ASRock Z170 Extreme4+ Motherboard Review

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Although we haven't reviewed an ASRock motherboard in quite a while, their ascension in the market has been undeniable thanks in part to the fact that they release a huge number of models for every platform - 69 models and counting for Socket LGA1151 - and their willingness to promote some subversive features like Sky OC, which they were eventually forced to repeal under duress from Intel.

The Z170 Extreme4+ model that we are reviewing today is at the upper-end of the company's mainstream Z170 offerings, with a price tag that is attractive to American buyers ($160 USD) but less so for Canadian consumers ($270 CAD). Nevertheless, thanks to its positioning, it does come with just about everything you would want in a modern motherboard, except for any form of wireless connectivity. If that is not a deal-breaker for you, then you are left with a very well featured product.

The Z170 Extreme4+ features a 12-phase CPU power design, high-quality 12K Japanese capacitors, three physical PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots with support for 2-way SLI or 3-way CrossFireX, three PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots which are open-ended to accept longer expansion cards, six SATA 6Gb/s ports that can transformed into three SATA Express ports, and one full-speed M.2 socket with a PCI-E 3.0 x4 interface. There are also four high-speed USB 3.1 ports, two Type-A and two Type-C, up to eight USB 3.0 ports, up to four USB 2.0 ports, and even a header for ASRock's Thunderbolt 2 AIC accessory.

The Intel-powered gigabit LAN port is a welcome feature as well. Those who plan on making use of Skylake's integrated graphics will be glad to see a full assortment of DisplayPort 1.2, DVI-D, and HDMI 1.4 video outputs. Rounding things out, you will find small extras like two CPU and three system 4-pin PWM fan headers, two physical BIOS chips, and a rich software suite that we will be taking a closer look at.

When it comes to onboard audio, the duty falls to the Purity Sound 3 solution. As we have come to expect, this onboard audio is based on the Realtek ALC1150 ten-channel codec, features an array of Nichicon audio-grade capacitors, a headphone amplifier, and the whole sound subsystem is isolated from the rest of the system by an audio separation line on the PCB. There doesn't appear to be any mention of an EMI cover for the codec, so we will have to check out in the Closer Look section.

While the specifications looks good on paper, we are anxious to see how well everything has been implemented, and whether ASRock has solidified its position as a true competitor to the Big Three motherboard manufacturers.

 

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging and Accessories

Now that we have gone over the Z170 Extreme4+ features and specifications, it is time to examine the packaging and then crack open the box to take a look at the bundled accessories. Let's check it out:

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The front of the mostly black packaging is adorned with the usual array of badges and logos, but obviously ASRock are pushing the "Super Alloy" aspect pretty hard. The back of the box is even busier, with a ton of graphics plain detailing the specifications and highlighting a few of this product's more notable features.

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Once you open the packaging, there are two separate sections, the top half holds the accessories, software and documentation, while the bottom half contains the motherboard in an anti-static bag. There is also an integrated handle which is a nice little addition.

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The Z170 Extreme4+ has a pretty decent accessories bundle. There is the usual installation guide, software setup guide, driver & software DVD, as well as an ASRock sticker. Below we will have a closer look at some of the more tangible accessories.

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Starting things off, there is a nice colour-coded rear I/O shield. There are four SATA 6Gb/s cables, a 2-way SLI bridge, USB 2.0 header cable, and a SATA Express cable, which is used in coordination with the ASRock Front USB 3.1 Panel device that we'll check out below.

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The best addition to this motherboard's accessories bundle is obviously the ASRock Front USB 3.1 Panel. This handy accessory converts one 5.25" drive bay into two easily accessible USB 3.1 ports, one of the conventional Type-A variety and one new reversible Type-C port. Made possible by an ASMedia ASM1142 USB 3.1 host controller, this accessory is powered by SATA power connector and a USB 2.0 header cable, and is connected to the motherboard via a SATA Express cable. Utilizing the SATA Express port meants a direct link to the PCI-E lanes, and transfer rates of up 10Gb/s (1.25GB/s).

