This mobo is a nice improvement over the last generation X58 boards by ASRock. The design looks much better and the VRM cooling has been improved , the VRM cooler is linked with the chipset heatsink with one heatpipe. Thanks to the new cooling system, there were no stability problems, even after running the CPU at 4GHz for a long time. The PCI Express slot retention mechanism also has been improved and USB3, SATA3 and eSATA3 make this board future proof. This is an affordable USB3--SATA3 enabled X58 mainboard.

Test Setup:

• Computer Case : Cooler Master HAF 922
• CPU Cooler : Cogage True Spirit
• Graphics card : AXLE GeForce 210 512MB DDR2 and ATI RADEON HD4890 1GB
• Hard Drive : Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200.10
• Processor : Core i7 920
• PSU : Antec True Power New 750W
• RAM : 3x2GB DDR3 G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBPI PI Series

Overclocking:

A core i7 920 was overclocked @4000MHz (20x200).

Compared to:

• ASRock X58 Extreme
• DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8
• ECS X58-A2 Black
• Foxconn Bloodrage

Benchmarks:

3D Mark 2001, 3D Mark Vantage, 3DMark03, 3DMark05, 3DMark06, Cinebench, Crysis, CrystalMark, Devil May Cry 4, Far Cry 2, Furmark, Left 4 Dead, PC mark 2005, PC mark vantage, Street Fighter IV, SuperPi, Unreal Tournament 3, WIC.

This mobo is solid, extremely stable and attractive looking, offering the latest expansions and high end level performance. There are some things that aren't so high end, like the audio and OC capabilities. It's still an attractive board especially when you consider the low price and the decent quality components.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i7-980X Gulftown was overclocked @4180.2MHz stable with a 190MHz bus clock. ASRock's OC Tuner was also tested.

Compared to:

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5

Benchmarks:

3DMark Vantage, Sisoft SANDRA, Cinebench R11.5, Unigine Heaven Demo v2.1, Crysis Warhead, Battlefield Bad Company 2, BioHazard 5 Demo, CrystalDiskMark USB3 and SATA3, Power Consumption, RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.

Test Setup:

• Air cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
• Memory: ViperII 3x2GB 2000MHz DDR3 Triple Channel Memory Kit
• Video Card: ZOTAC Geforce GTX480
• SSD: Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB
• PSU: Antec TPQ-1000 Watt

Compared to:

Asrock H55M Pro, Gigabyte P55A-UD6, ASUS P7P55D-E Deluxe.

Conclusion:

A feature-rich mobo that has everything you need: good overclocking, USB3 and SATA3, stunning layout and the components are nicely placed, including the right distance between the first two PCIe x16 slots. Asrock has made the cooling system too tall, it could get in the way with larger coolers like the Thermaltake Frio and the Cogage Arrow.

Overclocking:

A core i7 920 was overclocked @4225.1MHz, QPi link 3802.6MHz, BCLK 211.3MHz.

Benchmarks:

Super PI Modded 1.5, 3D Mark Vantage, Cinebench, Lavalys Everest Ultimate, PC mark vantage x64, Sisoft Sandra, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Power Consumption, HD Tune PRO, x264 HD. In the gaming benches an XFX HD 4770 graphics card was used.

Test Setup:

• CPU: Core i7 920
• Memory: 2x2GB OCZ 1600MHz DDR3 PC12800
• HDD: Seagate 7200.11
• PSU: Thermaltake Tough Power XT 1000
• Air Cooler: Thermaltake Silent 1156
• OS: Windows 7 x64