ASRock Z68 PROFESSIONAL GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
review by
greekgamer09
The best 1155 motherboard there is
. So many features packed into one motherboard! Where to start off with?
1. PCIE 3.0, it supports it for all the new ATI 7XXX series graphic cards coming out that support PCIE 3.0 which is very useful compared to 2.0 because of double the bandwidth. 2 of the PCIE 3.0 are also both x16.
2. Plenty of USB 3.0 ports. 4 in the back, 2 in the front. I even had a left-over USB 3.0 connector because my HAF X already has USB 3.0 ports in the front.
3. Cooling, the northbridge and southbridge both cooled very well with the pipe the runs along all the way to the VRMs.
4. Color, best coloring ever especially for a HAF X. Red and Black are just the perfect colors. Most parts being black really matches with it, and you can add a few red things in there too. One of my goals is to get 2 more Corsair Vengence ram modules but this time red instead of black, perfect pattern and colors
5. BIOS, the BIOS on this motherboard is probably the best I have ever seen even on very expensive motherboards like the GIGABYTE motherboards (UD7 and Assassin series) The bios is very easy to use, and has description for every setting you want to change. Also has settings for the speed of the fans connect to your motherboard. There is just an endless amount of settings you can change which I haven't ever seen in any other motherboard.
6. Price, for only $250, you cannot get a better deal for a motherboard.
7. Fatal1ty Mouse port, some have never herd of it, but this is just the best thing ever if you play Counter-Strike or any other FPS game there is. Fatal1ty being the nickname of a famous gamer who won many Quake tournaments all over the world. When connecting your mouse to the Fatal1ty mouse port, you will just get a totally different feeling when playing games and will get the most head-shots possible because of how steady your mouse will get.
8. Dual Ethernet ports, some may not think this is important, but I have seen a major difference when using dual Ethernet ports and the X-Fast LAN program that comes with it. I have seen the difference majorly when downloading and browsing the Web. The downloading did not affect my browsing speed at all and it was as if I was not even downloading. This was because of the dual Ethernet ports and how the X-Fast LAN program controlled the priorities of processes using the internet. There is also a small change in latency mostly when playing on LAN, the change was about 1-5 ping at most.
9. Lucid Virtu, with this motherboard having support for embedded graphics, Lucid Virtu is a huge feature especially for me because when using a discrete graphic card, Lucid Virtu will be able to change what is being used for graphics, whether its your embedded graphics or your discrete graphics so that when browsing the internet, your embedded graphics will be used but when playing a game, your discrete graphics will be used.
10. Fatal1ty F-Stream, This is a neat program that will let you control your fan speeds and overclock live, without having to reboot your PC. Very simple to use and also this is what you use to control how many Hz your mouse is running at using your Fatal1ty mouse port.
Some other features I have not mentioned are:
Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
Digi PWM Design, Advanced V12 + 6 Power Phase Design
Integrated PLX PEX8608 chip onboard to offer sufficient PCI-E lanes (easy to find chip on the top of the first PCI-E lane)
Supports Quad SLI and CrossFireX
Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Intel Smart Response Technology (as all other Z68 motherboards)
On/Off Play Technology (Lets you connect a cable to your iPod and play music with the audio coming out your PC's speakers even while your computer is off)
8 Channel audio.
PureOverclock Editor?s Choice Award
Overall I give this motherboard a 5/5
Pros | Cons |
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Colors, Features, Cooling, PCIE 3 | N/A |
Ratings