ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 Motherboard - Unboxing

Introduction

It has been a year since Intel released their latest and greatest platform for mainstream desktop PCs. The 100-series platform was part of the 6th generation processor launch. Skylake brought with it a range of new feature support and performance updates. The 100-series products were the first to utilize features such as DDR4, M.2, PCI-e 3.0 SSDs and more.

Today, Intel officially launches the 200-series platform. Designed to support 7th generation processors that are codenamed Kaby Lake, 200-series offers new features and updates in the form of Intel Optane support. I think the most important thing is that the boards themselves would be far more attractive than the processor series as they are more feature-heavy and offer plenty of reasons for consumers to upgrade.

For this review, ASRock sent us their new Z270 Extreme 4 motherboard. The Z270 Extreme 4 features a brand new design scheme and support for the latest features such as M.2, NVMe and 7th generation Intel Core CPUs. ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 aims the mainstream market with an attractive price of 149.99 US so let's find out how the board holds up in our testing.

Intel Z270 Express Chipset - The Top 200-Series PCH

The two chipsets that will be offered with the new Kaby Lake processors are Z270 and H270. Intel will be offering support for the Kaby Lake and Skylake processors on both 100-series and 200-series motherboards. This means that consumers can use their Skylake chips on a 200-series board or a Kaby Lake chip on a 100-series board.

The two new chips are marketed towards specific markets. The Z270 series is aimed at the consumer market while the H270 series is aimed at the consumer and corporate market. We will get on to the features of these chipset which is an update from the previous 100-series generation of products.

Intel Z270 and H270 PCH Features

Intel Z270 and Z170 offer the same CPU PCIe configuration support. They allow for 1 x 16, 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4 config whereas the H270 and H170 chipset offers just 1 x 16 config. The total number of independent Display Port offered by the PCH are 3 and power up to four memory DIMMs in Dual Channel mode. The Z Series offers overclocking support while the H Series is restricted from such support. All chipsets offer Intel SmartSound tech but Intel AIB partners will be offering their own custom Audio codecs to power audio.

Moving on, the new 200-series has official support for Optane technology which is not available on 100-series products. Intel Rapid Storage technology is also pushed to 15 (was 14 on 100-series). Some other features in the new chipsets include Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 support, PCIe Storage Drive support, Smart Response Technology and I/O Port flexibility.

Intel has increased the number of high-speed I/O lanes to 30 on both 200-series chipsets. The Z170 had 26 while the H170 had 22 lanes. Total USB ports have remain the same at 14 (10 USB 3.0) for Z Series and 14 (8 USB 3.0) for H Series. All boards would have 6 SATA III 6 GB/s ports. Expansion slots would be powered by 24 PCI-e lanes on Z270 and 20 PCI-e lanes on H270. This is a slight increase over 20 PCI-e lanes on Z170 and 16 on H170.

The KBL-PCH will be able to support Mansion Beach (Optane SSD PCIe/NVMe Gen3 x4), Brighton Beach (Optane SSD PCIe/NVMe Gen3 x4) and Stony Beach (Optane Memory PCIe/NVMe Gen 3 x2 (m.2)) solutions. We covered this topic in more detail over here.

Intel 200-Series PCH Specifications:

Chipset	Intel Z270	Intel H270	Intel Z170	Intel H170
SKU Focus Segment	Consumer	Consumer / Corporate	Consumer	Consumer / Corporate
CPU Support	Kaby Lake-S / Skylake-S	Kaby Lake-S / Skylake-S	Kaby Lake-S / Skylake-S	Kaby Lake-S / Skylake-S
CPI PCI-e Configuration	1 x 16 or 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4	1 x 16	1 x 16 or 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4	1 x 16
Independent DisplayPort	3	3	3	3
Memory DIMMs	4	4	4	4
Overclocking	Yes	No	Yes	No
Intel SmartSound Technology	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intel Optane Technology	Yes	Yes	No	No
Intel Rapid Storage Technology	15	15	14	14
Intel Rapid Storage Technology From PCIe Storage Drive Support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RAID 0,1,5,10	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intel Smart Response Technology	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
I/O Port Flexibility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Maximum High Speed I/O Lanes	30	30	26	22
Total USB Ports (Max USB 3.0)	14 (10)	14 (8)	14 (10)	14 (8)
Max SATA 6 Gbps Ports	6	6	6	6
Max PCI-E 3.0 Lanes	24	20	20	16
Max Intel RST for PCIe Storage Ports (x2 M.2 or x4 M.2)	3	2	3	2

