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We installed Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit on this system today. Our polls on the Kitguru main site and Facebook page have shown a huge percentage of our readers are still in favour of Windows 7. Our own internal testing shows very little difference between the operating systems in regards to gaming or synthetic benchmark testing, so we are staying with Windows 7 for the time being.
Today we test in an overclocked state @ 4.5ghz.
An overview of the system we built for this review with the 4770k running at 4.5ghz. The Corsair Vengeance Pro memory is running at 2,400 mhz with 10-12-12-31 2T timings.
The GTX770 is running at 1,046 mhz with the 2GB of GDDR5 memory at 1,753 mhz (7Gbps effective) across a 256 bit memory interface. The Nvidia GTX770 ships with 8 SMX units which provide 1,536 CUDA cores. The memory subsystem of the card consists of four 64 bit memory controllers (256 bit). We are using the ForceWare 320.18 driver for this review today.
ASRock Z87 Extreme 6 System
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770k (4.5ghz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme 6
Cooler: Corsair H100i (performance mode)
Graphics: Palit GTX770
Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro Series @ 2,400mhz (10-12-12-31 2T)
Power Supply: Corsair HX750
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive.
Chassis: Lian Li X2000
Boot Drive: Patriot 240GB Pyro SE
Storage Drive: Patriot 240GB Wildfire.
Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory: 16GB G.Skill @ 2,400mhz 11-11-11-31.
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W.
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive.
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2.
Boot Drive: Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB.
Storage Drive: Patriot 240GB Wildfire.
Intel E5 2687W x 2
Motherboard: Asus Z9 PE-D8 WS
Coolers: Corsair H80 x2
Memory: 64GB Kingston Predator 1,600mhz 9-9-9-24 1T
Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Modular
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN
Boot Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron GTX SSD
Secondary Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron SSD
Intel E5 2660
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WIFI
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 16GB G.Skill ARES 2,133mhz @ 9-11-10-28
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000a
Boot Drive: Intel 510 120GB
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB WildFire
Intel i7 3960X EE
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS WorkStation
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT8 2400mhz memory
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2
Boot Drive: Crucial C300 128GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB Pyro SE
Intel i7 3820
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M
Cooler: Intel reference cooler
Memory: 8GB Corsair GTX8 @ 2133mhz
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: Lian Li PC60
Boot Drive: Crucial C300
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB
Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2 – OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System
Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77
Cooler: Coolit Liquid
Memory: Corsair Vengeance White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750W PSU
Chassis: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX Case – White
Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
Secondary Drive: 1TB HDD
AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire
Intel Core i7 990X
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Corsair H100
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin
Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred
Core i7 970 @ 4.6ghz
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Memory: 6GB ADATA @ 2133mhz 9-10-9-32
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)
Intel Core i7 2700k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooling: ThermalTake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3.
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory
Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD.
Intel Core i7 2600k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen 3
Cooler: Intel XTS-100H
Memory: ADATA 1600mhz DDR3 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Boot Drive: Intel 510 SSD 250GB
Intel Core i5 2500k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire.
Software:
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
PCMark 7
PCMark8
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
HQV Benchmark V2.
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
HQV Benchmark 2.0
SiSoft Sandra
Games:
Tomb Raider (DX 11)
GRID 2 (DX 11)
Sleeping Dogs (DX 11)
Far Cry 3 (DX 11)
Crysis 3 (DX 11)
BioShock Infinite (DX 11)
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus USB BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Nikon D3X with R1C1 Kit (4 flashes), Nikon 24-70MM lens.
Some game descriptions are edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.
Good price, and well built. great review, very honest. The bios is quite ugly looking, not like some of their past efforts. maybe this was rushed.
Im still in love with the MSI board you reviewed last week. want it badly
the layout is good and the SATA config is best yet, shame about the bios. Gigabyte are miles ahead now IMO. hard for the others to follow. they really stepeed it up this time around
I don’t see why people care so much about how the BIOS looks. As long as it does what you need it to do, who cares? I can’t remember the last time I went into my BIOS since I got my 2500K OC stable at 4.8Ghz. Set it and forget it!
Can’t wait to get my Extreme6 Z87 board on Wednesday!
what brings a red flag to my mind is your review..
you say the board wont post with 2933mhz memory but there are two SPECIFIC 2933mhz g.skill memories listed on the board’s compatible memory… did you even check to make sure it matched? cuz you sure didnt indicate the model in your review. for all we know you just tried something you “thought” would work.
oh and buy the way, this memory: F3-2933C12Q-32GTXDG costs SEVENTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS on newegg.
thats right, enough to buy your college bound kid their first used econo car. so even if you are talking about that memory, are you fricking HIGH? what are you testing a low/mid model motherboard and putting ram that expensive for in it and crying?
the 16gb version, F3-2933C12Q-16GTXDG, is a STEAL at eight hundred dollars.
the motherboard memory list is here, on that place called the internet. i hear it has useful information. you may want to check it some time, because either you didn’t, and slammed the mobo for no reason, or wanted to put some fricking ferarri ram in a dodge challenger… derp derp?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme6/?cat=Memory
Fallboat. Clearly you haven’t read the review, or can’t read properly. Not sure which. The memory worked with ASUS, MSI and GIGABYTE Z87 boards we previously tested in the last week – some of which aren’t actually much more expensive than this one. These other boards booted with the motherboard set at a lower speed setting and would overclock via BLCK to allow for the 2900mhz+ speeds. This board was the only one that wouldn’t post at all with it in the slots, regardless of the speeds, settings or timings.
Would people buying this board want 2933mhz memory? Who knows, people are selling it right now and it boots in other Z87 boards we tested. Should we ignore the fact it doesn’t or mention it doesn’t? One is lazy, the other isn’t. Some motherboard manuals list supported memory speeds up to 2,133mhz but work perfectly with 2,600mhz memory+. This is common knowledge, except to very inexperienced users.
The board was not ‘slammed’ either, we just mentioned the negative point compared to other Z87 boards we tested in previous weeks, seems logical to mention the fact.
I enjoyed your colourful message but it would help if you read the content properly before exploding in a fit of rage.
So to be clear, you tried the F3-2933C12Q-32GTXDG listed on the ‘supported list’ and it didn’t work?
Or you tried a variant not specifically supported, to see what would happen?
I’d like to know because the board looks interesting, but if it can’t post with ram it’s supposed to support, I think I’ll skip it.
That said about Ram modules it seems like 1600MHZ is the sweet spot for Haswell and works well. Also must PC geeks run about 1600 or 1866 for there set ups now days as its relatively cheap to buy and works. But my overall concern in this whole review would be the amount of Bios that was tested!! I want to buy this board, but i need to confident that the Bios will work properly and not cause me huge problems etc.
trawling through, I found the RAM tried in the MSI z87 Mpower Max review was:
F3-2933C12D-8GTXDG (12-14-14-35 1.65v)
which isn’t on the supported list, in case anyone is interested.
I think the issue is both the XMP profile, and the board’s treatment of BLCK adjustments
Like ajay57, I too would like to be confident of the BIOS – I think I’ll hold off for a couple of months and see what eventuates.
Just finished a build with this motherboard and I guess I got lucky as no problems with the GSkill F312800cl10d-16gbxl or the bios
CraigO…
Just curious as Im thinking of getting this board… how has it worked for you so far since July?? Thanks