy support.
The integrated audio is yet another Realtek ALC890 7.1 HD Audio Codec. This is essentially perfect for users who can’t afford or don’t really need third party audio. The ACL890 offers acceptable performance if all you really need from your audio is basic use and gaming. However, it continues to be a dream of ours to see Realtek start offering something with better quality playback.
One of the newest features, is that the X58 Extreme supports EUP standards. When coupled with an EUP supportive power supply, the system will meet European energy conservation standards. That’s welcomed news for the EU folks who like to keep power consumption at a lower standard.
Hacking Open the Box
After a couple quick precisely positioned hacks of the trusty Katana, the product box lay opened ready for closer inspection. (We’re going to need a new box if that tells you anything about my sword skills.) Also, the box makes a pleasant impression and product presentation with some new graphics.
Inside, besides the motherboard, you’ll find blue ATA and black floppy cables. People still use those? (:P) Also, there are four orange SATA cables and two SATA power adapters which can come in handy if your older PSU doesn’t support them. And finally, a colorful IO Shield is included amongst the Manual, product literature, and Driver Disc.
The Driver Disc contains a few useful files, besides drivers, such as Instant Boot (for quick booting from a powered down state), Norton Internet Security (you definitely need this if you don’t have Anti-Virus), and OC Tuner for quick X58 Extreme overclocking on the fly.
An Extreme X58 Presentation
Alright, here we have the X58 Extreme in all its dark and mysterious glory. Overall, the board offers a pretty consistent “extreme” theme. It sports a very dark brown PCB that appears black without any direct light. Aside from a few bright, orange slots, the new look gives ASrock a new image that will attract the enthusiasts.
As for the component layout, we have a winner here. Everything looks to have a proper working place. All the headers, buttons, and jumpers are clearly visible. The 24-pin power socket, Case Front USB, Firewire, and especially the Front Panel Header sockets are in a great spot right up front which should cut down on wire clutter. Essentially, any socket that can receive a cable is placed on the outside edges and in an area commonly needed.
The Northbridge and PWM circuits are fortunate enough to get the benefit of some substantial cooling in the form of heat pipes attached to heat sinks. It’s the same ‘L’ shaped configuration found on the SuperComputer and Deluxe model X58 boards in the ASRock line up.
The two PCI Express 16x slots are dark blue so you can easily figure out which ones are best for SLI or CrossfireX configurations. The included SLI bridge spans the space perfectly. The orange PCIE 4x is there at the bottom for more expansion cards if the need arises. Couple these with two PCIx and two PCI slots and you shouldn’t have any problems finding a spot for even more expansion.
It’s interesting to see ASRock offer an IDE and Floppy header. A lot of vendors are getting away from using these. I can see why they would continue to offer the feature since there is still a lot of legacy hardware floating around out there. But, on the same note, users buying these X58 platforms are usually pretty serious about their hardware and know legacy hardware just slows down performance.
You’ll find other useful features like horizontal SATA/IDE ports, LED display, and power/reset buttons among the board’s features. These kinds of SATA and IDE ports are an essential requirement these days since they ensure wires won’t get in the way of large video cards. The power/reset buttons used here are actually nice, classy looking buttons which add a touch of quality. They look a lot like the ones found on some high end motherboards.
The LED is just a nice touch since it can be quite useful in helping one configure and/or trouble shoot their system based on the codes displayed should the system fail to boot. It’s also within inches of the CLR_CMOS (Clear CMOS) header if the code indicates a boot error. You don’t have to go searching for the jumper to reset the system. Again, this is another nice quality touch.
Checking out the IO ports on the back, the 6-Port Audio, USB, PS2 ports are pretty basic. The extras worth noting are the eSATA ports, Coaxial/Optical SPDIF ports, and the lonely , yet extremely valuable, CMOS Reset button. While eSATA is great for faster-than-USB2.0 devices, the Optical allows you connect your system to a more substantial audio system for surround sound goodness.