 

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A Closer Look at the Z170 Extreme4+

A Closer Look at the Z170 Extreme4+

The Z170 Extreme4+ is a conventional full-size ATX form factor motherboard. Although the copper accents and gold capacitors don't combine to create our favourite colour combo, this is still good looking motherboard thanks to the matte black PCB, heatsinks, and shroud.

The overall layout of this motherboard is very good. The ATX power connector, the 8-pin CPU power connectors, all the storage ports and connectors, USB headers, and wide variety of buttons are all conveniently placed at the edge of the motherboard. The only point of contention is that we aren't too keen on the placement of the M.2 connector, because very high performance M.2 solid state drives have been known throttle themselves when running too hot, so it is not a great idea to have them placed directly under a heat spewing graphics card.

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While this motherboard does have a fair amount of capacitors in and around the CPU socket area, there is definitely enough clearance room to fit any large heatsink, water block from an all-in-one liquid cooler, or even LN2 pot if you wish. Definitely to check out our Installation section to get a better look at the clearances.

This motherboard has been outfitted with a perfectly capable 12-phase CPU power design that utilizes a Intersil PWM controller and Sinopower MOSFETs cooled by two hefty heatsinks. We would have perhaps liked to see ASRock use some of the higher-end power chokes that they have at their disposal, but that is just nitpicking. What really impresses us is the use of Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps, since capacitors with lifespans of at least 12,000 hours have generally only been rolled out on the highest-end motherboards.

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The four DDR4 slots are clipless on one side, which prevents any clearance issues that can arise between conventional memory clips and the back of any nearby expansion card. This motherboard supports up to 64GB of total system memory and it has been certified for overclocked memory speeds of up to DDR4-3866. Definitely check out our Overclocking Results section to see whether we were able to reach that level.

The 24-pin ATX power connector is in its usual convenient location, and next to it is the internal USB 3.0 header that can be used to add another two USB 3.0 ports, generally to the front of your case.

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This motherboard features a total of six SATA 6Gb/s ports, all of which are supplied by the Z170 PCH and as a result support RAID 0/1/5/10 plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology. If required, those six SATA ports can be turned into three 10Gb/s SATA Express ports.

As you may have noticed, in an unusual move the SATA ports have been split up, with two adorning the bottom edge of the motherboard. The reason for this layout is that these ports - which form a single SATA Express port - are supposed to be used to link the ASRock Front USB 3.1 Panel accessory to the motherboard. Utilizing the SATA Express port meants a direct link to the PCI-E lanes, and transfer rates of up 10Gb/s (1.25GB/s).

As we have previously discussed, there is a M.2 socket with a full-speed PCI-E 3.0 x4 interface, theoretical maximum bandwidth of 32Gb/s, and support for SATA, PCI-E, and PCI-E NVMe M.2 solid state drives. ASRock have added all the appropriate mounting holes, so even M.2 22110 SSDs - which are 110 millimeters long - can be installed. We do wish that this M.2 socket had been placed somewhere else though, because as mentioned above, very high performance M.2 solid state drives have been known throttle themselves when running too hot, so it is not a great idea to have them placed directly under a heat spewing graphics card.

As is the case on most fully-featured LGA1151 motherboards, due to a limited number of PCI-E lanes you can't have all of the connectivity features enabled at the same time. On this model, if you install an M.2 SSD, the top two SATA ports - in the group of ports on the right side of the motherboard - will be disabled. That might not seem like a big deal, but if you have installed the ASRock Front USB 3.1 Panel accessory as well, that means you are left with only two SATA ports (or one SATA Express port). That might be an issue for those who need more than two hard drives or 2.5" SSDs in their system.

 

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A Closer Look at the Z170 Extreme4+ pt.2

A Closer Look at the Z170 Extreme4+ pt.2

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In the lower-right hand corner of the motherboard you will find the two removable BIOS chips and a switch to select between the two. There is the front-panel header, which we really wish was at least colour coded to make installation a little more user-friendly. There is a handy debug LED display is always a welcome addition when overclocking, since the error codes can tell you what's hindering your progress. The onboard clear CMOS jumper is handy as well, though we actually never needed to use it since the rear I/O panel has its own clear CMOS Switch. The onboard power and reset buttons are obviously invaluable for those of us who have our systems installed on an open test bench. Last but not least are the SATA ports, which as we discussed on the previous page, are probably going to be used to attached the ASRock USB 3.1 Front Panel accessory to the motherboard.

