ASRock X58 Extreme6

In our recent preview of several P67 and H67 motherboards, we saw what's in store from Intel for the next upcoming product launch. We fully anticipate these new products to target the mainstream and mid-range enthusiast segment. But for those who want top performance and power, it seems that the LGA11366 socket still has some life left in it. The flagship Core i7 platform is a performance monster, but it does bring a heftier price tag for the cost of entry as well. Perhaps that's one of the reasons we don't see many new X58 motherboards these days. But that hasn't stopped ASRock from pushing things. We've seen that ASRock typically offers very good value for performance motherboard solutions, which can be very attractive to enthusiasts on a modest budget. But that doesn't necessarily mean that a cheaper price tag results in a compromise in features or quality. The ASRock X58 Extreme6 motherboard looks to be one such product that offers performance and value in a quality package to consumers. It has extensive SATA 6G and USB 3.0 connections, an improved layout from the Extreme3 predecessor, and some handy enthusiast tidbits that should interest those who want a strong overall board but don't have a hefty budget to spend. Let's take at a closer look at some of these features and see if the Extreme6 can successfully continue to improve the Intel LGA1366 platform and offer good value for consumers. Features Below are the major features of the ASRock X58 Extreme6:6-Core CPU Support / 6 USB 3.0 / 6 SATA3 Supports the Core i7 980X 6-Core CPU 6 x USB 3.0 - World's First Motherboard supporting Front USB 3.0 Delivering data transfer rates up to 10X faster than USB 2.0 with optimized power efficiency. USB 3.0 technology advances the data transfer rate up to 5Gb/s. ASRock provides 4 x USB3.0 ports onboard allows you to have a stunning data transfer experience. 6 x SATA3 - Enjoy 6Gb/s high transer speed now! Maximum your harddisk performance with SATA3.0. SATA3 technology enables the incredible data transfer rate up to 6 Gb/s speed which is 2X faster speed over SATA2. Supports ATI™ CrossFireX™ and Quad CrossFireX™ / Supports NVIDIA® SLI™ and Quad SLI™ CrossFireX™ and SLI™ are multi-GPU solution. The technology allows a pair of graphics cards to be used in a single computer to improve graphics performance. ASRock AIWI Using AIWI to connect your apple devices to ASRock system, and you can interact with the PC games with delicate touches and body motion while getting responsive shakes and vibrations that correspond from the game stores. ASRock App Charger Simply installing the App Charger driver, it makes your iPhone charge up to 40% faster than before. ASRock App Charger supports continuous charging when your PC enters Standby mode (S1), Suspend to RAM (S3), hibernation mode (S4) or power off (S5). The App Charger technology has been fully applied on ASRock Full series motherboards. ASRock SmartView It is the smart start page for IE that combines your most visited web sites, your history, your Facebook friends and your real-time newsfeed into an enhanced view for a more personal Internet experience. ASRock motherboards are exclusively equipped with the SmartView utility that helps you keep in touch with friends on-the-go. THX TruStudio Pro™ THX TruStudio PRO™ solution ensures you the premium audio quality, effects and features for PC systems equipped with onboard audio. For instance, the TruStudio Surround technology expands your stereo content into surround sound; the TruStudio Crystalizer technology restores the compressed sound source and can let you hear every detail in riveting surround sound. Combined with the THX TruStudio PRO and the ASRock high performance HTPC system, you will be assured to enjoy a rich variety of PRO gramming and be entertained by a better way! Premium Blu-ray Audio An outstanding technology developed on ASRock motherboard! It provides the excellent audio output of 24-bit/192 kHz with its respective Blu-ray DRM compatible driver/software. C.C.O. (Combo Cooler Option) C.C.O., stands for Combo Cooler Option, is another exclusive hardware design on ASRock boards. C.C.O. provides the flexible options to adopt different CPU cooler types and matches your socket LGA 775 / LGA 1366 CPU cooler in the respective holes. Once again, ASRock has successfully expanded the utilization of PCB by the exclusive C.C.O. design. Good Night LED Are you eager to enjoy an absolutely better stand-by environment than ever before? ASRock Good Night LED technology can offer you a better environment by extinguishing the unessential LED. By enabling Good Night LED in BIOS, the Power / HDD / LAN LED will be switched off when system is on. Not only this, Good night LED will automatically switch off Power and Keyboard LED when the system enters into Standby / Hibernation mode as well. OC DNA OC DNA, it’s an exclusive utility developed by ASRock’s outstanding RD team, provides a convenient way for user to share the OC settings