ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 Review

After looking at a fair selection of Z77-based motherboards, you come to the conclusion pretty quickly that performance curves will be relatively flat between motherboards. That being said, you have to then focus on what brings value to the equation with the feature set. This is where most boards differ from each other. ASRock's Z77 Extreme 4 is part of the Extreme series that begins with the Extreme 3 and is now populated up to version 11. Each model moves up the ladder, including additional features and capabilities, along with a higher price point. The Z77 Extreme 4 includes the company's 555 XFast feature set that allows for performance of up to 5x over competing designs. Add in excellent graphics support with up to 4-way solutions from AMD and NVIDIA with the use of dual-GPU cards or 2-way SLI and CrossFireX with two single GPU cards, and you get a pretty potent little beast. The rest of the feature set includes some pretty unique items, such as the Dehumidifier function, non K-SKU CPU overclocking, and a solid built philosophy using Gold-covered Japanese-made capacitors and an all-digital 8+4 power circuit. Pricing is reasonable at around the $134 mark, which puts the Z77 Extreme 4 at the budget end of the spectrum for a Z77-based motherboard. Having seen what some of the competition is bringing to the table, let's look at ASRock's' Z77 Extreme 4 to see if it's ready to eat with the big boys or slink over to the kiddie table.