Introduction

I have had a couple of overclocking-focused Intel Z77 boards in the past little while with MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte all showing recent releases based on the Intel Z77 Express. It has been interesting to see the differences between them all; differences so noticeable that each board really provided a unique experience. I was settling in with seeing a few of these products early when I heard that there might be more coming, since the latest boards I have looked at have come very affordably priced indeed. It has been quite a change in the market as of late with prices plummeting on boards, chips, memory, and SSDs alike, much in preparation for the coming launch of Windows8. Windows8 is quite the divergence itself, booting and shutting down in mere seconds, but there might also be some hardware requirements to truly take advantage of all that programming.

Since June of this year, I have had the pleasure of covering quite a few ASRock products, and ASRock is a company that also offers some programming with its hardware with their "XFast 555 Technology" that includes XFast Ram, XFast Lan, and XFast USB. It might, at first, seem as though these feature are gimmicky marketing tools, but each XFast feature really does offer a decent performance improvement. Together they do offer something that no other board maker does right now, although you could find similar stuff for a bit of extra money. If you look at any of ASRock's YouTube marketing videos, they do seem to be amazed by what they have accomplished, especially in such a short period of time. ASRock has only become a major force in the marketplace recently, and they aren't done showing us what they can do.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from ASRock and there was, within seconds, also an unexpected package at my doorstep.

The email said:

"You should have received Asrock Z77-OC Formula. If you need more information about this motherboard, please visit the website below. Any comment, please let me know.

www.asrock.com/microsite/OCFormula/index.html

Best Regards!


ASRock."

Now, usually, you know, manufacturer's will send me stuff, but they will also drop me an e-mail first to let me know it's on its way, not that I've already got it :p. XFast indeed! When I opened the box, I found this inside:

Specifications

Intel Z77 Express Chipset

Beginning with board products, Intel launched their latest desktop platform in the first half of April 2012. The Intel Z77 Express platform is an incremental upgrade from previous platforms: it adds additional features and provides a wider level of functionality with full support for the 3rd Generation Core i5/i7 family of CPUs commonly called Ivy Bridge in enthusiast circles.


The Ivy Bridge CPUs are made using a new 28nm process technology that lowers power consumption and gives a bit more performance-per-clock over previous Intel 2nd Generation Core i5/i7 products. Also changed is the onboard GPU that's part of the Ivy Bridge silicon, now taking up more of that slice of silicon that sits under the integrated heatspreader.


The integrated PCIe bus on the CPU has also been upgraded. It can be split differently from SandyBridge CPUs with IvyBridge natively supporting three devices over a single bus with 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 connectivity, compared to the two devices and PCIe 2.0 connectivity that are found inside Sandy Bridge products. Taking advantage of that added PCIe functionality requires a motherboard design change from previous Sandybridge-supporting motherboards. Backwards and forwards component compatibility for both SandyBridge and IvyBridge platform products, including CPUs and chipsets, is still possible with updated firmware for older Socket 1155 board products. Using a new IvyBridge CPU with an older P67 Express or Z68 Express motherboard may limit PCIe functionality. PCIe functionality would, naturally, with SandyBridge only supporting two devices, be limited. The tertiary slot provided on some Z77 Express boards will not work with some products when a SandyBridge CPU is installed.

The ASRock Z77 OC Formula is, like its name states, very much an overclocking-oriented product. In just the last week or so ASRock has even laid claim to having the top Ivybridge CPU clock record done on this board. However, overclocking isn't all this board can do:

Packaging

Yes, that seriously was what I found when I opened the shipping container. The box is elegant, with nothing but a Lamborghini-board, a couple of technology logos, and the board's name written in gold on the front. Flipping the box over, I found what looks like a dashboard with a big spedometer in the middle denoting 7 GHz. Pretty ominous number, that.


There's a flap on the front that lifts up, inside of which we find small descriptions of all the usual board features with hardware-based stuff up top and more software-oriented features listed below. Like the rest of the box, this is not a traditional features-layout.


I flipped open the box lid to find the ASRock Z77 OC Formula board staring back at me, nestled within the ASRock cushion of foam, something that no other boardmaker does with board wrappings, and a packaging choice I personally really like. The foam is perfectly fitted to the board in such a way that even the middle piece somehow sits snug, providing nearly an inch of foam on all sides of the board. Pulling the foam-wrapped board out, I found the goodie-box below, inside of which I found papers on one side and a felt-looking bag on the other side. A felt bag?