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As you probably know, mainstream Skylake processors support sixteen PCI-E 3.0 lanes for graphics purposes. Like on most motherboards, this is divided across two separate PCI-E x16 slots thanks to a handful of PCI-E 3.0 switches, namely the NXP L04083B. The third mechanical PCI-E x16 slot is receives its PCI-E lanes from the Z170 PCH.

In a simple single card setup, the primary graphics card slot will operate at full speed PCI-E 3.0 x16. In a dual graphics card configuration, the first and third slots will operate at PCI-E 3.0 x8, which will still provide ample bandwidth for even the highest-end graphics cards and meets the requirements for NVIDIA 2-way SLI certification and AMD CrossFireX. You can install three graphics cards on this motherboard but they need to be Radeons cards, since the expansion slots will be running at x8/x8/x4 and NVIDIA doesn't support SLI with any PCI-E x4 slots.

We definitely like the fact that the three PCI-E 3.0 x1 slots are open-ended, which means that they can accept longer non-x1 expansion cards. Just because a card has a PCI-E connector that is larger than PCI-E x1 doesn't mean that it won't operate well (if not optimally) in a "lesser" slot.

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Once we removed the plastic shroud, we revealed that the heart of this motherboard's Purity Sound 3 onboard audio is the modern Realtek ALC1150 ten-channel HD audio codec. Next to the bank of Nichicon Fine Gold Series audio-grade capacitors is where you will find two Texas Instruments N5532 op-amps, which serve as headphone amplifiers for the rear and front-panel headphone jacks.

The PCB isolation line surrounds the audio section of the PCB and protects it from the rest of the system. All of this serves to help to preserve the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio and thus ensure the highest possible sound quality. Regrettably, there is no electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield covering the Realtek CODEC, but that is to be expected at this price point.

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The Z170 Extreme4+ has great connectivity on its rear I/O panel. Starting from left to right, we have the combo keyboard/mouse PS/2 port, two USB 3.0 ports, the Clear CMOS Switch, DVI-D + HDMI 1.4 + DisplayPort 1.2 video outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, one gigabit LAN port, USB 3.1 Type-A and USB 3.1 Type-C ports, and the six audio jacks which include an S/PDIF output.

Powering these ports is an Intel I219V ethernet controller with ASRock Full Spike Protection, an ASMedia ASM1142 controller is responsible for the two USB 3.1 ports in coordination with an EtronTech EJ179V USB 3.1 Type-C switch, and an ASMedia ASM1442K IC handles HDMI output duties.

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Since the PCB isolation line that surrounds the audio sub-system does not feature any lightning effects, there are no LEDs on the back of this motherboard. You will however find an IDT 6V51542NLG chip, an external base clock (BCLK) generator that responsible for the Hyper BCLK Engine, which is ultimately provides wider range of frequency options for overclockers.

 

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Hardware Installation

Hardware Installation

In the Hardware Installation section we examine how major components fit on the motherboard, and whether there are any serious issues that may affect installation and general functionality. Specifically, we are interested in determining whether there is adequate clearance in all critical areas.

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As mentioned in the previous section, this motherboard has a fairly crowded CPU socket area due to the proximity of several capacitors to the socket. Having said that, when installed in the East-West or North-South orientation, our Prolimatech Mega Shadow cooler and its numerous bits of mounting hardware had no issues physically clearing the capacitors or the MOSFET heatsinks. As a result, most large CPU heatsink and all-in-one liquid coolers should be easily installable.

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Unlike on most motherboards, we did not encounter any clearance issues between our standard memory modules and our large CPU cooler. The cooler's fan clips did not make contact with the nearest memory module, but obviously you will need to remove the clips and the fan in order to install or remove the RAM modules. When we swapped in very tall memory modules, there were clearance issues even in the farthest memory slots, but we could make it work by just removing clips and rigging the fan with an elastic band.

