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Asrock Z77 Extreme4 ATX Intel Motherboard

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#1 ·
Asrock Z77 Extreme4 ATX Intel Motherboard

Description:
General
CPU - Supports 3rd and 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 / i5 / i3 in LGA1155 Package
- Digi Power Design
- 8 + 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

*Intel® Rapid Start Technology and Smart Connect Technology are only supported under Windows® 7 OS or later versions.
Memory - Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
- 4 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 2800+(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

*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.
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 Core, IGPU, DRAM, 1.8V PLL, VTT, VCCSA Voltage Multi-adjustment
Audio, Video and Networking
Graphics - Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel® Quick Sync Video 2.0, Intel® InTru™ 3D, Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel® Insider™, Intel® HD Graphics 2500/4000 with Intel® Ivy Bridge CPU
- Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals : Intel® Quick Sync Video, Intel® InTru™ 3D, Intel® Clear Video HD Technology, Intel® HD Graphics 2000/3000, Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) with Intel® Sandy Bridge CPU
- Pixel Shader 5.0, DirectX 11 with Intel® Ivy Bridge CPU. Pixel Shader 4.1, DirectX 10.1 with Intel® Sandy Bridge CPU
- Max. shared memory 1760MB with Intel® Ivy Bridge CPU. Max. shared memory 1759MB with Intel® Sandy Bridge CPU
- Multi VGA Output options: D-Sub, DVI-D and HDMI
- Supports HDMI 1.4a Technology with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
- Supports DVI with max. resolution up to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz
- Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 2048x1536 @ 75Hz
- Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
- Supports HDCP function with DVI and HDMI ports
- Supports Full HD 1080p Blu-ray (BD) / HD-DVD playback with DVI and HDMI ports

*Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals and the VGA outputs can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.

**Due to chipset limitation, the Blu-ray playback of Intel® HD Graphics is only supported under Windows® Vista™ and Windows® 7.

***Intel® InTru™ 3D is only supported under Windows® 7 and Windows® 7 x64.
Audio - 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC898 Audio Codec)
- Premium Blu-ray audio support
- Supports THX TruStudio™
LAN - PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
- Broadcom BCM57781
- Supports Wake-On-LAN
- Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
- Supports PXE
Expansion / Connectivity
Slots - 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots (PCIE2/PCIE3: single at x16 (PCIE2) / x8 (PCIE3) or dual at x8/x8 mode)
- 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots
- 2 x PCI slots
- Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
- Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™ and SLI™

*PCIe Gen3 is supported on 3rd Generation of Intel® Core™ i5 and Core™ i7 CPUs.
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
- 2 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions (SATA3_A1 connector is shared with eSATA3 port)
USB 3.0 - 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Intel® Z77, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by ASMedia ASM1042, 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
Connector - 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, 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
- 1 x IR header
- 1 x CIR header
- 1 x COM port header
- 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header
- 1 x Power LED header
- 2 x CPU Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin)
- 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 2 x 3-pin)
- 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin)
- 24 pin ATX power connector
- 8 pin 12V 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)
- 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
- 1 x Power Switch with LED
- 1 x Reset Switch with LED
- 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED
Rear Panel I/O I/O Panel
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Port
- 1 x D-Sub Port
- 1 x DVI-D Port
- 1 x HDMI Port
- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
- 2 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 x eSATA3 Connector
- 4 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: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone
Other Features / Miscellaneous
Unique Feature - ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
- ASRock Instant Boot
- ASRock Instant Flash
- ASRock APP Charger
- ASRock XFast USB
- ASRock XFast LAN
- ASRock XFast RAM
- ASRock Crashless BIOS
- ASRock OMG (Online Management Guard)
- ASRock Internet Flash
- ASRock Dehumidifier Function
- ASRock No-K OC Technology
- Lucid Virtu Universal MVP
- Hybrid Booster:
- CPU Frequency Stepless Control
- ASRock U-COP
- Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.)
- Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
- Good Night LED

*Lucid Virtu Universal MVP can be supported only with processors which are GPU integrated.

