ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. ASRock X79 Champion: Packaging and Bundle3. ASRock X79 Champion: Layout and Features4. ASRock X79 Champion: BIOS and Overclocking5. Testing Methodology6. Synthetic: 3DMark 117. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage8. Synthetic: PCMark 79. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven10. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra 201211. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.512. Synthetic: Super Pi13. Synthetic: CrystalDiskMark14. Real World: Media Encoding15. Synthetic: MKV Playback16. Synthetic: Blu-Ray Playback17. Gaming: Battlefield 318. Gaming: Max Payne 319. Technical: Power Consumption20. Closing Thoughts21. View All Pages

Everything considered we are left with very positive impressions of the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion.  It's clear that ASRock are targeting this particular motherboard at enthusiasts who demand extremely high, yet stable overclocked settings.

We managed to achieve a very impressive 4.8 GHz overclock with the automatic overclocking feature which was completely stable.  This is as far as we'd want to push the i7-3930K chip in this system for prolonged use as the temperatures were quite toasty under full load … around 90 degrees C with the excellent Corsair H100.

The automatic overclocking feature is ideal for those who don't have the time or expertise to overclock the system manually.  As you can see from our tests, it yields significant real world performance improvements.

If you have the means to invest in a custom water cooling loop for the CPU we expect that you could easily push the overclock further with this motherboard as it had no issues at all reaching 4.8 GHz with the Corsair H100.

The Fatal1ty X79 Champion boasts a very impressive feature set which includes six SATA-600 ports and a generous selection of PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots which can be used in various graphics configurations.

They aren't quite as flexible as the expansion configurations on the ASRock X79 Extreme11 which would be a better option if you're looking to use more than two graphics cards in your system. The X79 Fatalt1ty Champion can only run two graphics cards at x16 speeds.

As we mentioned in the introduction to this review, the ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion is significantly cheaper than the ASRock X79 Extreme11 and can be yours for £330 from Overclockers UK. For the vast majority of enthusiast user the X79 Extreme11 wouldn't be worth the £150 price premium.

The price of the Fatal1ty X79 Champion puts it head to head with the Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.  We don't think there's much at all to choose between these two motherboards which is a real testament to the progress that ASRock have made in the last couple of years.

Pros

• Excellent automatic OC feature.
• Attractive red and black colour scheme.
• Form factor will fit in most ATX cases.
• Comprehensive UEFI.
• Priced in line with competition.

Cons

• Still expensive.

KitGuru says: An excellent alternative to the Asus Rampage IV Extreme.

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