ASRock X79 Extreme9 Pro Reviews

For gamers and enthusiasts in particular, the Extreme9 has quite a few appealing features. The Game Blaster module, SLI capabilities, PCI-E Gen 3, 8 DIMM slots, and excellent USB transfer rates are all items which will benefit both sets of consumers. This board is as “future-proof” as it gets and today’s users will appreciate that. The layout does post some issues for open chassis triple GPU setups since the lowest placed card unfortunately overhangs the onboard power and reset buttons but if you can overlook this minor SNAFU, the Extreme9 equals some of the best out there.

If you really want a keyboard, then yes, the keyboard is great. If you really want strong battery life, then yes, this will almost certainly get you through the day. A good, reliable work-horse? Absolutely. If you primarily use your phone for work, then it's maybe hard to do better. However, if you want a device with a beautiful, eye-popping screen that's right at the cutting-edge in terms of performance and features, then no. This is a very good phone, but it feels just a bit behind the curve.

It is clear to us that ASRock is working hard to improve the quality of its products. We were glad to see the voltage regulator circuit of the X79 Extreme9 using a high-end design with SMD capacitors, and Japanese solid capacitors throughout the motherboard. The X79 Extreme9 it the most loaded socket 2011 motherboard we’ve seen to date, with five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots supporting SLI and CrossFireX, eight SATA-600 ports, two eSATA-600 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, two FireWire ports, and an add-on “Game Blaster” sound card, which provides a digital signal processor (DSP) to improve audio quality and an additional Gigabit Ethernet port. A comparable sound card retails for USD 100, providing an outstanding value to this motherboard. Keep in mind that even though this motherboard has five PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, you can only install up to three dual-slot video cards on this motherboard, and you will need a computer case with at least eight expansion slots to install the third card. If you are looking for a socket 2011 motherboard with all features money can buy, the ASRock X79 Extreme9 is a good option.

The ASRock X79 Extreme9 Intel X79 motherboard was a great board to work with! The ASRock X79 Extreme9 performed great, is an extremely easy motherboard to overclock, and has the features needed to be a solid competitor for your money. The ASRock X79 Extreme9 should be on your short list when looking for an Intel X79 LGA2011 motherboard!

ASRock's foray into the high end with their X79 Extreme9 is a case of mix and match. The hardware is almost there, breezing through my benchmarking suite without a hitch, and showcasing 12 SATA ports, upgraded audio, dual teamed NICs as well as a USB 3.0 front panel in the box. The software needs work - it's all very well getting licensed software in, but it has to integrate nicely. Manual overclocking is indicative of a higher end board - I'm tempted to push it on my water cooling system to see if it can beat my 5125 MHz record with the i7-3960X on the P9X79 Pro. The MSRP of $360 does seem a little high to me, but that all depends on what you want from an X79 motherboard.

The ASRock X79 Extreme9 is one of the toughest motherboards we have ever seen enduring our incubated Torture Testing the way it did. Now the tremendous heat build up we saw was certainly the fault of the ASRock X79 Extreme9 however. This board uses a LOT of power, more than any other LGA 2011 platform we have seen. Usually motherboard power usuages are so nominal it is not worth mentioning, but in this case it is. If you are going to be running the ASRock X79 Extreme9, you want to make sure you have a properly configured cooling system and airflow in your chassis, otherwise you could be in for a heat problem. I am still not sold on ASRock motherboards. Our experiences have been all over the board and we simply need to get some more bench time with the brand, which we are doing. While it is hard to fault the ASRock X79 Extreme9 for the SATA and SSD failures we saw after subjecting the board to the abuse, we have to remember that the board’s power consumption was the reason we saw the tremendous temperatures. That said, I have to send a virtual high five ASRock’s way on the ASRock X79 Extreme9. ASRock is certainly moving the right direction when it comes to hardware enthusiast motherboards. Surely though ASRock needs to focus more on quality assurance on its SMT line, as user reports of DOA $345 motherboards are not hard to find.