Layout

At a first glance the ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ looks very good with its harmonic design. In this case ASRock is using a combination of black and gold. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers. The fact that there are angled SATA connectors, which have been moved alongside the northbridge allow for easy installation of oversized graphics cards. We also like that placement of the M.2 Slots, which are above and in between the PCIe slots.

ASRock equips the Extreme7+ with a twelve phase digital power phases regarding the CPU. Furthermore there are ASRocks so called "Super Alloy chokes" on this motherboard, which, as the name indicates, are made from a special alloy. This alloy should help reducing operating temperature. Also ripple and DCR are lower than with the chokes used on previous generation motherobards. Apart from that, saturation current is also higher.

There are four DIMM-slots on the Z170 Extreme7+. Officially supported are DDR4 3500 (O.C.) / 3233 (O.C.) / 2933 (O.C.) / 2666 (O.C.) / 2400 (O.C.) / 2133. There is enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you won't encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 2.0.

On the Z170 Extreme7+ the southbridge is being cooled by a passive cooling block. A closer look at the VRM area shows that there are two additional heatsinks connected to eachother via a heatpipe. All blocks feature excellent build quality and aprt from that also the overall weight of the motherboard is high. This underlines that the Extreme7+ is a high-end board.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 4 - Layout
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 5 - Connectors and I/O
Page 3 - Features	Page 6 - Conclusion