ASRock Extreme4 P67 and Fatal1ty Professional P67 vs X58 with Core i7-950 Review

Over the past couple of years one motherboard manufacturer has impressed us more than any other. That manufacturer is ASRock who have gone from a brand with an average reputation to one of the leading players in the motherboard marketplace. Initially they focused on value however as their resources have increased so has the quality of the products they produce and now, with each new model, they add additional features which make them stand out from many of the other major manufacturers.

Today we have two of ASRock's P67 based boards on our test bench and will be putting them through a selection of real world and synthetic tests. To keep things interesting for those who have already seen a number of P67/Sandy Bridge articles, in this review we will put the ASRock systems up against the similarly priced X58 / Core i7-950 combination to see if these new products offer better performance and value for consumers than Intel's now ageing high end platform.

ASRock P67 Extreme4

Recently we have seen a number of holographic boxes from ASRock with loads of feature logo's and some colourful branding. The P67 Extreme4 could signal a move away from that though as its box, at least on the front, is just about as plain as any we have seen to date. It looks good though and the positive first impression continues inside where we find a thorough bundle of components.

As well as the thorough documentation and software Disc ASRock provide a SLI bridge, drive cables, IO shield and a USB bracket. This USB bracket can be installed in the front panel of a case or in the PCIe slot location at the back, adding two extra USB 3.0 ports to the system.

The board itself looks similar in many ways to other recent ASRock products with a black/brown ATX PCB and white/blue components. Two large aluminium heatsinks cool some of the power circuitry around the socket 1155 CPU location and these are joined by a copper heatpipe. A further, passive, heatsink sits on the Southbridge at the bottom right of the board.

As this is a P67 board it features support for all socket 1155 CPUs, including the high end i7-2600K. Throughout the PCB we have Japanese made polymer capacitors and ASRock use a V8+2 power phase design and have conveniently added additional holes in the PCB to enable support of socket 775 coolers for those who are upgrading and don't want to change cooler.

Down at the bottom left of the board we find the add-in card slots and these run from PCIe1x through PCIe x16, PCIe x1, PCI, PCIe x8, PCI, PCIe x4. These sit above our USB headers and to the right of the slots is a two character LED display which can assist us with fault finding should a problem develop.

Over at the right side of the board are power/reset buttons and the BIOS chip. These sit beside the SATA ports which are split into four SATA 3GB/s and four SATA 6GB/s, two of the higher speed SATA ports run through the Marvell 9120 controller and to ensure all of our connectivity runs at optimum speed ASRock have added ASMedia and PLX PCIe bridge/controllers to the board, adding additional lanes and functionality to maximise performance. RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 are supported by the Intel based ports.

Further up the board we find four dual channel memory slots which are capable of holding 32GB of memory with official support hitting 2133MHz. These slots sit alongside a standard 24-pin power connector and the board also features an 8-pin socket and Molex for high performance multi-GPU SLI/CrossFire configurations.

Round on the back panel we find two PS/2 sockets which sit alongside the clear CMOS button. Additional connectivity comes in the form of optical/coaxial audio, 6x USB 2.0, Realtek 8111E GB LAN, firewire, eSATA and 3.5mm audio in/out which uses the Realtek ALC892 chipset. Also present on the board are two USB 3.0 ports which use the Etron EJ168A chipset, the same controller used for our front panel USB connectors.

Fatal1ty P67 Professional Series Motherboard

As with the Extreme4 ASRock have chosen not to go for their traditional holographic packaging on the Fatal1ty P67 motherboard. Instead we get a picture of Jonathan Wendel and some basic product information on the front. Inside the bundle is similar to the Extreme4 version, including the front panel USB bracket and really the only significant change is the branding used on items like the IDE drive cable.

ASRock's Fatal1ty P67 board immediately looks different to their standard models thanks to the red and black colour scheme used across the product. Interestingly this evokes a similar feeling to the ASUS Republic of Gamers range, rather than the Fatal1ty brand. Little touches such as the PCIe and memory clips used, which match ASUS parts, only serve to add to this. Particular highlights of this new look and feel are the gold coloured polymer capacitors and the large heatsink which runs from above the socket 1155 CPU, across the V16+2 phase power circuitry down to the Southbridge.

