Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac

The latest Z97 mITX effort from Asrock, it's back in Sapphire black.

Official Page

Z97E-ITX/ac

Just how much can one squeeze into a little mITX mobo? Long crazy list coming right up...

• ASRock Super Alloy

• - Premium 60A CPU Choke

• - Premium Memory Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)

• - Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)

• - NexFET™ MOSFET

• - Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)

• - Sapphire Black PCB 

• Supports 5th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1150) 

• Supports New 4th and 4th Generation Intel® Xeon®/Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors (Socket 1150) 

• Digi Power 

• Supports Dual Channel DDR3 3200+(OC), 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots 

• 1 PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 mini-PCIe for WiFi + BT Module, 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1) 

• VGA Output/Input Options: DVI-I, HDMI, HDMI-In, DisplayPort 

• 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1150 Audio Codec), Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps, Supports DTS Connect 

• TI® NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier 

• Intel® Gigabit LAN 

• 1 SATA Express, 6 SATA3, 1 M.2 (Gen2 x2/SATA), 6 USB 3.0 (2 Front, 4 Rear), 6 USB 2.0 (4 Front, 2 Rear) 

• WLAN: 1 x 2T2R Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi + BT v4.0 Module, 1 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5 GHz Antenna 

• Supports ASRock Full Spike Protection, ASRock Cloud, APP Shop, A-Tuning, Full HD UEFI

Packaging 

Bundle

The Mobo

Note the proper CMOS battery holder (beware brands which use much costlier replacements with PITA wire connectors*) and following features

• Sapphire Black PCB
• DisplayPort 1.2 supporting max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096x2304) @ 24Hz or 4K x 2K (3840x2160) @ 60Hz
• Dual-Stack MOSFET for CPU Power 
• NexFET MOSFET for Memory Power
• Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps

*  CR2032 battery with connector - forum discussion

More Angles

NB: those who want the original untouched full size jpeg of this last photo to read off chip markings, , just PM me :)

CPU Socket

Heatsinks

Storage

Really amazing for a compact mobo

•  6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10, Intel® Rapid Storage Technology 13 and Intel® Smart Response Technology), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug

• 1 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s Connector (shared with SATA3_4, SATA3_5 and M.2 Socket)*

• 1 x M.2_SSD (NGFF) Socket 3, supports M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x2 (10 Gb/s)

Nichicon Fine Gold Audio Caps

Made In Japan

UEFI Screenshot Samples

Test Rig Setup

★ Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac | i5-4670K@4.5GHz | NiCu HK 3.0-GTX360 | AMD R9 290 | Thermaltake Smart SE 630W ★

Ambient local air non-a/c

Vcore/uncore setting done in Adaptive Mode at 1.183V

RAM sticks used are 2 x 4GB ValueRAM KVR1333@1866@1.525V. These sticks happen to have a nice matching blue PCB rather congruous with the Asrock blue heatsinks as can be seen here.

The tiny Z97E-ITX/ac mobo is simply dwarfed by the AMD R290 video card and 120mm fan. The modded Noctua backplate works great as can be seen here doing its job with the open test rig custom water setup.

32M HyperPi

xvid4PSP

AIDA64

Cinebench 15

HWBot Prime

WinRAR

7Zip

Initial Impressions

• Feature packed for a compact mobo, fantastic!
• Good onboard components
• Loads of storage options
• Back of mobo is designed clear enough to allow backplates for custom cooling (hooray!)
• Capable of competing neck to neck with the full ATX siblings in performance - all round great overclocks with processor and RAM!

Can be improved...

• Missed opportunity to include their own unique Ultra M.2 Gen3 x4 feature instead of the regular Z97 Gen2 x2 slot (since mITX does neither CFX nor SLI)
• Colour of heatsinks subjectively less attractive than previous Z87 model

Asrock Z97 Extreme6

The Extreme6 model has long represented the upper echelons of the Asrock Extreme Series which is now pushed out in pure flat black PCB aka Sapphire Black PCB as termed by Asrock. Yes, you can finally say goodbye to the chocolate brown PCB colour of the past.

