ASRock X79 Extreme9 Motherboard Review

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell January 4, 2012 Featured Announcement, Motherboard

We are testing this system built into the award winning Cooler Master Cosmos II chassis which we reviewed earlier this week over here. We are using 16GB of Gskill Ripjaws 2133mhz memory and two Nvidia GTX 590's in Quad SLI.

System validation is available here.

Processor: Intel i7 3960X EE.
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme9 (1.92 beta bios).
Cooler: Corsair H100 Liquid Cooler
Memory: 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws 2133mhz @ 11-11-11-31

Graphics Cards: Nvidia GTX590 QUAD SLI. (x16/x16) – 285.62 WHQL driver.
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos II
Monitors: Dell U3011
Boot Drive: Crucial C300
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit).
FRAPS Professional.
SiSoft Sandra.
Windows Media Player/VLC Player.
CPUz.
GPUz.
CPUID Hardware Monitor.
Cinebench R11.5 (64-bit).
Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra.
Cyberlink MediaEspresso.
CrystalDiskMark.
3D Mark Vantage.
3DMark 11.
PCMark 7.

Games:
Lost Planet 2
Total War: Shogun 2

Comparison Systems:

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

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)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
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)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
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)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire

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11 comments

Ron
January 4, 2012 at 12:40 pm

very nice indeed. costs a fortune, as expected however !
Raymond Oliver
January 4, 2012 at 12:53 pm

Beautiful looking mobo, they are getting good reviews lately. The whole X79 platform however is just so expensive. my 2500k is working a treat, so im waiting on the mainstream boards to come out soon for the next generation intel chips. should be really interesting.

is it just me, or do we NEED amd to start competiting. Intel’s prices are just too high and they have sadly no reason to lower them.
Glynn McDermott
January 4, 2012 at 1:39 pm

A very impressive board, ive never opted for ASROCK in the past, but going on the strength of media reviews ive read recently they seem to be really improving their reputation.

I always thought they were a budget brand from ASUS, but im not sure where I got that from.
SolarFox
January 5, 2012 at 3:16 am

I have GA mobo-s for last 10 years, but last one was Asrock Z68 + 2600K and i`m very happy. GA was too high priced for what they offer 🙁 LACK of hdd ports on P67 distracted me immediately from buying GA.
And Intel can hold high price i will not buy until price drop down a LOT. I`m not in hurry and probably 80% or more peoples also. They will reduce price when sell drop. They will not until there are a peoples who want 5% faster pc`s for 1000$ more.
Joe
January 5, 2012 at 5:55 am

But who will pay 300+ for a MB they only stand behind for two years. Asus will sell you one that is good for 5.
Joe
Cyras
January 28, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Can you upload the L1.92 Bios please?
GeekOrbit
May 16, 2012 at 11:37 pm

Lovely motherboard but the majority will never see it in person..