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Thanks to the expansion slot layout, there is a large gap between the clipless DDR4 memory slots and the back of the graphics card, so there is no need to take out the GPU before installing/removing memory modules. The 24-pin ATX power connector and the 8-pin CPU power connector are both ideally placed, so that makes assembling and disassembling the system just a tad easier.

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The Z170 Extreme4+ will hold one, two, or even three dual-slot graphics cards without difficulty. The cards will slightly extend past the motherboard length-wise, and that last card will obviously overhang all the headers, buttons, and two SATA ports on the bottom edge of the motherboard. Since there is a decent amount of room between the primary graphics card and the heatsink, it was relatively easy to reach the PCI-E slot release clip. One of the nice layout aspects with this model is that no matter how many dual-slot cards are installed, there are always two PCI-E x1 slots usable.

The four 90-degree SATA ports are obviously accessible no matter how many graphics cards are installed. However, as mentioned above, the two SATA ports on the bottom edge of motherboard will only be inaccessible if you install a dual-slot graphics card in the third PCI-E x16 slot.

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Installing an M.2 SSD, even one 110 millimeters long, is no problem on this motherboard. As mentioned above, if you have a dual-slot expansion card installed in the primary PCI-E x16 slot, you will need to remove it before installing or removing any M.2 solid state drive.

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The Prolimatech Mega Shadow heatsink's large mounting bracket fit without issue, but it did come pretty close to one little solder point. This is the case on most motherboards, so nothing to worry about there.

 

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BIOS Rundown

BIOS Rundown

As we have come to expect from all Skylake motherboards, this model features a very smooth and responsive UEFI BIOS, matching the best that we have experienced from other manufacturers. The UEFI is divided across two distinct modes. The Easy Mode is simplified and features a mouse-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for basic tasks, while the Advanced Mode is still mouse-compatible but also has all the settings, options, and features that you could ever want. From within the Easy Mode you can switch to the Advanced Mode by pressing F6, and vice-versa to get back to the Easy Mode.

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The Easy Mode makes very good use of the graphical user interface (GUI) and was designed to be used with a mouse. It obviously does not have all the functionality of the Advanced mode, but it is not meant to. It simply gives novice users an easy way to visualize and alter some of the most common settings. First and foremost, the top-right corner shows CPU and motherboard temperatures, as well as CPU core voltage. The Fan Status feature can be found in both BIOS modes, but fundamentally it gives you very basic manual control over the CPU and systems fans. You can enable or disable RAID, as well as selecting which storage device to boot from. The CPU EZ OC button enables an automatic overclocking feature; you just click on the icon, save & exit, the system reboots and the overclock is applied. The System Browser button pops up a full diagram on the motherboard, and if you drag your cursor across the various parts of motherboard, some additional information about the ports or the installed components is listed. The Instant Flash feature allows you to update the UEFI via a USB flash drive, while the Internet Flash feature allows you to update directly from the internet.

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The first section in the Advanced Mode is the Main tab, which displays some basic system information. This section lists some rudimentary specification info, including the BIOS date & version, the type of processor and the amount of memory installed. You can also access the My Favorite sub-menu, which allows you to have all your most useful or most used settings in one place, so you no longer have to search through the whole bios to find what you need time and time again.

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Next up is the OC Tweaker section, which is where all the fun happens. First and foremost, there is the Optimized CPU OC Setting, which is an automatic overclocking feature with four available options, ranging from Turbo 4.4Ghz to Turbo 4.8Ghz. You can check how effective this feature is in our Overclocking Results page. Next we have three sub-menu dedicated to the three key overclocking areas, namely the CPU, DRAM, and voltage. Once you have everything dialed in properly, ASRock have provided a means of saving those settings as a user profile, with up to five different profile slots available. You can also save those profiles to a storage device and share it with friends.

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The CPU Configuration sub-menu is where you will find all of the essential system clock control options: CPU multiplier with an all core and per core option, maximum and minimum cache multiplier, BLCK frequency, FCLK frequency, as well as the option to enable or disable Intel SpeedStep and Turbo Boost technology. You can also adjust the processor's current and power limits.