Intel LGA 1151 Socket - 6th Gen and 7th Gen CPU Support

As last year, the 200-series boards feature the LGA 1151 socket. The socket is built to support both 6th gen and 7th gen processors. This allows 200-series boards to support both Skylake and Kaby Lake processors, making it easier for previous gen owners to upgrade.

The LGA 1151 socket is also featured on the 100-Series chipset motherboards and will extend support to the new Kaby Lake processors. Motherboard vendors like Gigabyte have released latest firmware for 100 series motherboards to support Kaby Lake processors. The LGA 1151 has a total of 1151 contact pins for interfacing with Skylake and Kaby Lake processors. Following are all of the Kaby Lake processors that will be available at launch for 200-series platform:

Intel 7th Generation 'Kaby Lake' Desktop Lineup

SKU Name	Cores/Threads	Core Clock	Boost Clock	L3 Cache	TDP	Socket	Price
Core i7-7700K	4/8	4.2 GHz	4.5 GHz	8 MB	91W	LGA1151	$339 US
Core i7-7700	4/8	3.6 GHz	4.2 GHz	8 MB	65W	LGA1151	$303 US
Core i7-7700T	4/8	2.9 GHz	3.8 GHz	8 MB	35W	LGA1151	$303 US
Core i5-7600K	4/4	3.8 GHz	4.2 GHz	6 MB	91W	LGA1151	$242 US
Core i5-7600	4/4	3.5 GHz	4.1 GHz	6 MB	65W	LGA1151	$213 US
Core i5-7600T	4/4	2.8 GHz	3.7 GHz	6 MB	35W	LGA1151	$213 US
Core i5-7500	4/4	3.4 GHz	3.8 GHz	6 MB	65W	LGA1151	$192 US
Core i5-7500T	4/4	2.7 GHz	3.3 GHz	6 MB	35W	LGA1151	$192 US
Core i5-7400	4/4	3.0 GHz	3.5 GHz	6 MB	65W	LGA1151	$182 US
Core i5-7400T	4/4	2.4 GHz	3.0 GHz	6 MB	35W	LGA1151	$182 US
Core i3-7350K	2/4	4.2 GHz	N/A	4 MB	60W	LGA 1151	$168 US
Core i3-7320	2/4	4.1 GHz	N/A	4 MB	TBD	LGA 1151	$149 US
Core i3-7300	2/4	4.0 GHz	N/A	4 MB	51W	LGA1151	$138 US
Core i3-7300T	2/4	3.5 GHz	N/A	4 MB	35W	LGA1151	$138 US
Core i3-7100	2/4	3.9 GHz	N/A	4 MB	51W	LGA 1151	$117 US
Core i3-7100T	2/4	3.4 GHz	N/A	4 MB	35W	LGA 1151	$117 US
Pentium G4620	2/4	3.7 GHz	N/A	3 MB	51W	LGA1151	$86 US
Pentium G4600	2/4	3.6 GHz	N/A	3 MB	51W	LGA 1151	$75 US
Pentium G4560	2/4	3.5 GHz	N/A	3MB	54W	LGA 1151	$64 US
Pentium G3950	2/2	3.0 GHz	N/A	2 MB	35W	LGA1151	$52 US
Pentium G3930	2/2	2.9 GHz	N/A	2 MB	35W	LGA1151	$42 US

Intel did one thing right with the new socket and that’s the socket positioning which allows older coolers and mounting brackets to remain compatible with the newer socket. So if you have a old LGA 1150 socket cooler that you wish to use with the new LGA 1151 socket, It could be done so, but do note that while the socket looks the same as LGA 1150 socket, the processors are incompatible due to different pin layout so you don’t want to try putting an Haswell processor into the LGA 1151 socket otherwise it would damage the pins permanently.