with others. It helps you to save your overclocking settings under the operating system and simplifies the complicated recording process of overclocking settings. With OC DNA, you can save your OC settings as a profile and send the profile to your friends! Your friends then can load the OC profile to their own system to get the same OC settings as yours! EuP / ErP Ready EuP / ErP, stands for Energy Using Product, was a provision regulated by European Union to define the power consumption for the completed system. According to EuP / ErP, the total AC power of the completed system shall be under 1.00W in off mode condition. To meet EuP / ErP standard, the EuP / ErP ready motherboard and the EuP / ErP ready power supply are required. (The EuP / ErP ready power supply must meet the standard of 5v standby power efficiency is higher than 50% under 100 mA current consumption.). Instant Boot ASRock has overcome the technical obstacles and exclusively invented a new technology that allows you to turn on your PC and boot up to Windows® in 4 seconds! ASRock Instant Boot not only excels in the Boot Up speed (3~4 sec.), it also provides clean OS, and saves the most power energy. Instant Flash ASRock Instant Flash is an exclusive and the most user-friendly BIOS flash utility developed by ASRock. It is embedded in Flash ROM which is used to update the system BIOS without having to enter operating systems like MS-DOS or Windows. ASRock Software Suite ASRock software suite is designed with the customer-oriented concept, delivers the best possible experience for today’s most demanding users. Let's move onto the specifications and then to the board itself. Specifications Below are the specifications for the ASRock Extreme6: CPU Intel® Socket 1366 Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition / Core™ i7 Processor Supports Intel® Dynamic Speed Technology System Bus up to 6400 MT/s; Intel® QuickPath Interconnect Advanced V8 Power Phase Design Supports Hyper-Threading Technology Supports Untied Overclocking Technology Supports EM64T CPU Chipset Intel® X58 / ICH10R Memory 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 2000(O.C.)*/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Triple Channel memory architecture Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) Expansion Slots 3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIE1: x16 mode; PCIE4/PCIE5: single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode) (Double-wide slot spacing between each PCI-E slot) 2 x PCI Express x1 slots 2 x PCI slots Supports ATI™ Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™ Supports NVIDIA® Quad SLI™, 3-Way SLI™ and SLI™ Storage 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Marvell SE9128, support hardware RAID (RAID 0 and RAID 1), NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions (SATA3_2 connector is shared with eSATA3 port) 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors by Marvell SE9120, support NCQ, AHCI and "Hot Plug" functions (SATA3_6 connector is shared with eSATA3 port) 4 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by NEC UPD720200, 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 NEC UPD720200, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s Audio 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec) Premium Blu-ray audio support Supports THX TruStudio Pro™ LAN PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s Realtek RTL8111E Supports Wake-On-LAN Supports LAN Cable Detection Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az Rear Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports 1 x eSATA3 Connector 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) 1 x IEEE 1394 Port 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone Internal I/O Connectors 6 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 and Intel® Matrix Storage), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) 1 x Floppy connector 1 x IR header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x IEEE 1394 header 1 x Power LED header CPU/Chassis/NB/Power FAN connector 24 pin ATX power connector 8 pin 12V power connector SLI/XFire power connector CD in header Front panel audio connector 1 x USB 2.0 header (supports 2 USB 2.0 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) 1 x Dr. Debug (7-Segment Debug LED) ASRock Unique Features ASRock OC Tuner Intelligent Energy Saver Instant Boot ASRock Instant Flash ASRock OC DNA ASRock AIWI ASRock APP Charger Hybrid Booster: - CPU Frequency Stepless Control - ASRock U-COP - Boot Failure Guard (B.F.G.) Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.) Good Night LED Accessories 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI-2S2S Bridge Card Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield Floppy/ATA 133 Cables 6 x SATA Data Cables (optional) 3 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables (optional) 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel 6 x Screws from : pureoverclock.com