In addition, Asrock have creatively engineered their Z97 Series with a most unique x4 M.2 feature (aka Ultra M.2, PCIe Gen3 x4) which is more than double the bus width of the usual x2 M.2  path from all other Z97 makers. As a result of the Ultra M.2 treatment, it nets a bandwidth boost of up to an impressive looking 32Gb/s compared to 10Gb/s (other Z97 plain reference Gen 2.0 x2 M.2) and 6Gb/s (earlier PCIe Gen 2.0 x1 M.2)

Asrock is clearly proud of their Z97 Series Ultra M.2 accomplishment as evidently seen in their promotion blurbs...

And check out the crazy load of new Asrock LGA1150 models just listed...

Official Page

Asrock Z97  Extreme6

The Z97 Extreme6 other highlights are as follows

• ASRock Super Alloy
• - XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
• - Premium Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)
• - Dual-Stack MOSFET (DSM)
• - NexFET™ MOSFET
• - 12K Platinum Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
• - Sapphire Black PCB
• ASRock Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4)
• ASRock HDD Saver Technology
• ASRock Full Spike Protection
• ASRock Cloud
• ASRock APP Shop

Unboxing

The Asrock Z97 Extreme6 comes in a large attractive box with a front black background and a most colourful back cover listing its features.

Bundle

Top View

Note the flat black PCB

Back View

Note the use of proper anchoring screws ie. no push pins for all heatsinks and the DisplayPort 1.2, dual GLAN ports at the I/O area

Heatsinks

All round use of hefty hunks of metal heatsinks (in electric blue shades, no less) surrounding the premium alloy chokes

Onboard Power

Time to play Flip The Sink and test the macro capability of your eyes with watermarked lossy resized jpeg images... lol

• Dual-Stack MOSFET for CPU Power 

• NexFET MOSFET for Memory Power

• Nichicon 12K Platinum Caps 

NB: those who want the original untouched full size jpeg of these photos to read off chip markings, , just PM me :)

CPU Socket

Generously embellished with capacitors

Purity Sound 2

Featuring audio isolation; Realtek ALC1150, Nichicon Gold caps and TI® NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier (Supports up to 600 ohm headsets)

Busy Corner

Beautiful onboard Power & Reset buttons, debug LED, dual BIOS chips/switch, USB3 port, system headers, HDD Saver Connector along with a generous bucketload of SATA3/SATA Express ports... all close neighbours in the same little Kowloon corner, phew!

Storage

Featuring Asrock's new Ultra M.2 and HDD Saver Technology features

SATA3, SATA Express & USB3 Ports
remember the eSATA port located at the back panel in earlier shots

M.2,  Ultra M.2
and with the mini-PCIe slot too!

Here's giving credit to Anandtech which did a nicely detailed investigation into the workings of the Ultra M.2 feature - check out the enlightening findings & implications here
Anandtech - Ultra M.2 x4 Tested With XP941

UEFI Screenshot Samples

The programmed overclocked profiles are a good starting point to begin with eg. Turbo 4.4GHz is chosen here as can be seen in the second screenshot.

Test Rig Setup

★ Asrock Z97 Extreme6 | i5-4670K@4.5GHz | NiCu HK 3.0-GTX360 | AMD R9 290 | Thermaltake Smart SE 630W ★

Vcore/uncore setting done in Adaptive Mode at 1.183V,  RAM sticks used are 2 x 4GB ValueRAM KVR1333@1866@1.55V. These sticks happen to have a nice matching blue PCB rather congruous with the Asrock blue heatsinks as can be seen here.

HyperPi 32M

xvid4PSP

WinRAR

7Zip

Cinebench 15

AIDA64

HWBot Prime

Initial Impressions

• Features the very innovative Ultra M.2 slot, in addition to the regular M.2 slot ie. total of two M.2 slots
• Premium true black PCB, finally
• Hefty oversized heatsinks
• Innovative HDD Saver feature
• Usual Asrock ease of overclocking for all aspects of K processors viz. CPU, Uncore, iGPU as well as for budget RAM
• Fantastic cost performance - given the very rich set of hardware and overclocking features

Can be improved...

• Colour of heatsinks subjectively less attractive than previous Z87 model
• Ultra M.2 SSD availability still uncommon at present, admittedly a non-Asrock issue

...