Cooler Compatibility With LGA 1151 Socket

While Haswell processors ship with their own boxed coolers and cooler makers providing retention brackets for LGA 1150 compatibility, it should be noted that Intel has stopped offering boxed coolers since Skylake and Kaby Lake processor generation and users have to look forward to retail coolers.

Intel does offer a separate boxed cooler but it will be a much better choice to get an AIB cooling solution since those offer better cooling performance. Older CPU coolers will remain compatible with the new socket and some manufacturers are provided updated retention brackets for the 1151 socket boards.

The Z270 Extreme 4 is part of ASRock's 200-series ATX lineup which include 7 additional motherboards. The board is aimed at the mainstream market and will be aiming a price of $149 US, just like its predecessor. It comes with a range of features which are listed below:

• Supports Intel 7th and 6th Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron Processors
• Chipset Intel Z270
• Power Phase 12 (Digi Power)
• Caps 12K Caps
• Memory 4 x DDR4 3866
• CPU Performance (10% boost compared to SKL)
• 7.1 CH ALC 1220 ( 5 + 1 Jacks), Purity Sound 4
• LAN Intel I219V GLAN
• More M.2 Slots
• Intel OptaneTM Memory Ready
• AURA RGB LED
• Onboard WiFi (with module or M.2 Key E)
• AQUANTIA 5Gb/s LAN
• D-Sub Onboard
• Outlook Design (new IO Cover, Heatsink, PCB artwork)

ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 Product Gallery:

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With AURA RGB LED

ASRock implements their latest AURA RGB LED on the Z270 Express chipset motherboards. With the ability to display over 16.8 million colors, AURA RGB LED offers users wide customization support. The boards also come with AURA RGB LED headers. Users can connect LED or RGB LED light strips and customize them as per needs.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With M.2 Key E For WiFi

ASRock provides users the option to slip inside a WiFi 802.11ac wireless card in one of the dedicated M.2 WiFi slots that is located near the I/O port. This can be used for wireless connectivity in addition to the onboard LAN port. It should be pointed that ASRock doesn't ship the WiFi card with the boards so users will have to purchase them seperately.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With Optane Memory Support

The latest Z270 motherboards are ready with Optane Memory support out of the box. Intel Optane devices will offer a significant leap in system performance and responsiveness through fast storage and memory products that will be available in 2017. The M.2 slots on the new motherboards will feature support for Optane memory and would utilize PCI-E lanes for interconnectivity.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With Dual USB 3.1

ASRock motherboards feature Dual USB 3.1 ports on the I/O port. These come in both Type-A and Type-C versions. The USB 3.1 ports can deliver link speeds of up to 10 Gbps and can support a wide range of next generation I/O devices.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With Water Pump Header

Another new feature for ASRock 200-series motherboards aiming the top spectrum of enthusiasts is dedicated water pump header. This is not only a standard CPU fan header, but also supports water pumps! This header provides a maximum of 1.5A power for supporting the most popular water pumps. User also can adjust the voltage of water pump to get higher cooling performance with lower noise.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With Purity Sound 4

ASRock has updated the 200-series boards with their fourth generation Purity Sound 4 system. Purity Sound4 is a combination of several hardware, software audio solutions. 7.1 CH HD audio with the latest Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, individual PCB layers for R/L audio channel, 120dB SNR DAC and other technologies to deliver the crispest sound effects.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With PCI-E Steel Slots

The new motherboards adopt up to three PCIe Steel Slots, which are built with more solder points on the PCB for better performance and preventing any signal interference with graphics cards. This allows the graphics cards with enhanced signals and to be well-installed in the PCIe slots. Due to increased weight of modern day cards, the PCI-e slots can bend down and eventually break. PCI-e steel slots offer higher durability with such cards.