**LucidLogix Virtu MVP only supports Windows® 7 OS or later versions.
Support CD - Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, ASRock MAGIX Multimedia Suite - OEM
Accessories - 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- 2 x SATA Data Cables
Hardware Monitor - CPU Temperature Sensing
- Chassis Temperature Sensing
- CPU/Chassis/Power Fan Tachometer
- CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan (Allow Chassis Fan Speed Auto-Adjust by CPU Temperature)
- CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control
- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore
Form Factor - ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 8.6-in, 30.5 cm x 21.8 cm
- Premium Gold Capacitor design (100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors)
OS - Microsoft® Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista™ / Vista™ 64-bit / XP / XP 64-bit compliant
Certifications - FCC, CE, WHQL
- ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)
 

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#2 ·
Good manual, easy to set up.

review by jwak-1

I bought this mobo for my 1st ever PC build, I was a little nervous, but all was made easy because of the good instructions in the ASRock Z77 Extreme4's printed manual. Some of the printed material is a little small, but there are more detailed explanations of everything in latter parts of the manual. The handy little LED number display will show you if and what is causing a problem should a component be faulty/poorly-installed during post.

ProsCons
Easy to follow printed manual, looks pretty good, good feature setDifferent in size to conventional ATX mobo's, but wasn't a massive problem.

Ratings
Overall5
 
#3 ·
Awesome Board

review by oliver1234

This is a sweet spot motherboard! this is literally a perfect motherboard and that is all I have to say!

ProsCons
Everythingnothing

Ratings
Overall5
 
#4 ·
Asrock Extreme4 Z77

review by legonut

This board is great. Getting it so cheap allowed me to get an i7 instead of an i5.
The PCI slots on this board are perfect. I have SLI and a PCI usb card, and still two PCI x4 slots for a sound card or something. They actually thought about what kind of components the end user would be installing. (Hint to boards with no legacy PCI: we still use it).
Overclocking is good for me, although i'm not that educated when it comes to power phase design. It got my i7 to 5.0Ghz and has been running at 4.5Ghz for a few months now. I love the clear cmos button on the i/o, it's in a good location and still hand to press accidentally.
One feature that really brought me to this motherboard was the onboard power and reset buttons. For a custom case builder, this is perfect. The only disadvantage is that now i'm to lazy to actually install a real power button.
rolleyes.gif

As for sound, i'm not an audiophile but there's nothing to complain about.

Some things you must know if you plan on buying this motherboard:
-Fan control is crap (no fan curves). I just use Speedfan, and even then some of the headers are always at max.
-Great for SLI as it has triple slot spacing.
-It is thinner than most boards and will only use 6 standoffs. It's about a cm shorter than the last column of standoffs for ATX.
-Power and reset buttons with a POST indicator. Very helpful.

ProsCons
cheap, overclocking abilityfan control system

Ratings
Overall4
 
#5 ·
A++ board, for a mid-priced one.

review by birdsofwar

Other than the size not lining up with my case. I absolutely love the board. Only fits 2 cards but other than that it has everything!

ProsCons
4.5GHz overclock though im still getting a few WHEA errors with tight memory timings.Not a normal sized board, holes didnt line up well with my case. One corner is support-less and it worrys me a tiny bit when installing my heatsink!

Ratings
Overall5
 
#6 ·
A++ board, for a mid-priced one.

review by birdsofwar
I have this board too and am also very happy with it. It fits in my Antec case just fine with all mounting holes matched. If you have an unsupported corner and especially if you work on your system a lot you should get support for that. There are generic motherboard standoffs available of many kinds that require either just the mounting hole in the motherboard (but not the case bottom) or no holes at all. Here is a pic of the 1st kind http://tech.icrontic.com/draco/images/articles/htpc_home_entertainment_pc_part_2_motherboards/standoff.jpg

The most generic are just little rubber "hills" with double faced adhesive on the base but even they are quite effective at preventing board flexing which is extremely important due to the multiple layers of printed circuits that can break when stretched.
 
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