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As its name suggests, the DRAM Configuration section is where you will find all the memory-related settings. Within this section you can enable the XMP Profile, select the memory frequency, change the BCLK frequency, and obviously tweak all of the primary, secondary and tertiary memory timings. It had just about every memory setting that an enthusiast or overclocker will need to fine-tune their memory modules.

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The Voltage Configuration section is where you can adjust all of the primary and secondary system voltages. There are no drop-down options for the individual voltage options, but you can manually type in your desired voltage. There are also readouts for all of the voltages.

 

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BIOS Rundown pt.2

BIOS Rundown pt.2

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The Advanced tab is where you can tweak countless settings and enable or disable all of the motherboard's components. The CPU Configuration sub-menu is where you can manipulate all the CPU-specific features like the Thermal Monitor, Hyper-Threading, Virtualization, SpeedStep, Turbo Mode, C-States, etc.

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The Advanced Tab is also where you can enable/disable or just find all the various settings and options for all the onboard devices like the integrated graphics, PCI-E link speed, onboard audio, LAN, Thunderbolt, USB ports, SATA ports, serial port, etc. As you can see, there is a bewildering and overwhelming array of settings and options here.

 

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BIOS Rundown pt.3

BIOS Rundown pt.3

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The Tool tab is where you can find a bunch of the handy tools that ASRock have developed to make setting up the motherboard a little more user friendly. The System Browser button pops up a full diagram on the motherboard, and if you drag your cursor across the various parts of motherboard, some additional information about the ports or the installed components is listed.

The Online Management Guard allows the administrator the set a curfew or time restriction on the internet connection. The UEFI Tech Service feature allows users to send a help request directly to ASRock's tech support from within the BIOS. The Easy RAID and Easy Driver Installers simplify the job of installing drivers via the included DVD.

The Instant Flash tool allows you to update the UEFI from a storage device, while the Internet Flash is a unique feature that permits users to update the UEFI directly from the internet. Both are quick, painless, and take the worry out of BIOS flashing.

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The Monitor tab is mostly dedicated to monitoring the various voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds. This whole section is really quite impressive, it has all the essential temperature and voltage readouts, as well as truly excellent and comprehensive fan control functionality.

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The Security tab is where you can set the Supervisor Password, as well as a subordinate User Password. By doing so, you can enable Secure Boot, as well as Intel's Platform Trust Technology.

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The Boot tab is essentially where you set storage device priority, select the boot drive, enable/disable Fast Boot or the full screen logo, and ton of other boot settings that can help with the installation or troubleshooting of various OS installations.

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You can either hit F10 key or enter the Exit tab in order to save your settings and exit the UEFI. We wish ASRock implemented oa pop-up window that lists the changes you made during the session. If and when you want to reset all the settings, the Load UEFI Defaults will obviously come in handy.

 

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Included Software

Included Software

ASRock APP Shop

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The ASRock APP Shop is an all-in-one centralized hub for all the BIOS, drivers, and utilities that ASRock bundles/requires with their motherboards. It permanently resides in the notification area/icon tray in the right corner of your screen. Not only does it give you one location from which to open or even uninstall all motherboard-related pieces of software, but it also feature a Live Update feature that lets you know if the there's a new version of the software available.

ASRock A-Tuning​

For those users who like to tweak their systems, the most important and all-encompassing piece of software in ASRock's broad range of programs is the A-Tuning software suite. This system management utility is the hub from which you can select performance or energy-saving modes, enable automatic overclocking of the CPU and/or GPU, allow users to manually adjust frequency and multiplier settings, monitor system clock speeds/temperatures/voltages and fan rotation speeds. You can also automatically set fan speeds based on temperatures. Lastly, there is a feature that allows users to contact tech support from within the app.

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The Operation Mode tab is where you can select between three modes that balance performance and power consumption. While the Normal and Power Saving modes are fairly self-evident, the Performance Mode is the most interesting since it features an Advanced sub-menu with a fair bit of performance settings. In this menu, you can enable automatic overclocking of the CPU and/or GPU via presets. This is also where you will find the Auto Tuning feature, which is a semi-intelligent approach to automatic overclocking. There aren't really any available options, you just need to click on the Start button and it starts the overclocking process at 3.4Ghz before slowly increasing to the next stage.