ASRock also bundles these boards with their new SLI HB Bridge which is compatible with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 graphics cards to double the available transfer bandwidth, thus delivering rock stable game play and experiencing surround gaming in the best way.

ASRock Z270 Motherboards With New UEFI Theme and EZ Mode

ASRock has developed a fancy new UEFI theme to match your unique taste of computing. EZ mode is a dashboard which contains multiple readings of the system’s current status.

The ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 motherboard comes in the standard rectangular package with a blue and black color scheme. The box has a background made up of stars and space dust. This is a fresh new box layout by ASRock that further designates boards through letter's. The "X" in the middle stands for the Extreme series.

On the front of the board, we can see some key features for the motherboard. The Z270 Extreme 4 features the 200-series Express chipset and supports Intel's 6th / 7th generation processors. The board supports HDMI, NVIDIA SLI, AMD CrossFire, Intel 6th/7th Generation processors and Intel Optane memory.

The back of the box contains all the marketing details along with product specifications. Most of the marketing tags have already been detailed by us in the "Features" section above. As can be seen, this board is loaded in features.

Within the front cover is a cardboard box with black color. In the middle of the box is the ASRock logo. The box contains the motherboard itself along with the accessories.

The accessories for Z270 Extreme 4 are very simple. There are manuals and guide books, a driver DVD, a case badge, SATA cables, a High-Bandwidth SLI Bridge and a rear I/O panel cover plate.

The ASRock Extreme 4 is a nicely build board out of the box. It has a new color scheme and the white/black color combo looks great. The design scheme and feature set make this a very solid motherboard so let's take a detailed look at board and see how well does it stack up.

The ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 motherboard is styled in white and black.The motherboard comes in the standard ATX form factor. As you can tell, the large "X" marking that runs across the PCB is used here to denote the "Extreme" series branding. ASRock will have more Extreme series boards based on the Z270 chipset down the line.

The ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 is designed for the mainstream audience and is more than just a face life over the Z170 Extreme 4. The board packs a better overall design scheme that allows for faster connectivity, memory support and storage options.

ASRock has designed a protective cover for the motherboard that spans the entirety of the left section on the board. The PCB is of matte black color with white lines textured around the CPU socket.

The board uses the LGA 1151 socket to support Intel Core processors. The socket is compatible with both Intel 6th Gen (Skylake) and 7th Gen (Kaby Lake) processors. The socket has a protective cover out of box which can easily be removed when installing the processor.

The motherboard packs a 12 Phase Digi Power PWM supply which powers the socket. The PCB is outfitted with long lifespan, Durable Black solid state capacitors that have an endurance rating of over 12,000 hours. The powerful VRM design allows overclockers to get the most of this motherboard.

Next to the socket are four DDR4 DIMM slots which can support up to 64 GB (Dual Channel) memory. These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 3866 MHz.

The VRMs are covered by two sets of heatsinks with an aluminum shroud. The top heatsink has the Z270 logo embedded on it. Both sets  are colored black and have cuts within them to add to the aesthetics.

The top I/O cover has an Intel Gigabit Ethernet logo which makes it seem as this board is from Intel. Many old Intel boards had similar logos plastered over them. The logo is there to indicate the use of Intel's technology to power the Ethernet ports.

The ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 cover on the I/O panel looks decent. There's no cooling mechanism involved with the cover as it's just for visuals and mostly hollow from the inside. But it does add to the overall looks of the product and that's it's main purpose over here.

The CPU is supplied power through a single 8-Pin power connector. This will feed the CPU with up to 150W of power. Most Intel CPU's will be shipping with TDP's under 100W but that changes when users overclock, that changes power limit based on applied voltages and clock speeds.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x4 electrical), three PCI-Express 3.0 x1 and two Ultra M.2 slots. The board can support 3-Way multi-GPU (CrossfireX / SLI). The M.2 slots are rated to support NVMe PCI-e Gen3 x4 and Intel Optane series memory.

