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ASRock's UEFI hasn't changed much since our most recent ASRock X99 review, which is no bad thing as we concluded it was “well laid-out, easy to use, and full of relevant user-customisable parameters”.
Upon entering the UEFI users are greeted by a splashscreen called EZ Mode; ASUS uses similar terminology for its splashscreen too. The general logic is that less-confident UEFI users should be able to access the most common options here such as boot order and XMP.
Users wishing to delve further into the advanced options can enter the advanced mode with an F6 keypress.
The ASRock UEFI has 8 key tabs: Main, OC Tweaker, Advanced, Tool, H/W Monitor, Security, Boot and Exit.
OC Tweaker is the area in which most time will be spent since this holds key CPU and DRAM options. CPU Configuration and DRAM Configuration tabs allow for frequency and general settings changes.
FIVR Configuration and Voltage Configuration facilitate changes to voltages, Load Line Calibration and other key parameters.
CPU tweaking options include the cache, Turbo Boost options and core ratios. By default, when enabling XMP or multicore enhancement, ASRock keeps to a 3.5GHz all-core turbo with up to 4GHz on the single golden core as dictated by Intel's new Turbo Boost 3.0 behaviour.
There are voltage options in both the Voltage and FIVR (Fully Integrated Voltage Regulation) configuration tabs so a bit of exploration may be required to find the appropriate setting.
VCore, Cache, System Agent (SA), SVID and VCCU comprise the FIVR section. CPU input, DRAM, PCH, I/O, ME and PLL voltages comprise the Voltage section, along with the Load Line Calibration (LLC).
The Advanced section drills down more into the various onboard hardware and their available configuration options. In general the advanced tab is everything that isn't voltage or frequency related. It's more about toggling compatibility settings and different operational modes.
The H/W monitor tab contains the ASRock fan tuning utility. From here you can set standard PWM fan profiles or explore the fan voltage-RPM range with the tuning utility and set your own custom fan curve. The changes to the fan profiles also take place “live” rather than on reboot or save and exit, so it's easy to get the fans set up correctly before leaving the UEFI environment.
Any idea of price?
Yes it’s discussed on the final page – around £270 in the UK and $260 in the US.
260 USD isn’t 270 GBP, even after the eu referendum bollocks.
Id more likely expect something like;
260 USD / 220 GBP
320 USD / 270 GBP
Wouldn’t make sense at all for it to be more in GBP than USD.
I know how the currency conversion (plus being British tax) works. But that’s what retailers are selling the board for. It says in the review that ASRock’s pricing is more competitive in North America than it is in the UK.
It’s 324 euros here in Belgium.
This one looks good, but if I was to go with X99 on a budget I would consider their Taichi model.
I do like the looks of Taichi. Even Fatal1ty looking good, Taichi Black and white looks really good.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got my FX990 Killer, it is one solid board with wonderful audio and I really do like the UEFI set up way more than Asus or MSi. My only complaint with mine is the rather terrible northbridge heatsink design, it’s just a stylized block of anodized aluminum with 3 grooves cut in it, I could have gone down to the 970FX board with all better heatsinks, USB 3.1 with a type C port and support for 220watt CPU’s, but I would have given up a far more superior chipset (I run multiple PCIe devices, wireless, a USB 3.1 card and 2 different graphics cards), additional power to PCIe and audio
Really good stuff coming out from them, love their mobos.