As for the CMOS Reset Button, this is an extremely welcomed feature and again should be a standard on any enthusiast grade motherboard. Once your system is built, it really saves you from the time and hassle of opening your case to clear the CMOS as you begin tweaking, or overclocking, the system. Next, let’s hook it up!
Extreme Installation
One thing worth mentioning is that there’s plenty of space around the CPU socket should you desire to install a monstrous CPU tower cooler. There’s even a little extra room between the socket and the memory (DIMM) slots which is where most of the issues occur (points angrily at the EVGA X58 Classified). To put this to the test, I installed a rather huge Coolermaster CPU Cooler which includes two 120mm fans. Yep! Lot’s of room!
Here are the test system’s magical components carefully chosen, as foretold in ancient Chinese writings:
- Intel Core i7 975 Extreme Edition [D0 Stepping] Processor
- Motherboard 1: ASRock X58 Extreme Motherboard (As reviewed)
- Motherboard 2: ECS Black Series X58B-A “Nehalem” Motherboard
- Patriot Memory Viper II 2000 MHz 6GB Triple Channel
- Zotac Geforce GTX295 Videocard
- Kingston SSDnow V-Series 128GB Solid State Hard Drive
- Kingwin 1000 Watt Mach-I Power Supply
Installing the latest drivers and BIOS went quite smoothly. With the updated BIOS file on a USB pen drive, the built-in BIOS utility makes the process super easy. Dare I say this is easier and safer than attempting anything from Windows since you never know if your OS is suddenly going to choke.
As for the BIOS itself, the overall layout is actually an all new experience compared to past versions. Some of the settings are quite easy to understand due to their better stated explanations. I particularly liked the detail at which all of the CPU, memory, and voltage settings offer the end user. Otherwise, only a couple supporting items like tying the IDE and 1394 Firewire together in to one setting seemed a little odd.
Overclocking and Tweaking
There’s two ways you can overclock your ASRock X58 Extreme. One way is to install and use the ASRock OC Tuner. It works fine for some small basic overclocking. But, as with all OC utlilities, they don’t always do as well as using the BIOS options.
The automated overclocking settings in the BIOS offer choices ranging from 3.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz. Since this is an “extreme” motherboard, I passed all the other choices and went straight to 4.2 GHz. The system booted and proceeded straight in to Windows as though nothing changed at all, except the extra performance.
With more manual tweaking and lowering the Multiplier, the system was able to reach a 205 MHz CPU Bus Speed (Bclk). What this means is you should be able to reach a decent overclock with a Core i7 920 and 940. Pushing the CPU Bus any higher wasn’t quite smooth despite the system’s eagerness. It’s very possible that increasing the VTT and PLL voltages can allow something higher. It comes down to what you’re willing to risk.
One thing that is quite common when overclocking a motherboard is finding a maximum stable memory frequency. As you push the CPU past a certain point, the motherboard can’t balance the two extreme frequencies. In this case, the 2000 MHz memory had to be dropped to 1866 MHz which wasn’t the end of the world especially since the CAS Latency could be lowered from 8 to 7 offering some extra system performance.
Synthetic System Tests
As per standard operating procedures on this test bench, SANDRA and Futuremark 3DMark Vantage head off synthetic testing to see how well the platform utilizes the Core i7 975 in Multimedia, Mathematics, Memory Bandwidth, and Input/Output performance. Futuremark tests the system’s overall CPU and 3D performance and can be compared to other platforms.
We also compare the overclocked performance from 3.33 GHz stock to 4.2GHz overclocked. Let’s go!
SANDRA CPU Mathematical & Multimedia
With the Core i7, there’s already tons of processing power by default. If it’s CPU power you need, there’s plenty of it on hand between the two components. It’s always pleasing to see these two chief components working well together.
SANDRA Memory Bandwidth
You can expect to see this kind of average memory bandwidth from the X58. If you push the memory and CPU to their utter most maximum, you’ll probably see something in excess of 34 GB/s. Just make sure you have some extra cooling around.