ASRock's Z270 Extreme 4 adopts three PCIe Steel Slots, which are built with more solder points on the PCB for better performance and preventing any signal interference with graphics cards. Allows your graphics cards with enhanced signals and to be well-installed in the PCIe slots.

There are two Ultra M.2 slots on the motherboard that operate through PCI-Express 3.0 x4 link at speeds of 32 GB/s. Both slots are ideally placed. One of them is located at the top of the first PCI-e 3.0 x16 slot while the other is situated beneath the PCH with ample room for up to 110mm M.2 drive/memory support.

The Z270 PCH is housed beneath a large heatsink with ASRock logo embedded on it. The cover has a white frame and a large metallic block that is finished in black metal.

Storage options include eight SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 6 different storage devices at a single time.

The Purity Sound4 system is located on its own isolated PCB, next to the PCI-Express expansion slots. Purity Sound4 is a combination of several hardware, software audio solutions. 7.1 CH HD audio with the latest Realtek ALC1220 audio codec, individual PCB layers for R/L audio channel, 120dB SNR DAC and other technologies to deliver the crispest sound effects.

The motherboard has two onboard USB 3.0 ports which can be used to connect to front panel. Most current cases can ideally support such ports.

The single M.2 Key-E for WiFI can be spotted hidden under the I/O cover. It's easy to reach it when installing a WiFi card so don't worry about removing the I/O cover since it's not needed.

The I/O on the motherboard includes PS/2, USB 3.1 (Type-A + Type-C), four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0, VGA, DVI, Gigabit LAN port and a 7.1 channel high quality audio jack.

ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 Photo Gallery:

For testing, we used the latest Intel Core i7-7700K processor which we I had acquired with the help of a board manufacturer. The sample is retail ready and not an "ES" chip like the ones sent out by Intel to reviewers. Intel did not contact us or provided NDA for testing of their Kaby Lake processors. Our review is based purely on fact and precision. We also updated our test rig for the 200-series platform review which is listed in the table below:

ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 Test Setup:

Processor	Intel Core i7-5960X Intel Core i7-5930K Intel Core i7-4960X Intel Core i7-3960X Intel Core i7-7700K Intel Core i7-6700K Intel Core i7-4790K Intel Core i7-4770K Intel Core i7-3770K Intel Core i7-2600K Intel Core i5-4690K Intel Core i5-3570K
Motherboard:	ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 w/Core i7-7700K Gigabyte GA-X99-UD7 w/Core i7-5960X Gigabyte GA-X99-UD7 w/Core i7-5930K ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming w/Core i7-6700K ASUS X79 Deluxe w/Core i7-4960X Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SOC Force w/Core i7-4790K Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SOC Force w/Core i5-4690K Intel DZ87KLT-75K w/ Core i7-4770K Intel DX79SI LGA 2011 w/ Core i7-3960X ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 w/ Core i7-3770K ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 w/ Core i7-3570K ASUS Sabertooth P67 w/ Core i7-2600K
Power Supply:	Corsair RXI 750W Gold Plus
Solid State Drive:	Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB)
Hard Disk:	Seagate Barracuda 1 TB 7200.12
Memory:	G.SKILL Trident Z Series 16GB (2 X 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz Kingston HyperX 2400 MHz 10th Anniversary Edition Memory Kit (DDR3)
Case:	Corsair Graphite Series 780T Full Tower
Video Cards:	MSI GeForce GTX 1070 ARMOR OC
Cooling Solutions:	Phantek PH-TC14PE Triple Fan
OS:	Windows 10 64-bit Anniversary Edition

I would personally like to thank G.Skill for arranging a stunning DDR4 memory kit for this review. They shipped us with a TridentZ series memory (Black and White Color Combination). The memory kit comprises of 2 DIMMs that operate in dual channel mode, ideal for our Z270 board tests. The memory is clocked at 3600 MHz which is supported by the new motherboards since they support XMP profiles. Clock timing is set at 16 and the capacity is 16 GB for this specific kit.

