Allgemein | + | - | |
The X99 OC Formula from ASRock is
simply a great board. Already with the
predecessors we liked the individual design, which actually isn't that
easy to achieve anymore. Since ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and co finally found
out that people, especially in the western part of this world, prefer
simple and decent color schemes, quite a lot of color combinations have
already been chosen. The OC Formula is a motherboard that really targets extreme overclockers, but nevertheless ASRock succeeded in crafting a product that is equally attractive to the guys playing with LN2 or watercooling/aircooling setups. Both worlds will be able to squeeze the maximum out of their systems using this board. Apart from overclockers also gamers will enjoy this board, since there is a beefed up audio solution. |
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Design - 4 x PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - 10 x SATA3 (6Gbps) - 1 x M.2 x4 Gen3 - 1 x M.2 x2 Gen2 - Audio |
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Layout | + | - | |
The ASRock OC Formula's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. ASRock even equipped this board with two M.2 slots, where one is wired through two Gen2 lanes and the other through four Gen3 lanes. There is also a debug display, which is always helpful if there are issues occuring with the motherboard itself or one of the installed components. Even the placement of the PCI-Express x16 is well chosen. There is a total of four of these slots and between two slots there is always an empty slot apart from the center. Here you find a full size Gen2 slot. We think this is a good number of PCI Express x16 slots for an overclocking/gaming motherboard altough most gamers will never use four graphics cards in their build. But still it leaves you with plenty of options if you want to plug in other expansion cards. Overclockers will also like the voltage readouts as well as conformal coating layer, which basically makes this board waterproof. In our opinion this board offers a very good feature mix. |
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Angled SATA
connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - SATA Express - M.2 x4 & M.2 x2 - Debug display - Space around the CPU socket - Voltage readouts - OC Buttons - Conformal Coating |
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Performance | + | - | |
Calculating the average of all 3D benchmarks we ran, we see that this board ranks second in our comparison tables. When taking the average of all 2D results, this board even manages to make it to the very top of our chart. Other than that, when it comes to overclocking performance, there is not too much to say, since this board is simply perfect for any kind of overclocker. ASRock decided to remove some of the features like for example the status OLED, which makes the board a bit quicker at boot. On another note, we had a look at power consumption and noticed that this is one of the more efficient X99 motherboards we've had for testing so far when it comes to idle as well as load power consumption. In both scenarios this board stays in line with X99 boards which have less features. | -
3DMark Ice Storm Physics - 3DMark 11 - SiSoft Sandra 1 - SuperPi 1M/32M - Power consumption |
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Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
As you might be expecting from ASRock meanwhile, you get a really good BIOS. It offers not only a lot of tuning and tweaking options but is also easy to use. Especially the pre-defined overclocking profiles are very helpful and experienced overclockers as well as less experienced user will appreciate the work that has gone into these profiles. | - Sheer amount of
options - Overclocking |
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Recommendation | + | - | |
Should you be looking for a high-end overclocking motherboard, then the ASRock X99 OC Formula is a great choice with reasonable price of 305 Euros. | -
Enthusiast - Gaming - Extreme Overclocking |
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Rating | |||
We give the ASRock X99 OC Formula very good 5 out of 5 stars. |
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