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The OC Tweaker tab is where you can manually adjust the BCLK frequency, as well as the CPU and cache multipliers. There is also an impressive eleven adjustable system voltages. You can adjust all these settings on-the-fly without having to reboot the system.

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The System Info tab is where you will find the Hardware Monitor, which displays some basic system frequencies, system temperatures and fan speeds, as well as a bunch of system voltages. The System Browser button pops up a full diagram on the motherboard, and if you drag your cursor across the various parts of motherboard, some additional information about the ports or the installed components is listed.

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The Fan-Tastic Tuning tab is, as you might expect, where you can fully manage and optimize your CPU and system fans. While there are no preset options, you can also manually adjust the fan speed curve to your preferences, or simply use the fully automated Fan Test feature.

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The Tech Service tab allows users to contact tech support from directly within the app, which is a really nice feature. No more having to visit the website and find the appropriate page. The Settings tab just gives you the option to have the app load whenever Windows loads.

ASRock OC DNA

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The OC DNA utility allows you to save your overclocking settings as a profile, and then share that profile with your friends, which they can then load on their own systems.

ASRock XFast LAN

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The XFast LAN utility is designed to help reduce latency courtesy of cFosSpeed traffic-shapping technology. It provides users with a lot of control and monitoring capabilities over every application that is accessing the network. It displays CPU usage, NPU usage, ICMP and UDP average ping, and the network utilization of every system process and program. This tool also allows you give priority to certain applications, and throttle or block others to free network resources for other applications. It is your one-stop tool for monitoring and controlling all network traffic, and it even comes with a little widget for real-time bandwidth information.

There is a ton of other applications available for download in the ASRock APP Shop utility, but obviously we can't test them all. Some are quite interesting though, like the ability to improve the charging rate of the USB ports, change the SATA controller mode, monitor storage device health, and more.

 

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Test Setups & Methodology

Test Setups & Methodology

For this review, we are going to be testing the performance of the Z170 Extreme4+ in five configurations: default settings @ DDR4-2133, default setting @ DDR4-3600, automatic overclock settings, and manual overclock settings. The components and software are the same across all five configurations, and aside from manually selecting the frequencies, timings, and voltages in the manual overclock configuration, every option in the BIOS was at its default setting.

Intel Core i7 LGA1151 DDR4 Test Setup​

For all of the benchmarks, appropriate lengths are taken to ensure an equal comparison through methodical setup, installation, and testing. The following outlines our testing methodology:

A) Windows is installed using a full format.

B) Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed.

C)To ensure consistent results, a few tweaks are applied to Windows 7 and the NVIDIA control panel:

• UAC – Disabled
• Indexing – Disabled
• Superfetch – Disabled
• System Protection/Restore – Disabled
• Problem & Error Reporting – Disabled
• Remote Desktop/Assistance - Disabled
• Windows Security Center Alerts – Disabled
• Windows Defender – Disabled
• Screensaver – Disabled
• Power Plan – High Performance
• V-Sync – Off

D) All available Windows updates are then installed.

E) All programs are installed and then updated, followed by a defragment.

F) Benchmarks are each run three to eight times, and unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged.


Here is a full list of the applications that we utilized in our benchmarking suite:

• 3DMark Vantage Professional Edition v1.1.3
• 3DMark11 Professional Edition v1.0.132.0
• 3DMark 2013 Professional Edition v1.5.915
• AIDA64 Extreme Edition v5.50.3600
• Cinebench R15 64-bit
• FAHBench 1.2.0
• Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Benchmark
• Grand Theft Auto V
• HEVC Decode Benchmark (Cobra) v1.61
• LuxMark v3.0
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• PCMark 8
• SuperPi Mod v1.9 WP
• Sisoft Sandra 2015.SP3 20.28
• Valve Particle Simulation Benchmark v1.0.0.0
• WinRAR x64 5.30 beta 6
• wPRIME version v2.10
• X3: Terran Conflict Demo v1.0

That is about all you need to know methodology wise, so let's get to the good stuff!