We won't be focusing on Intel's Core i7-7700K architecture in this review since it is entirely the same chip as Skylake along with minor improvements. The Skylake / Kaby Lake architecture analysis can be seen in detail here.

Intel Core i7-7700K 4.7 GHz Overclock on ASROCK Z270 Extreme 4

Our Intel Core i7-7700K isn't a decent overclocker as it requires voltage over 1.35V for a decent clock speed bump. Here, we overclocked the chip to 4.7 GHz (bus speed = 100 MHz x 47.0 Multiplier) using a voltage of 1.350V. The results were stable after testing in Prime95 as a stability run.

X264 HD Encode Benchmark

This benchmark measures the encoding performance of the processor. It offers a standardized benchmark as the clip as well as the encoder used is uniform.

Cinebench R15

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Life of Pi or Prometheus and many more.

Cinebench R11.5

Cinebench is based on Maxon’s Cinema 4D. It is used to compare graphics as well as processor performance. We are using the CPU performance numbers for our comparison.

PCMark 8

PCMark 8 is a complete PC benchmarking solution for Windows 10. It includes several tests that combine individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed for the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 8 offers complete Windows PC performance testing for home and business use.

POV-Ray

The POV-Ray package includes detailed instructions on using the ray-tracer and creating scenes. Many stunning scenes are included with POV-Ray so you can start creating images immediately when you get the package.

3DMark 11 CPU Performance

DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. It was released on December 7, 2010. 3DMark 11 includes four Graphics tests – Deep Sea 1 & 2, High Temple 1 & 2 – for measuring GPU performance, a Physics test measuring CPU performance, and a Combined test targeting CPU and GPU performance.

3DMark Vantage CPU Performance

3DMark Vantage is a DirectX 10 video card benchmark test for Windows that is designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance. While the overall benchmark is great, the utility also provides a good indication of the CPU performance.

WinRar

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format.

SuperPI

Super PI is used by many overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare “world record” pi calculation times and demonstrate their overclocking abilities. The program can also be used to test the stability of a certain overclock speed.

HandBrake

Intel Core i7-7700K – Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 is the kind of game that doesn’t need any real introduction. The latest installment of the Battlefield series is as beautiful as anyone would expect and comes right out of the gate with full DX11 and DX12. EA and DICE did a fantastic job with their AAA WW1 shooter this time by implementing some key gaming technologies. We tested the game at 1440P using Ultra settings and DirectX 11 API.

Intel Core i7-7700K - GTA V

GTA V is one handsomely optimized title for the PC audience. It's scalable across various PC configurations and delivers an impressive frame rate. Rockstar did an amazing job with the PC build of GTA V and it comes with a large array of settings that can be configured by PC gamers. We tested the title at 1440P with everything set to Ultra and 4x MSAA.

Intel Core i7-7700K - Ashes of The Singularity

Stardock's Ashes of the Singularity RTS title is a new take on the historic genre. The game incorporates several things that many pc gamers have been curious about and anxious to try for themselves such as Explicit Multi-Adapter Support and full Asynchronous Compute under DirectX 12 API. We tested the game at 1440P with 4x MSAA on Crazy Settings under DirectX 12.

Intel Core i7-7700K - Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs 2 once again takes us on a hacking tour, but this time in the city of San Francisco. Using a very evolved version of the OPUS engine the developers should have a better grasp on things this go around than they did with Watch Dogs. The new engine incorporates several NVIDIA Gameworks technologies and is seen as one of the most graphics intensive titles to launch this year. We tested the game on a mix of Ultra and high settings at 1440P (Temporal Filtering Disabled).

Intel Core i7-7700K - Sid Meir's Civilization VI

Civilization VI is the pinnacle of the series. It's featured huge, sweeping changes, and nothing was left out. Everything has found a purpose, they all work together in tandem but also have a reason to stand alone. It uses a more fleshed out engine that now supports DirectX 12 capabilities. We tested the game with every setting maxed out (4x MSAA, 4096x4096 shadow textures) at 1440P in DirectX 12.

