With the X79 and Sandy Bridge-E scene dominated by manufacturers pushing their products as overclocking friendly or cramming the latest gear onto their boards, some consumers and end-users still prefer a basic and no-nonsense platform for their computers. Enter the budget slice of the X79 pie, product offerings based off the vanilla chipset features but still offer top performance for the buck. Today we take a look at such a product from ASRock: the X79 Extreme3 motherboard designed for the Sandy Bridge-E LGA2011 platform. Carrying a local SRP of Php10,700, this one of the most affordable LGA2011 board you can find. Let’s check out what this board can do, and let’s make this showy!
ASRock has made their presence felt in the motherboard scene with their constantly improving product line and highly affordable offerings. ASRock, a former subsidiary of ASUS and now wholly owned by Pegatron, started out in the budget segment competing with Biostar, Foxconn and ECS in this segment. In more recent times, they have cemented themselves in the top-tier ranks of motherboard vendors and are still churning out products for different budget segments. ASRock has a line of high-end motherboard under the Fatal1ty series, intended for gamers and overclockers in mind and their mainstream series, the Extreme series. The motherboard we have for today is the entry-level X79 Extreme3. ASRock has “packed this board to the gills” so let’s check it out. Here are some feature, specs and photos of the board:
- Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
- Intel® Core™ i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 Socket
- Supports Quad Channel DDR3 2400+(OC)
- Digi Power, Advanced 5 + 1 Power Phase Design
- 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slots, Supports AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® 3-Way SLI™
- Clear CMOS Switch with LED
- Supports ASRock X-FAN, XFast RAM, XFast LAN, XFast USB, XFast Charger, Graphical UEFI, UEFI System Browser, AXTU
- 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudioâ„¢
- Free Bundle : CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite
| General | |
| CPU | – Supports Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7 processor family for the LGA 2011 Socket – Digi Power Design – Advanced 5 + 1 Power Phase Design – Supports Intel® Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology – Supports Hyper-Threading Technology – Supports Untied Overclocking Technology |
| Chipset | – Intel® X79 |
| Memory | – Quad Channel DDR3 memory technology – 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots – Supports DDR3 2400+(OC)/1600/1333/1066/800 non-ECC, un-buffered memory – Supports DDR3 ECC, un-buffered memory with Intel® Workstation 1S Xeon processors E5 16xx/26xx/46xx series in socket LGA 2011 – Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB* – Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2 *Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
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| BIOS | – 64Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support – Supports “Plug and Play” – ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events – Supports jumperfree – SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support – CPU, VCCSA, DRAM, VTT, CPU PLL, PCH1.1V, PCH1.5V Voltage Multi-adjustment |
| Â Audio, Video and Networking | |
| Graphics | – n/a |
| Audio | – 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec) – Premium Blu-ray audio support – Supports THX TruStudioâ„¢ |
| LAN | – PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s – Broadcom BCM57781 – Supports Wake-On-LAN – Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az – Supports PXE |
| Â Expansion / Connectivity | |
| Slots | – 3 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE1 @ x16 mode; PCIE3 @ x16 mode; PCIE4 @ x8 mode) – 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot – 2 x PCI slots – Supports AMDTM Quad CrossFireXâ„¢ , 3-Way CrossFireXâ„¢ and CrossFireXâ„¢ – Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLIâ„¢ , 3-Way SLIâ„¢ and SLIâ„¢ |
| SATA3 | – 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Intel® X79, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions – 1 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connector by ASMedia ASM1061, supports NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions |
| USB 3.0 | – 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ168A, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s – 1 x Front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) by Etron EJ168A, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s |
| Connector | – 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel® Rapid Storage 3.0), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions – 3 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors – 1 x IR header – 1 x CIR header – 1 x COM port header – 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header – 1 x Power LED header – CPU/Chassis/Power/SB FAN connector – 24 pin ATX power connector – 8 pin 12V power connector – SLI/XFire power connector – Front panel audio connector – 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports) – 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) |
| Rear Panel I/O | I/O Panel – 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port – 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port – 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port – 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port – 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports – 1 x eSATA3 Connector – 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports – 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) – 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED – HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| Â Other Features / Miscellaneous | |