SANRDA Input/Output
In truth, this benchmark is here just to show you that the platform’s expansion features all work. Till USB 3.0 arrives, we’ll continue to see 30 to 33 MB/s. Keep in mind that more MB/s doesn’t always benefit your PC. It really depends on the applications you’re using. Just something to think about if you’re thinking about buying a $100+ SATA controller card.
FutureMark 3DMark Vantage
Not shabby at all! The platform takes the Zotac Geforce GTX295 and produces strong numbers. There could be something more to the X58 Extreme than just the name. Now let’s move on to some things we would do with this board in the real world.
Does It Got Game?
Video game benchmarks close out the testing. Demos from the game titles Crysis, Farcry 2, World at War, and Left 4 Dead were used to record average frame rates. Video resolution was set to 1920 x 1200 in order to better burden the system. Driver settings were left to default which lets the game (application) decide the Anisotropic and Anti-Aliasing settings.
We compare this board directly to our other budget champion, the ECS Black Series X58B-A “Nehalem” Motherboard. We reviewed this board earlier this year and found it to perform extremely well for the price. Let’s see how these two compete against eachother.
Crysis
It comes down to pennies and cents, so to speak. You also have to love just how smooth running Crysis has become. It takes a pretty beefy video card coupled with a pinch of FrontSide Bus to crank out 60 frames. The game sure is nice though above 50 frames per second with all the eye candy on.
Farcry 2
Not sure what prompted the extra frame rate here for the X58 Extreme. Farcry 2 ran smooth as glass in either case. Just make sure you keep saving along the way in game or you’ll be tossing your mouse as you start the mission all over again. As you know, the world’s are huge and there ain’t no auto save.
World at War
Oh, yeah! Nothing like 40 random players shooting, tossing grenades, calling in artillery strikes, and trying to knife each other. Makes for some of the most intense World War II type scenery. As you can see, no problems for either platform and advantages between the two platforms are minuscule.
Left 4 Dead
Then there’s the intense gun play as you try to avoid a couple hundred meat hungry zombies in dire need of some Noxema and a bubble bath! Just about anything can run this game, but we still like the excuse to play it. As you can see, results are pretty much a wash between both systems.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Right from the start, the ASRock X58 Extreme was impressive and worked like a charm right out of the box. No issues. No fuss. Despite any odd looking socket colors or any stigmas people might have attached ASRock, the board felt and worked like it was much more than the sum of its branding. Every possible feature worked well right on queue right down to stability testing. The motherboard’s layout, design, and function are just about as good as any we’ve ever seen. High end boards included.
I was especially surprised to see the board automatically configure the extremely capable 2000 MHz Viper II memory at 2133 MHz which is the typically the maximum frequency for anything running an X58 chipset. If nothing else, we know that the motherboard can do things with very capable triple channel memory. It’s just funny that it knew to go there right away.
Overclocking wasn’t too shabby at all and pushing our INTEL Core i7 D0 stepping 975 CPU upwards from 3.33 GHz to 4.2 GHz seemed easy on this supposedly budget offering. The board was quite clear on boot if it was going to accept what it was being told to do or not. There didn’t seem to be any half booting which made finding some of its maximum potential easy. And, when it didn’t like something, the CLR CMOS button on the back the board was not only easily accessible, but prevented the pain of having to peel apart your system to reach it.
The ASRock X58 Extreme does a whole lot more than just save you money. At a mere $170 USD as of this writing, the X58 Extreme really is the perfect choice for the frugal consumer who wants to couple the fastest possible Core i7 they can afford with the fastest budget platform available. If we had an Editor’s Budget Choice Award, the ASRock X58 Extreme would be wearing it proudly. Instead, we’ll give it an Editors’ Choice and park it beside a Value Added distinction. Well done!
Pros:
- New Extreme theme
- Super design and layout
- Quality components used
- User friendly BIOS
- Solid BIOS performance
- Respectable overclocking performance
- Extremely stable operations
- Can be purchased for as low as $170!
Cons:
- Semi-bright, odd colored sockets
- Might be hard to find
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
Loved this Review? Maybe you Hated It? Sound Off Right Here!
ASRock X58 Extreme Motherboard Photo Gallery
