Review: ASRock X79 Extreme4m
Published by Marc Büchel on 11.01.12Page:
Fazit
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| At a first glance ASRock leaves a good impression with its Extreme4m. There even is plenty of space around the CPU socket to install large coolers comfortably. For a mATX board the Extreme4m comes with quite a lot features. In fact the Extreme4m is about the same board as the Extreme4 with the only difference that the Extreme4 comes with an ATX formfactor. Unfortunately we cannot understand why this board needs an active chipset cooler. An appropriately dimensioned passive cooling element would have done the job too. | - Design - 3 x PCI-Express 3.0 Slot |
- Active chipset cooling | |
| Layout | + | - | |
|
Generally the ASRock Extreme4m's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. There even is a debug display which is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Even the placement of the PCI-Express x16 is very well chosen. If you should choose to intall a graphics card in the last PCI-Express x16 slot you wont block the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. |
- Angled SATA connectors - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Spac around the CPU socket - Placement of the PCI-Express slots |
||
| Performance | + | - | |
| In SuperPi and SiSoft Sandra Multimedia this little board has been able to score very well. Regarding 3DMark 11 as well as 3DMark Vantage it lacks behind. A closer look at the gaming benchmarks shows that in StreetFighter 4 it's able to set a new record but in the other games you find the results in the center span of our comparison tables. In general the Extrem4m leaves us with mixed feelings when it comes to performance. | -
SuperPi - SiSoft Sandra Multimedia - Power Consumption |
- 3D Mark - PC Mark |
|
| Power Consumption | + | - | |
| As soon as one takes power consumption into account one can see the impact of onboard features. The fact that the Extreme4 only comes with a few features makes it draw less power and in the end scores quite well regarding efficiency. | |||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you're looking for a rock solid mATX basis which doesn't need to offer the absolute maximum in performance, regarding Intels latest Core i7-3930K, then the ASRock Extreme4m will be a very good choice. Furthermore this motherboard comes at an attractive price point of CHF 230.- (est. EUR 192.-). | -
Enthusiasts - High-End PC - Gaming System |
||
| Rating | |||
| We give the ASRock Extreme4 good four out of five stars. | |||
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
| Navigate through the articles | |
Layout und Design: ASRock X79 Extreme4m |
Preview: ASUS Rampage IV Gene
 |
|
|