The Z97 OC Formula is ASRocks new high-end motherboard when it comes to overclocking. There is also a beefed up audio solution with a very decent headphone amp, which makes this board even more interesting for gamers too. What you also get with this board is ASRocks "Conformal Coating", which basically makes this board waterproof. It's especially extreme overclockers who will love this feature. Overall we're really curious about this motherboard. ASRock has been investing quite some extra time in crafting this board and now we really want to know what it can do.
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The Z97 OC Formula is ASRock's latest and greatest high-end overclocking motherboard regarding Intels latest Z97 chipset. Therefore we're really curious what they've come up with from the layout and design as well as feature perspective.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Specs and Delivery
| Chipset | Intel Z97 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3 Technology, 4 x DDR3 DIMM Slots, Max. 32 GB DDR3, 3400+(OC) / 2933(OC) / 2800(OC) / 2400(OC) / 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory |
| Multi-GPU |
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| Slots |
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| Sound | Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec
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| Storage |
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| Network |
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| Internal Connectors |
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| Extrenal Connectors |
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| Forfactor | ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
| BIOS | Bios (2 x 64 Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS) |
- 1 x ASRock Flexible SLI Bridge Connector Cable
- Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
- 4 x SATA Data Cables
- 1 x HDD Saver Cable
- 1 x Screw for M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Features
12 + 4 Phase Power Design |
Since quite some time ASRock has been equipping its boards with digital power designs. With the OC Formula they are very proud about their quite complex solution which consists of Dual-Stack MOSFET's (DSM), NextFET MOSFETs and 12K Platinum caps. |
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Purity SoundTM 2 |
The ASRock Purity 2 audio solution is based on a Realtek ALC1150 audio codec and features 115dB SNR. It also comes with EMI shielding for the main chip as well as onboard isolation. In order to improve signal quality, the motherboard features excellent Nichicon onboard capacitors. |
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M.2 Support |
The new Formula OC motherboard from ASRock features an M.2 slot which is placed between the two PCIe slots. This motherboard can be equipped with SSDs in M.2 format and it is wired directly to the Z97 PCH via two PCI Express lanes, therefore offering x2 bandwidth. In other words up to 10 Gbps can be pushed over the bus through this slot, almost doubling the performance compared to the SATA-III port. |
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NickShih's OC Profile |
Unexperienced overclockers might be familiar with the circumstance, that it can take ages until you've found rock solid and stable settings you make you CPU run at a much higher frequency. At this point NickShih prepared five different profiles where the perfect settings are going to be loaded instantly and you don't need to carry anymore. Therefore it's piece of cake to clock your CPU to very high frequencies. |
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Rapid OC |
What you get with this feature are two buttons, which have been placed on the motherboard directly. Their purpose is to make overclocking even easier. In fact you can change the multiplyer, BCLK as well as VCore by simply pressing the plus or minus button. |  |
Conformal Coating |
Conformal Coating is a special layer, which prevents shortcuts when spilling water or other conductive liquids over the motherboard. In this case overclockers won't have to worry anymore about accidentally spilling liquid nitrogen over the board while overclocking. |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Layout
At a first glance the ASRock OC Formula leaves a very good impression with its harmonic design. The manufacturer decided to go for a combination of black, yellow and gold, which suites nicely and in the end you get an aesthetic although aggressive looking product. 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 SATA connectors which have been angled by 90 degrees allow an easy installation of oversized graphics cards. It's quite surprising to see how similar the new Z97 OC Formula is compared to the predecessor Z87 OC Formula. Apparently ASRock seems to have found a working formula, which they don't need to change too much regarding design.
The ASRock OC Formula comes with a digital 12 phase power design. Like we've already explained on the features page ASRock is making use of an extensive solution. There are for instance Dual-Stack MOSFETs, NexFET MOSFETs as well as 12K Platinum caps on this motherboard. The Dual-Stack MOSFETs are taking care of stable and efficient current delivery to the CPU and compared to standard MOSFETs the offer a significantly lower RDS(on) value of just 1.2 milliohm. The memory gets backed-up by NexFET MOSFETs, which also offer a very low ROD(on) value of 2.9 milliohm. Last but definitely not least there 12K Platinum Caps that are good for no less than 12'000 hours of on time.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the OC Formula. Officially supported are DDR3 3400+(OC) / 2933(OC) / 2800(OC) / 2400(OC) / 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz. There is engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont 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 1.3.
On the OC Formula southbridge as well as current converters got separate cooling blocks. In case of the southbridge there is a single block made from aluminium, which provides adequate cooling. A closer look at the current converters shows that there are two individual blocks connected to one another by a heatpipe. Compared to the predecessor, ASRock decided to get rid of the 40 millimeter fan, that used to sit on top of one of the heatsink coolers, which is something quite a few users will really appreciate. Other than that the weight of this board is astonishingly high, which also partially due to the fact, that the cooling blocks are rather heavy.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Connectors and I/O
Totally ASRock equipped the OC
Formula with no less then eight angled SATA ports. Apart from that there is also
a SATA Express connector that shares the PCI Express lanes which are going to
SATA3/4, SATA3/5 port as well as to the M.2 slot. This is definitely enough for any office
setup, gaming system or overclocking setup. You'll also find practical onboard
power- and reset-buttons in the bottom left corner of the board. There is even a
debug display. Furthermore there are also voltage read out
points as well as ASRocks Rapid-OC buttons which allow an overclocker to change
the multiplyer, BLCK as well as voltages on the fly.
Similar to the predecessor Z87 OC Formula the Z97 OC Formula features a Realtek ALC1150 chip with an
EMI shielding cap on top of it. Furthermore this chip has been isolated from the
rest of the board to reduce unwanted noise and improve signal quality. Additionally there is a high quality
headphone amplifier, which is capable of driving headphones and headsets with
high impedances. Apart from that there are even high quality Nichicon audio
capacitors to further improve signal quality.
Totally you'll find seven fan header on the OC Formula which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped high-end or overclocking-system with fresh air. The fan headers are located around the CPU socket as spread over the motherboard.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASRock equipped the OC Formula with six USB 3.0/2.0 ports, four USB 2.0/1.1 ports, one gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI connector as well as an optical out and an analogue audio panel. Additionally there is a PS/2 connector and a BIOS reset switch.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The first
impression the OC Formula from ASRock makes us want more. Like with the
predecessor we like the individual design of this board, 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 designs, 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 handling LN2 or watercooling/aircooling setups. Both worlds will be able to squeeze 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 - PCI-Express 3.0 Slots - 8x SATA3 (6Gbps) - Audio |
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| Layout | + | - | |
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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 a SATA Express connector as well as a M.2 slot which has been wired using two PCI Express 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. We think this is a good number of PCI Express x16 slots for a 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 the best feature mix out of all Z97 boards we've had for testing so far. |
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Angled SATA
connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - SATA Express - M.2 x2 - Debug display - Space around the CPU socket - Voltage readouts - OC Buttons - Conformal Coating |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specs and Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch