ASRock Z77 OC Formula Motherboard Review

ASRock have been aggressively targeting the overclocking audience in the last year and we have reviewed many of their motherboards for the Intel Z77 and X79 platform. Today we are focusing on a rather special design, created by overclocking guru Nick Shih specifically for the hardcore Z77 enthusiast audience. Make no mistake, ASRock are now a major force in the motherboard sector and today we overclock the Z77 Formula to the limits, and pair it up with an overclocked GTX680 and 16Gb of 2,666mhz rated memory. The checklist for the OC Formula motherboard is staggering. ASrock have incorporated the 'Formula Power Kit' which comprises Digi Power, Dual Stack MOSFET's and multiple filter capacitors, filtering noise by 3 different capacitors. They have ditched traditional chokes for more expensive premium alloy versions and are using a 12 + 4 Power Phase design. The motherboard is an 8 layer PCB design, with 4x 2oz copper. To help the system builder, they have even included a syringe of high grade Gelid GC-Extreme thermal compound. Product overview: OC Formula Power Kit - Digi Power - Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM) - Multiple Filter Cap (MFC) (Filter different noise by 3 different capacitors: DIP solid cap, POSCAP and MLCC) - Premium Alloy Choke (Reduce 70% core loss compare to iron powder choke) - 12 + 4 Power Phase Design OC Formula Connector Kit - Hi-Density Power Connector - 15μGold Finger (CPU and memory sockets) OC Formula Cooling Kit - Twin-Power Cooling (Combine active air cooling and water cooling) - 8 Layer PCB, 4 x 2oz copper - GELID Solutions GC-Extreme Thermal Compound Supports NickShih's OC Profile, Formula Drive, FAN-Tastic Tuning, Multi Thermal Sensor Supports Fine-Tuning V-Controller, Interactive UEFI, Timing Configurator Supports Rapid OC, PCIe ON/OFF, V-Probe Supports ASRock XFast 555, Lucid MVP, Dehumidifier, OMG Free Bundle : 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel, 10 x OC Stands We love the ASrock Z77 OC Formula motherboard box - it is a very artistic design showing the motherboard transforming into a fast sports car. This obviously emphasizes the focus on overclocking performance. The box opens up into a gatefold design, as shown above. This gives the company plenty of space to discuss the board design and special features, some of which we discussed on the previous page. The bundle is extensive and includes: 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield 6 x SATA Data Cables 2 x SATA 1 to 1 Power Cables 1 x Front USB 3.0 Panel 4 x HDD Screws 6 x Chassis Screws 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket 10 x OC Stands GELID GC-Extreme Thermal Compound The company also include a bag of 'OC Stands'. These are small stand offs which help overclockers to easily set up the board without the need for a chassis. An interesting addition which should appeal to a small audience. The Z77 OC Formula is a stunning looking motherboard - a very appealing yellow and black two tone affair. It is an EATX form factor board, measuring 30.5cm by 26.7 cm. The board is an 8 layer PCB with 4x 2oz copper - which should help improve overclocking performance. They are using premium gold capacitors, 100% Japan conductive Polymer origin. The heatsinks cooling the VRM's can be water cooled for improved performance. The company are using a trademarked 'OC Formula' connector kit, which are hi-density power connectors and 15μ Gold Finger CPU and memory sockets. The Z77 OC Formula has four (dual channel) memory slots which can support up to 32GB of system memory. The board can support 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866 (OC), 2133 (OC), 2400 (OC), 2666 (OC), 2800 (OC) and 3000+ (OC) unbuffered non ECC memory. It has full support for Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.2 and 1.3 standards. There are six fan headers on the ASRock Z77 OC Formula, with another used by the VRM heatsink cooler fan. There are ten SATA ports on the board, the four black ports are 3Gbps capable, and the six yellow ports are 6Gbps capable. There is support for Raid 0, 1, 5 and 10. There are three PCIe (3.0) x16 slots and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots. A single graphics card can be used at x16 or dual at x8/x8. There is support for up to Quad Crossfire X and Quad SLI. There is a molex connector underneath the bottom slot to deliver more power to the OC Formula under extreme conditions. Next to the SATA ports are a handy reset and power button, negating the requirement for a power/reset button on a chassis. A complete list of connectors are: 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel Rapid Storage and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors 1 x IR header 1 x CIR header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x Power LED header V-Probe: 2 x 7-set of onboard voltage measurement points laid 2 x CPU Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 1 x 3-pin) 4 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin, 3 x 3-pin) 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin) 1 x MOS Fan connector (3-pin) 24 pin ATX power connector 8 pin 12V power connector 4 pin 12V power connector SLI/XFire power connector Front panel audio connector 3 x USB 2.0 headers (support 6 USB 2.0 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) 1 x Dr. Debug with LED 1 x Power Switch with LED 1 x Reset Switch with LED 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED Rapid OC Button: +/- buttons to adjust OC frequency 1 x PCIe ON/OFF Switch 1 x Post Status Checker (PSC) I/O Panel 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port 1 x HDMI Port 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports 6 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports 1 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED) 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED HD Audio Jack: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. Our board shipped with an early version of the BIOS. Before we started testing we updated to the latest version V 1.4 dated 14th of September this year. The BIOS is based around a 'space theme' with constantly moving star scape. The system defaulted the Corsair Dominator Platinum 2,666mhz to 1,333mhz - a safe post figure. The OC Tweaker part of the bios will be the most used - we will look at this in more detail shortly, but first we want to look at the other panels. The BIOS offers a detailed selection of component configuration panels. We are used to accessing the last menu to get access to BIOS flash options, but ASROCK have bundled it in the Tool menu, positioned in the center of the bios panels. There is also a 'dehumidifier function' available here, for extreme overclocking situations. The H/W Monitor panel is loaded with voltage, temperature and fan speed settings. This is very detailed, specifically the various temperature readings from the motherboard itself. The Boot menu is used to configure the drive priority and failure guard settings. There is also the option to disable the imagery on post. The Security and Exit menus are both used for protecting the bios settings and saving and loading UEFI defaults. ASRock have always had a bullet proof overclocking system, right up there with ASUS. The OC Formula has preconfigured settings once it detects the specific processor installed. Above is an early version of the BIOS which doesn't detail the clock speeds. When we updated to V1.4 later, all of these 'Stage' numbers had clock speeds beside them. Our first task was to configure the Corsair Dominator Platinum 2,666mhz memory to the correct speeds. We simply selected the XMP 1.3 profile and rebooted. No problems occurred - the bios correctly detected the 10-12-12-31 timings. While the BIOS does most of the overclocking work for you, it is important that you have a reasonable grounding on the processor and cooling you are using. STAGE 5 overclocking via the Nick Shih profile will be suitable for almost everyone, even when using a stock cooler on the 3770k. The board won't increase the voltage and stability is easily achieved. Once you get to STAGE 7 - at 4.6ghz, then it becomes a little more risky. The OC Formula automatically increases the CPU voltage to 1.24. This won't be an issue if you have a decent air cooler, but it might cause the temperatures to rise if you are using stock. It is also worth pointing out that every processor will have a different variable for complete stability, although our 3770k was fine at this speed, without any adjustments to voltage. Stage 10 is a very high setting, pushing the 3770k to 4.9ghz. At this speed you are going to need to be using a very high end watercooling kit, as the motherboard has pushed the voltage to 1.4V - a very high setting. Even with our Corsair H100 all in one liquid cooler, the 3770k temperatures were peaking at 98c under load. Not ideal for any long term configuration. We know from experience that our particular 3770k engineering sample need 1.38v for stability at 4.9ghz, but this is too high for safety long term without expensive high end liquid cooling. We backed down to STAGE 9 - which is a 4,800mhz setting. The bios drops the CPU voltage to 1.35v which is safer, although still high. Again we know from experience that our 3770k engineering sample is stable at 4,800mhz with 1.32 volts so we could manually reduce this a little to improve thermal performance of the processor. ASROCK are playing safe as we know that some 3770k samples will need 1.35 volts for complete stability at this clock speed. You can check system validation with the latest 1.4 bios at these settings over here. For our review today we are using the overclocked settings. No enthusiast user would buy an Intel Core i7 3770k and ASROCK Z77 OC Formula board to run at default speeds. Main Test System: Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k @ 4.8ghz Motherboard: ASRock Z77 OC Formula Cooler: Corsair H100 Memory: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2,666mhz Graphics Card: KFA2 GTX680 OC LTD Power Supply: Corsair 850W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN Monitors: Dell U3011 Boot Drive: Intel 510 120GB Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB WildFire Comparison Test Systems: Processors: 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 Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Modular Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD 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 Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). 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 Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Power Supply: ADATA 1200W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2 Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD 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 Monitors: Dell U3011/La Cie 730 Boot Drive: Crucial C300 Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB 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 Graphics: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). 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. Kitguru Gaming Comparison System: Processor: Core i7 970 @ 4.6ghz Graphics Card: KFA2 GTX680 OC LTD 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) Software: 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 PCMark7 CrystalDiskMark ATTO Disk Benchmark SiSoft Sandra 3DStudio Max Cinebench Media Espresso Handbrake 9.5 Unigine Heaven Benchmark HQV Benchmark 2.0 Total War: Shogun 2 F1 2012 Sleeping Dogs Dirt ShowDown Max Payne 3 PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use. A final score of 6,227 shows a well balanced configuration, supported by the highly overclocked Core i7 processor. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. The system scores exceptionally well in all areas, with an overall score of 46,525 points. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. An overall score of 11,483 points is fantastic, especially when we factor in this system only has a single discrete graphics card installed. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11. The powerful GTX680 graphics card helps to drive incredibly high frame rates, hitting almost 104 frames per second at these demanding settings. HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection. There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we. This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis. Read our initial analysis over here. KFA2 GTX680 Ltd OC Dial 4 Dial with static pattern 5 Gray Bars 5 Violin 5 Stadium 2:2 5 Stadium 3:2 5 Horizontal Text Scroll 3 Vertical Text Scroll 5 Transition to 3:2 Lock 5 Transition to 2:2 Lock 0 2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video 5 2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video 5 3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed 5 5:5 FPS Animation 5 6:4 12 FPS Animation 5 8:7 8 FPS Animation 5 Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP) 5 Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE) 5 Random Noise: Sailboat 5 Random Noise: Flower 5 Random Noise: Sunrise 5 Random Noise: Harbour Night 5 Scrolling Text 5 Roller Coaster 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Bridge Traffic 5 Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text 5 Roller Coaster 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Bridge Traffic 5 Luminance Frequency Bands 5 Chrominance Frequency Bands 5 Vanishing Text 5 Resolution Enhancement 15 Theme Park 5 Driftwood 5 Ferris Wheel 5 Skin Tones 5 Total 192 The hardware scores 192 points out of a possible 210 which is excellent. SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software. Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting. It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc. Native ports for all major operating systems are available: Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86) Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64) Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64) Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01) Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02) All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of: SMP – Multi-Processor MC – Multi-Core SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86 IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit All of these scores are some of the best we have seen from the 3770k. Of particular note is the dual memory channel performance when paired up with the Corsair Dominator 2,666mhz Platinum. This is the first time we have broken 30 Gb/s in dual channel. CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free. At 4.8ghz, the 3770k is a very powerful processor. The final score of 9.52 points means this system could be used for serious, high end processing duties. Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0 x64. The Patriot Wildfire SSD drive is on test today. These are marvelous results, some of the best we have seen from any motherboard in the last year with this particular high performance Solid State drive. ATTO Disk Benchmark results indicate a 555 MB/s read and 515MB/s write performance limit, which is close to the rated speeds of this drive. V2011 is the first release of 3DStudio Max to fully support the Windows 7 operating system. This is a professional level tool that many people use for work purposes and our test will show any possible differences between board design today. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software offers compelling new techniques to help bring designs to life by aggregating data, iterating ideas, and presenting the results. Streamlined, more intelligent data exchange workflows and innovative new modeling and visualization tools help significantly increase designers’ creativity and productivity, enabling them to better explore, validate, and communicate the stories behind their designs. Major new features: Slate: A node based material editor. Quicksilver: Hardware renderer with multithreaded rendering engine that utilizes both CPU and GPU. Extended Graphite Modeling Toolset 3ds Max Composite: A HDRI-capable compositor based on Autodesk Toxik. Viewport Canvas toolset for 3D and 2D texture painting directly in the viewport Object Painting: use 3D geometry as ‘brushes’ on other geometry Character Animation Toolkit (CAT): now integrated as part of the base package Autodesk Material Library: Over 1200 new photometrically accurate shaders Additional file format support: includes native support for Sketchup, Inventor FBX file linking Save to Previous Release (2010) We created a new 8200×3200 scene and recorded the time for the hardware to finalise the render. The system takes 5 minutes and 55 seconds to complete the rendering task, excellent results. CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats. Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology. New and Improved Features Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously. Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention. Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices. Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment. Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A. Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier. For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors. Hardware acceleration is enabled, to call on the CUDA power of the GTX680. This system isn't quite as quick as the Asus Maximus V Formula in this particular test, although that system used the Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition for hardware acceleration, so the differences are based primarily on this factor. Handbrake is a fantastic free program which we wanted to include to confirm findings with Media Espresso, earlier in the review. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. We used the latest V 0.9.5 for testing today across all platforms. We encoded an DVD.MPG file. The system takes only 4 minutes and 41 seconds to complete this specific test, not far behind the more expensive 3930k processor. Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths. The ASRock OC Formula system is significantly faster than the last generation 6 core system, particularly noticeable when the system is more CPU bound at 720p. F1 2012 is a video game developed by Codemasters. It is based on the 2012 Formula One season, and is the sequel to F1 2010 and F1 2011. It is the fourth Formula One game developed by the Codemasters studios after the company renewed its licence to develop the official games of the series. It was announced on March 18, 2012, co-inciding with the first race of the 2012 season. The game features all twelve teams and twenty-four drivers competing in the 2012 season (except for mid-season changes), as well as the twenty circuits and Grands Prix — including the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas — included in the championship. We configured the system to use 16xQ CSAA and selected the ULTRA preset for maximum eye candy. This game looks fantastic, but isn't as demanding of the partnering hardware as Dirt Showdown. Still excellent results and plenty of available headroom for higher resolutions. Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007. We selected the ULTRA preset and also toggled on 16x QCSAA, enough to bring most systems to a frame rate slideshow. While the overclocked KFA2 GTX680 graphics card does a lot of the work, there is clearly performance related to the rest of the system. The older overclocked core i7 970 system struggles to maintain frame rates above the sweet spot of 25fps at all times. The ASRock Z77 OC Formula system on the other hand is markedly quicker and the end result is a much smoother overall experience. Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights. We are using the highest possible image quality settings at 1080p, including the high resolution texture pack, which is available as an optional extra. A very demanding engine at these ultra high settings, however the ASRock Z77 OC Formula system manages to generate smooth frames rates for a fantastic all round experience. Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a “Last Stand” mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession. We enable Direct X 11, and maximised all the texture, shader and shadow settings. FXAA is set to very high, and MSAA to 4x with 16x anisotropic filtering. The total demand is 1421MB of memory. Both systems deliver good performance at these settings, although there is a notable performance advantage for the ASRock Z77 OC Formula system with 2,666mhz rated memory and 3770k processor at 4.8ghz. Power consumption is very important today, with people more aware of the rising costs of living. Adopting a more efficient computer will reduce the cost across a year. That said, someone running an overclocked, overvolted system will not be that concerned with power consumption. We used a calibrated meter to measure the power at the wall. No monitors were factored into the readings. All systems included the same graphics card, memory configuration and hard drive population. We measured wattage at the socket when running Cinebench R11.5 64 bit which loads all cores to 100% utilisation. The graphics card was inactive during the reading. We also rated power drain in the last (combined) test of 3DMark 11 which puts a strain on both processor and graphics card - mirroring a real world gaming result. When the Core i7 3770k is overclocked with 1.35v @ 4.8ghz, the system demands 228 watts under Cinebench R11.5 64 bit load. This drops to 117 watts when idle and rises to around 350 Watts when running the 'combined' test in 3DMark 11. This is not a power hungry system, although it would consume less power at default speeds with the reference voltage. We have reviewed many fantastic Z77 motherboards this year and the ASRock Z77 OC Formula is certainly in a class at the top of the pile. We have seen ASRock make strides with their BIOS configurations in recent months, and I firmly believe they are almost as good as market leader, ASUS. The development of the Z77 OC Formula has been heavily connected with one of the world's best overclockers Nick Shih and it shows in the bios. This board is the number one option for inexperienced users who want to overclock their system directly. Many other manufacturers expect the end user to have a working knowledge of the bios to achieve a good overclock, but ASROCK are taking many of the tricky bios settings away from the user. Nick Shih has a dedicated bios section to specifically overclock the processor based on identity. Make no mistake, this 'Nick Shih Profile' section isn't a half assed concept, it really does work. For every stage in this overclocking process the Z77 OC Formula will adjust and tune voltage and bios parameters to ensure stability. While this sounds simple in theory there are potential issues that ASRock needed to research. Not all processors are created equal, even within the same family. For instance, we know that a batch of 3770k processors will require a specific voltage to reach a certain clock speed. Our main 3770k sample only requires 1.32 volts for 4.8ghz, but another sample we have needs 1.35 volts for the same speed. ASRock have clearly researched a wide range of samples and every 'Stage' in the Nick Shih profile is using the upper end of the voltage range. This means that every system will be stable at the chosen speed. Those with a 'better than average' processor and some bios knowledge will be able to fine tune the CPU voltage a little, to reduce operating temperatures. To overclock our 3770k sample, we selected Stage 9 - 4,800mhz and reduced the voltage from 1.35v to 1.32v. Then restarted. It was really that simple. The board took care of load line and other more complex settings that are likely to scare an inexperienced user. Those users adopting a high end watercooling system would be able to hit 4,900mhz and 5,000mhz easily enough. Nick Shih has even set up a Liquid Nitrogen OC option, for experienced, hardcore enthusiast users. The general public should stay well away from the top three settings as they could cause damage to their new processor. If you are interested in buying this board, we have some simple rule of thumb settings for our readers. If you are using stock cooling and don't want to risk anything, then use the Stage 5 setting. Every 3770k will run at 4.4ghz without any need for enhanced cooling. Stage 7 is perfect if you have bought a quality £20 cooler such as the less expensive Arctic range available on stores such as Amazon. If you have a Corsair H60 or better, then the Stage 8 option is ideal. If you have a Noctua NH D14, Corsair H80/H100 or better than we recommend the Stage 9 setting. Stage 10 and Stage 11 settings should be reserved for the hard core audience who are using high end watercooling kits. We are completely confident in the overclocking capabilities of the Z77 OC Formula motherboard - it was a pleasure to work with, and required minimal effort from us to achieve fantastic results. It also had no problems dealing with the latest 2,666mhz memory kits. The Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2,666mhz kit we tested today was recognised immediately and we actually overclocked it manually to 2,800mhz+ after this review was finished, with minimal effort. It is worth adding that is the only Z77 board to date that we have hit a 30GB/ bandwidth memory score in dual channel. In all other areas, this board doesn't disappoint. When paired up with an overclocked GTX680, we were able to push gaming frame rate results way past the Kitguru reference 'gaming system' comprising a 6 core overclocked Core i7 970 with Triple channel memory running at 1,800mhz. Cinebench, 3D Studio max and video encoding results were also excellent. During a weeks testing between other reviews we never once experienced a BSOD, hard lock or random glitch at 4.8ghz which verifies that the Nick Shih bios settings are perfectly set up. If you ever wanted a board for overclocking but had private concerns about your experience level then this is the one to get. You can not only use Nick's bios settings to overclock comfortably, but you can study how the profiles are changing voltages and parameters to educate yourself for the future. We had expected this board to cost an arm and a leg, but have been surprised to find it online for only £194 inc vat. At this price it easily earns our highest award, not only does it look beautiful and incorporate the finest quality components, but the bios is easily setting a new benchmark for newbie overclockers who not only want a highly overclocked system, but who want to learn from one of the world's best overclocking guru's. Pros: Beautiful build quality. Bios is the new market leader. stable. performance is class leading. 2800mhz memory+ is possible easily. Price. scared of overclocking? buy this board. bundle is extensive, and even includes market leading thermal paste! Cons: You will feel the need to spend a lot of money on a quality CPU cooler. Kitguru says: A wonder board for inexperienced overclockers who want to learn how to do it themselves!

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ASRock Z77 OC Formula Motherboard Review

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