ASRock Introduces the Z97 Anniversary and Z97M Anniversary Motherboards

[Cristian_25H]

Following the official announcement of Intel Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU at COMPUTEX 2014, today ASRock Inc. unveils Z97 Anniversary (ATX) and Z97M Anniversary (Micro ATX) correspondingly. ASRock also provides "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology along with these two motherboards for the easiest overclocking ever, as users are able to experience better computing performance with only few keystrokes!

Pentium Anniversary Boost
Unlike other manufacturers that only update their BIOS for the new CPU, ASRock makes further efforts and offers "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology exclusively. With Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU installed on Z97 Anniversary or Z97M Anniversary motherboard, turn on your PC and press "P" to enter the selection page and choose the CPU frequency you would like to apply. "Pentium Anniversary Boost" will then automatically overclock the relative components and boost the CPU frequency from 3.2 GHz to a maximum of 4.2 GHz! How easy CPU overclocking can be? Now all it takes are just few keystrokes to boost your Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU!





Z97 Anniversary & Z97M Anniversary, Decent Spec with High-end Audio Capacitors
In addition to "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology, Z97 Anniversary is built with ASRock "Super Alloy" technology for more stabilities and reliabilities as well. Moreover, it packs not only Intel Gigabit LAN but also ELNA Audio Caps that offers more purified audio performance. On the other hand, Z97M Anniversary has got ELNA Audio Caps and a combo of D-Sub, DVI-D, and HDMI that supports Triple Monitor.

Powerful MB, Powerful OC
Powered by ASRock Z97 Anniversary and Z97M Anniversary motherboards, Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU can be overclocked to a large extent. At 4.5 GHz, the CPU frequency and Sandra 2014 performance are both boosted by more than 40%! When we push it to 4.8 GHz, the CPU frequency is even overclocked by 50%!



Whether you are an experienced overclocker or just a beginner of overclocking, ASRock Z97 Anniversary and Z97M Anniversary with "Pentium Anniversary Boost" technology are the best motherboards for your Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU!

Please watch the introduction video to learn more about Z97 Anniversary & Z97M Anniversary:

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[lolsop]

LOL.. try to let us believe they can do 4.8Ghz on 4 phase stable??? But the text only seem to do 4.2Gh stable.

Already got the Pentium Aniversary Edition from a friend and tested different motherboards. These asrock models are only 3 to 4 phase and I found out by testing these cannot run stable at 4.5 or near 4.8 like they try to let us believe. Their BIOS also only shows auto overclocking to 4.2GHz (afraid of damage?!). Same with the Asus Z97K (4p) which I tested. You need about 1.275 - 1.3v to do 4.5GHz stable and 1.3 to 1.35v to do 4.7Ghz stable, seems 4 phase is not enough, guess due to heavy voltage drops.

The cheapest 6 phase model I tested is the MSI Z97-G43 which did what I wanted to . Auto OC Genie it is doing 4.5Ghz stable on Intel stock cooling and with some manual tuning I can get to 4.7 rock stable (w/ noctua nh-d14). Still have 4 other boards to test... will update later. My watercooling is dead so waiting for new one, hope to get even higher

One thing is for sure, the Celeron 300A is back! Hail to the new king.

 

[Hood]

LOL.. try to let us believe they can do 4.8Ghz on 4 phase stable??? But the text only seem to do 4.2Gh stable.

Already got the Pentium Aniversary Edition from a friend and tested different motherboards. These asrock models are only 3 to 4 phase and I found out by testing these cannot run stable at 4.5 or near 4.8 like they try to let us believe. Their BIOS also only shows auto overclocking to 4.2GHz (afraid of damage?!). Same with the Asus Z97K (4p) which I tested. You need about 1.275 - 1.3v to do 4.5GHz stable and 1.3 to 1.35v to do 4.7Ghz stable, seems 4 phase is not enough, guess due to heavy voltage drops.

The cheapest 6 phase model I tested is the MSI Z97-G43 which did what I wanted to . Auto OC Genie it is doing 4.5Ghz stable on Intel stock cooling and with some manual tuning I can get to 4.7 rock stable (w/ noctua nh-d14). Still have 4 other boards to test... will update later. My watercooling is dead so waiting for new one, hope to get even higher

One thing is for sure, the Celeron 300A is back! Hail to the new king.

I was afraid of this when I ordered my G3258, that it would need an expensive board to overclock properly, and your tests seem to bear this out. Looks like a Z97-A ($145) would be the minimum Asus board that will overclock properly (8 phases), or the Z97-I Plus (6 phase mini-ITX, $160). I already have a Z87-K system, so I'll probably see how far I can go with that and a Hyper 212 Evo. As for these Asrock boards, they're just cheap Z97 boards with a new name and a marketing campaign.

 

[MikeMurphy]

These boards are a perfect blend of cost and overclocking features. I'd be happy running the G3258 at 4.0ghz or 4.2ghz. I'd rather not spend an extra $40 on 300 or 400mhz that in the grand scheme of things won't make any difference.

Some of us also enjoy undervolting and overclocking to find the perfect blend of power and performance. This is perfect for this.

The tragedy is the absence of a mini ITX form factor for around $100.

 

[Steven B]

These boards are a perfect blend of cost and overclocking features. I'd be happy running the G3258 at 4.0ghz or 4.2ghz. I'd rather not spend an extra $40 on 300 or 400mhz that in the grand scheme of things won't make any difference.

Some of us also enjoy undervolting and overclocking to find the perfect blend of power and performance. This is perfect for this.

The tragedy is the absence of a mini ITX form factor for around $100.

honestly, undervolting and finding right performance is at what intel dictates as "Turbo"

haha j/k but no .

 

[BenchmarkBOT]

IMHO, for overclocking the CPU part (not much consideration on others like memory and BCLK) to 4.2Ghz with small voltage increase, I guess any motherboard, even with 4-phase VRM (and assuming each FET on each phase is rated 30A each), should handle these G3258 just fine. No need special motherboard for that.

The external VRM load is pretty small now since the introduction of the FiVR on Haswell Last year, and let's not forget that these G3258 only have 2 Core and no hyperthreading.