14 DAY TRIAL // Since Intel has launched the latest collection of CPUs, the Haswell refresh series compatible with socket LGA 1150, motherboard makers are unveiling new products based on the 9-Series chipsets. ASRock is taking its turn right now.
Most of Intel's Haswell CPUs won't ship to buyers until May, which is why new motherboards compatible with them are only now debuting. Gigabyte's own three Z97 Enthusiast mainboards only came out a couple of days ago.
ASRock has revealed five motherboards: ASRock Z97 OC Formula, ASRock Z97 Extreme 6, ASRock Z97 Extreme 4, ASRock FATAL1TY Z97X Killer, ASRock FATAL1TY Z97 Killer.
For now, though, we'll only be looking at the Z97 OC Formula, the so-called flagship that will succeed and replace the Z87C OC Formula.
First off, the LGA 1150 socket gets its energy from a pair of 8-pin connectors through a 12-phase power circuit featuring high-endurance components.
We're looking at a pretty big list here, consisting of a Premium Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke), a Digi Power, Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM), and Multiple Filter Cap (MFC).
The MFC uses a DIP solid cap, POSCAP and MLCC to filter 3 different noises (circuital noises, not the meaning you're thinking of).
Four PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots are available, for quad-SLI and quad-Crossfire multi-GPU graphics card setups (NVIDIA and AMD, respectively).
There are two PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots as well. Mini-slots in fact, as can easily be seen in the product photograph.
The same can be said about some, but not all, of the other storage, video and I/O interfaces. And there are a lot of them: seven SATA 6.0 Gbps ports, six USB 3.0 connectors, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, PS/2, Clear CMOS, and LAN.
There are four DDR3 DIMM memory slots as well (pretty routine at this point), as well as 7.1 channel audio (helped along by Purity Sound technology) and the Killer E2200 chip that prioritizes games when allocating network bandwidth.
All of this, as well as the OC and tuning switches built into the ASRock Z97 OC Formula, are run by DUAL BIOS. All in all, you have everything you need to build an overpowered desktop computer featuring a Haswell, Haswell Refresh, Devil's Canyon and even Broadwell CPU.
In case you were wondering, the large heatsinks covering the PCH and VRM are made of aluminum and use heatpipes, meaning that they're pretty good at their job.