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Today we are taking a look at what is arguably the most extreme Z87 motherboard money can buy. The new Asrock Z87 Extreme11/ac boasts a sensational design loaded with features, such as the Realtek ALC1150 codec with TI NE5532 amplifier which supports quality headphones that have an impedance of up to 600 Ohms. There are boat loads of SATA 6Gb/s ports, tons of USB 3.0 ports and dual Intel Gigabit Network support plus 4-way support for either SLI or Crossfire, plus much much more...
A few months ago Intel released their most powerful desktop CPU yet, the Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition. Armed with 6 cores, 12 threads, a 15MB L3 cache and a price tag of $1000, the Core i7-4960X is a dream processor for most.
 That said, when it boils down to it the Core i7-4960X is a grossly overpriced processor that is supported by an outdated platform. For a third of the price desktop users are considerably better off with the Core i7-4770K and its up-to-date platform which is backed by the Z87 chipset, amongst others. It is very likely that for these reasons Asrock has chosen to release their latest extreme motherboard on the LGA1150 platform. To date the Z87 Extreme9/ac has been one of our favourite LGA1150 motherboards, but what if you want something more extreme. The LGA2011 platform is known for its extreme motherboards such as the $600 Asrock X79 Extreme11 or the $500 Asus P9X79-E WS or even the $400 EVGA X79 Dark. Still the LGA1150 platform is deserving of its own luxury high-end motherboards and Asrock has created one of the most extreme with their Z87 Extreme11/ac. In fact the Asrock Z87 Extreme11/ac is possibly the most extreme motherboard we have ever seen, certainly in terms of its features and ultimately price. Loaded with an incredible 22 SATA3 ports the Z87 Extreme11/ac is no ordinary motherboard. The Z87 Extreme11/ac also boasts a dozen USB 3.0 ports, 4-way Crossfire or SLI support, 7.1 Channel HD Audio with Content Protection, dual mSATA ports, eSATA, WiFi + Bluetooth and still much more. The cost of all this goodness, hold onto your hats, $540. In comparison we have the Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH at $430, the MSI Z87 XPower at $410, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme at $400, Gigabyte G1.Sniper 5 for $400 and the ECS L337 Gaming GANK Domination at $390. So does the Asrock Z87 Extreme11/ac deserve to be the most expensive Z87 motherboard money can buy? Read on as we find out... |
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tiger |
Posted on: 01/15/2014 09:19 PM
Thanks for the great review! Holy smokes 22 SATA ports!! Considering the whole package I would say 540$ looks like a bargain. I will seriously consider this board for a build, new CPUs don't leap that much in performance, the only components worth upgrading are GPUs and SSDs. With a board like this one can skip several new platforms and still be up to date. |
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faati2222 Posts: 1 Joined: 2014-01-24 |
Posted on: 01/24/2014 09:02 PM
Nice board, great features. I especially like 802.11/AC feature and extras that came within the box. But the high price is the main issue here. Great review also. Thanks. |
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Steven Walton Posts: 104 Joined: 2010-02-08 |
Posted on: 04/13/2014 09:31 PM
Hi dandyuis those are roughly the same temps we got as well. 70 degrees is within safe limits. If you are worried use a case fan to feed it more air. |
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dandyuis |
Posted on: 04/11/2014 01:28 PM
great review guys. i do have a question, what temps are you getting with the chipset heat sinks. the one next to the SSDs i am getting idle at 60 and load at 70 the one next to the CPU i am getting 34 and load at 45. the first one seems to be too high and i know it is safe but still, did i get a bad chipset contact? Thanks! |
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dandyuis |
Posted on: 04/14/2014 08:09 PM
Thanks for your reply!! This made me feel more comfortable so thanks again! |