| Unique Feature | – ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU) – ASRock Instant Boot – ASRock Instant Flash – ASRock APP Charger – ASRock SmartView – ASRock XFast USB – ASRock XFast LAN – ASRock XFast Charger – ASRock XFast RAM – ASRock X-FAN – ASRock Crashless BIOS -Â Hybrid Booster: – CPU Frequency Stepless Control – ASRock U-COP – Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) – Good Night LED |
| Smart Switch | – 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED |
| Support CD | – Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock Software Suite (ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite – OEM) |
| Accessories | – 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card – 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI-2S1S Bridge Card – Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield – 3 x SATA Data Cables |
| Hardware Monitor | – CPU Temperature Sensing – Chassis Temperature Sensing – CPU/Chassis/Power/SB Fan Tachometer – CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Allow Chassis Fan Speed Auto-Adjust by CPU Temperature) – CPU/Chassis/SB Fan Multi-Speed Control – Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore |
| Form Factor | – ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 8.8-in, 30.5 cm x 22.4 cm – Premium Gold Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors) |
| OS | – Microsoft® Windows® 7 / 7 64-bit / Vistaâ„¢ / Vistaâ„¢ 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit compliant |
| Certifications | – FCC, CE, WHQL – ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required) |
Asrock packages the Extreme3 in a simple box. No overly-extravant marketing images or product shots. Just the product name prominently placed in the center of the box’s top flap. Some logos can be spotted below which tells us this is PCI-E 3.0 ready, suupports Intel Core i7 series processors and has the Intel X79 chipset. Aside from that, Asrock’s on Xfast RAM featured is displayed with an icon telling us that a free trial of Media Espresso is also included.
Turning the box over, we get to see a shipload of marketing highlights and feature lists which we’ve already dabbled on earlier. A shot of the actual board is provided in this side.
[singlepic id=6787 w=320 h=240 float=center]ASRock has decided to pack the X79 Extreme3 with a humble bundle consistent of a pair of SATA cables, the backplate, and a couple of manuals as well as 2 sets of SLI bridges.
[/tab] [tab] [one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6788 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6789 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half]ASRock’s typical Extreme series design can be made-out in their VRM heatsink here as well as the X79 inscription on it. ASRock also likes to use dark brown PCB’s on their boards. Although they market it as black. Why don’t you just go straight black, ASRock?
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6790 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6791 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half]One of the most immediate feature noticeable in this board is the mini-fan on the chipset. Although the fan works, we’ve yet to see it operate at all during operation. Further inspection on the lower part we can see a total of 3 PCI-e x16 and a single x1 slots and 2 PCI slots. Amongst the connectivity options on this part are 2 USB2.0 headers.
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6792 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6793 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half]Now for the connectivity options on the back, ASRock gives us a couple of PS/2 ports. Now in this modern age, most have resorted to USB for their input devices but its always to have these ports. A Clear CMOS button is also located here in case you screw up your BIOS settings along with optical and analog SPDIF ports. A lone eSATA port is present accompanied by a total of 6 USB2.0 and a pair of USB3.0 ports. Eight-channel audio is supported by this board, also via Realtek ALC898 onboard audio and our LAN port is powered by a Broadcom chip.
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6794 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6795 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half]One of the features ASRock boasts so much about is their use of “golden” capacitors. Yes, ECS wasn’t first in this game but they did take it a step further. We do admit though that ASRock has more bling than ECS’ but we’d like to point out that we’d appreciate it if the capacitors don’t look like they’ve been soaked in urine. The chrome plating on the LGA2011 metal retention is something to marvel at as the dark chrome is really very impressive looking. Along the right side of the board we can find the 24-pin power connector and the front panel USB3.0 header. The ASRock X79 Extreme3 packs a 5+1 power phase VRM, its not much but still pretty capable of pulling of some decent power.
[one_half last=”no”][singlepic id=6796 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half] [one_half last=”yes”][singlepic id=6797 w=260 h=180 float=center][/one_half]The board has a MOLEX connector in the middle for powering multiple GPUs. If you’re using multiple high-powered GPUs, it is recommended to connect a power supply to this plug. On the other pic we can see a lone SATA port for front eSATA use. The main SATA ports are powered off from the X79 chipset and features 2 SATA3 (gray) and 4 SATA2 ports (black). Â And sorry, no on-board buttons on this board. Would’ve been lovely if it had it though.
[/tab] [/tabs]TEST SETUP and OVERCLOCKING
| Processor | Intel Sandy Bridge-E i7-3960X 3.3Ghz (Turbo up to 3.9Ghz) |
| Motherboards | ECS X79R-AX, Intel DX79SI, AsRock X79 Extreme3 |
| Cooling | Intel RTS2011LC ALC by Asetek, Corsair H80 |
| Power Supply | Silverstone Strider Plus ST65F-P 650W |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX Genesis Quad-Channel DDR3-1600 |
| Video Cards | Sapphire HD6850 PowerColor HD7770 PCS+ |
| Hard Drive | Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB, Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit SP1 |
Our test processor is Intel’s top model in the Sandy Bridge E line-up, the i7-3960X. This processor features an unlocked multiplier amongst its other features and is what makes this a very flexible processor. The ASRock X79 Extreme3 features overclocking presets and unlike the ECS model with a similar feature, we found ASRock’s implementation to be far more superior. ASRock provides preset values for overclocking as well as fully manual option. The presets though range up to dangers levels above 5Ghz so we warn you to be very careful before setting these values.
All in all overclocking with the ASRock board was easy and we managed to get our chip to 4.5Ghz which is looking like the wall in our SB-E sample OC potential.
PERFORMANCE
[tabs tab1=”SiSoft SANDRA” tab2=”wPrime” tab3=”Cinebench” tab4=”SuperPi” tab5=”Video Conversion”] [tab]We’ll start off with SiSoft’s SANDRA CPU Benchmarks which includes the Dhrystone and Whetstone tests. These tests basically all run within the CPU and cache so it is really a test to show how a processor performs. [singlepic id=6800 w=550 h=600 float=center]  [singlepic id=6803 w=550 h=600 float=center]We can see the stock performance of the motherboard in par with Intel’s own solution. Overclocking the board however, we see the Extreme3 trail behind the other items we have on our tests. Note that these numbers are pretty respectable by themselves owing to the fact that the Sandy Bridge-E processors, are very powerful processors especially our test sample the i7-3960X.[/tab] [tab]wPrime is a multi-threaded benchmark aimed to gauge the raw computing power of a CPU.
[singlepic id=6804 w=550 h=600 float=center]A typical trend with motherboards is that most of them will perform along the same level in stock, given the item is of good quality and made to a certain degree of acceptable standards. Overclocking these boards however will show the true benefit of a solid motherboard. In this test, we see our young X79 Extreme3 trail by a significant amount against the ECS and Intel boards but being able to reach the same overclock levels as these other boards is already a nice feat.[/tab] [tab]Maxon offers a nice benchmark tool called Cinebench which really stresses your entire system to render a very complex scene. The output score is completely unique to Cinebench but allows us to have a rough idea of how the CPU works with 3D rendering tasks.
[singlepic id=6805 w=550 h=600 float=center]MAXON’s benchmark score may be all to itself but it does give us a good image of how well a CPU performs. The charts we have only magnify the gaps our test boards have but in all respect, the difference between each platform is almost negligible.[/tab] [tab]Now we move on towards test with SuperPI and wPrime. SuperPI is single-threaded so our results show the performance of a single core.
[singlepic id=6802 w=550 h=600 float=center]For this test, we can see how much performance gains the SB-E has over its Sandy Bridge brother. The Extreme3 manages to still gain respectable numbers, even if its the cheapest board amongst the group.[/tab] [tab]Video conversion is one major requirements of user which requires heavy processing power. We used Xilisoft and convert a 150MB 1080p clip into x264 format and average out the times we get in 3 runs.
[singlepic id=6801 w=550 h=600 float=center]For this test, we found it rather peculiar that the stock performance was below the other test boards and what’s even more peculiar is that the overclocked performance was the one neck-to-neck with the others. Still, these are pretty solid figures put out by the X79 Extreme3 by ASRock.[/tab] [/tabs]CONCLUSION
We’re really impressed with the ASRock X79 Extreme3. It’s a product that reiterates the fact that you can still go the high-end, high-performance route without spending too much on everything. Its performance is within any other X79 products and overclocking can really set this thing off in the right path for anyone with an SB-E.
[singlepic id=6796 w=580 h=350 float=center]Coming in at just Php10,700, this motherboard from ASRock is the cheapest X79 board out right now in the local market. You get pretty much anything you’ll get from any high-end board sans high-profile heatsinks or extra connectivity and features but all in all everything you need to get a working machine for your Sandy Bridge-E chip is here.
Enthusiasts are sometimes too caught up in the illusion of owning high-end demands everything to be high-end but in reality this is not true. A carefully selected list of components, even at a budget, can be called a beast also. As a workstation platform, the X79 Extreme3 is everything you need to get you up and running and gamers intending to go down this path are also covered. As we’ve said already, we really like the X79 Extreme3. ASRock has certainly proven to us they are to go-to guys for cost-effective solutions.