In terms of add-in card slots we have PCIe x1, PCIe x16, PCI, PCI x1, PCIe x8, PCI and PCIe x4 which sit above the USB headers. Over at the right side are our SATA ports. The four black sockets are Intel based SATA 3GB/s spec. Beside these are two Intel 6GB/s capable connectors and the remaining four red sockets are SATA 6GB/s powered by the Marvell 9120 chipset. Intel's connectors are capable of RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 operation.

Also in this area are power and reset buttons with a two character LED which assists in fault resolution.

As with all P67 based boards the Fatal1ty uses a four slot dual channel layout with DDR3-2133 supported and the maximum capacity for this board is 32GB. The standard 24/8 power socket layout is present and somewhat surprisingly there is an IDE socket on this board.

At the back panel we find PS/2 ports, clear CMOS button, 3.5mm/optical/coaxial connectors for the Realtek 892 7.1 audio (with THX TruStudio Pro) and four USB 2.0 ports. Also located here are four USB 3.0 ports (Etron), eSATA, Firewire, and dual GB LAN (Realtek 8111E with teaming).

Conclusion

Starting the conclusion with the P67 Extreme4 we have a board where we continue to see the evolution of ASRock from their budget and midrange roots to a strong player in the motherboard market. This latest model has a good level of build quality, using Japanese capacitors and mature components such as Marvells 912x SATA 6GB/s controller. It is also a well-designed board which has clearly been thought through when in the development stage. This is evident in decisions such as leaving an extra gap between PCIe slots to allow for good airflow on high end multi-GPU systems. Then of course there is plenty of future proof connectivity in the form of four USB 3.0 ports, two of which can be installed on the front panel and four SATA 6GB/s connectors.

This high level of design and build quality is not the best aspect of the board though. That comes in the form of its performance and value ratio. Looking first at the performance we have a board which is one of the fastest P67s available and when paired with an i7-2600 series CPU it is able to outperform the X58/i7-950 combination, by a significant margin, in most of our tests. It was also nice to see XFast making a positive impact on USB speeds and that SLI performance was so good.

Value, that is the real star though as this board retails for £115/$150 which makes it an essential purchase for those looking to build a high performance, future proof system on a limited budget.

Moving to the Fatal1ty board we find a number of the same great features that were present on the Extreme4. These include the impressive XFast USB technology, UEFI BIOS with GUI, extra spacing between PCIe slots and on-board LED. ASRock add some nice twists such as gold capacitors and nicer PCIe and memory clips in addition to extra SATA 6GB/s ports and two additional USB 3.0 connectors however we do have to question the need for Fatal1ty branding as none of these are new ideas.

Essentially there really is nothing on this board that both worthwhile and unique to Fatal1ty and there are a number of changes which would have improved it as a product. Firstly ASRock could have bundled a Killer NIC, maybe even a Fatal1ty X-Fi to provide true hardware LAN/audio which increases gaming performance/quality. They could and should have removed IDE and floppy connectors, maybe one of the PS/2 ports from the board entirely. Then, to be completely honest, the Fatal1ty mouse port idea should have been binned at an early stage. Any gaming mouse worth using already offers multiple polling rates, adding the same setting to the motherboard is marketing gone mad. We also need to point out that having a face stare out at us from the BIOS screen, especially with a Red/Black colour scheme is distracting and harder to use than a plain background.

In addition to this, we have to wonder who the Fatal1ty brand is meant to appeal to. There is certainly a small audience amongst eSports fans but ask many of that audience what they feel about Fatal1ty and the response is less than positive. For the general public, features and value are a selling point. For enthusiasts, nothing about the Fatal1ty brand stands out against competing products aimed at that crowd.

So, that said... we do need to note that we have nothing against the concept of ASRock using external consultants for their boards. We are all for it, provided they add value for the consumer. We are also pleased to say that the Fatal1ty board performs just as well as the P67 Extreme4. Therefore it could be the ideal board for those who want the same high level of performance as the Extreme4 with a few extra USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s ports.

Summary
The P67 Extreme4 and Fatal1ty Pro are two very impressive boards from ASRock however the former has the edge thanks to its exceptional price to performance ratio and no-nonsense design.

ASRock P67 Extreme4 Motherboard