Intel Core i7-7700K - Rise of the Tomb Raider

The latest Rise of the Tomb Raider title  gets lots of graphical enhancements added by Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes, including hardware tessellation, increased anisotropic filtering, additional dynamic foliage, increased LOD, additional PureHair strands, sun soft shadows, and improved bokeh DOF. We tested the game at 1440P under DirectX 12 API.

The Kaby Lake architecture is meant to improve overall system power consumption and add to the efficiency. In the case of the Core i7-7700K, we are looking at refined 14nm Plus process which allows Intel to gain improved clock speeds under the same power package.

With the frequency bump, the new chips do end up with higher power consumption both in idle and load states. When overclocked, the Core i7-7700K did went past the 400W barrier due to added power and voltage. We used a Phantek’s PH-TC14PE cooler to keep the chip cooled under stock and overclocked load and the result was a significant increase in the temperatures compared to Skylake generation.

There are two parts of this review, first one is the processor and the second is the motherboard. While the review mainly focused on the motherboard, the processor is something to talk about as they are an essential part of this yearly upgrade cycle that Intel is bringing to consumers.

Intel's Core i7-7700K Is Nothing To Get Excited About

Intel Kaby Lake series brings us the 7th generation processors in the mainstream market. They feature what Intel's calls their most optimized 14nm node, 14nm+. Intel also says that these processors bring performance improvements and support for higher clock speeds. Essentially, Kaby Lake are a better tuned Skylake uArch for the mainstream community.

But Kaby Lake isn't as exciting as it sounds. With Kaby Lake being one of the worst Intel launches when it comes to NDA. Majority of the tech sites have already tested the Core i7-7700K processor. Yes, it is faster compared to Core i7-6700K. But as a result of obtaining faster clocks, it runs hotter and sips more power.

It does what Intel promised, to deliver faster performance and higher clock speeds but it breaks the efficiency rating of Core processors which although doesn't matter a whole lot to the mainstream audience but is some thing that goes opposite to the principles defined by Intel. So yeah, you get that 10% faster performance than Core i7-6700K and you also get than 7% clock speed bump. In return, you get higher temperatures that are much worse when overclocking (The Core i7-7700K can do 5 GHz with ease provided you have a beast of a cooler) and with that clock bump, you get higher power consumption.

Lastly, there's no IPC increase. Kaby Lake is the same as Skylake with higher clock speeds to simply put it. And the worse thing is that it might be so for the next 2-3 generations. Upcoming Intel Core series such as Coffee Lake (Kaby Lake Refresh) and Cannonlake will be bringing no incremental IPC improvements and will add more cores for better performance throughput. So without further to say, Intel Core i7-7700K is without a doubt, the fastest mainstream chip in the market but it has too many drawbacks in terms of power and temperatures that make Skylake still look as the better option for gamers.

Farewell 100-Series, 200-Series Boards Are The Best Option For 6th and 7th Generation Core PC Builders

The ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 features a great design that comprises of a white and black color scheme which is very popular among gamers and enthusiasts. There are a lot of good chassis options that come in white / black color schemes so this motherboard could go really well with them.

The motherboard is feature rich with tons of storage options, support for multiple high-performance graphics cards in SLI and Crossfire configurations and it also has future support for Intel Optane series memory. The key thing for this product is its price, at $150 US, the ASRock Z270 Extreme 4 is an absolute steal that allows you to built high-performance desktop PCs without spending too much on the motherboard. It supports both 6th and 7th generation processors which is a great thing and older coolers are also compatible on the latest socket.

The deign really stands out as ASRock is using alphabets on each motherboard to mark their positioning in the 200-series lineup. The Extreme series is being denoted by "X" and we can see the familiar pattern on the PCB of Z270 Extreme 4.

ASRock leaves out a single slot under the I/O cover that you can use to install a wireless WiFi module however they don't bundle it with the board. It's expected as this is board costs just $150 US so you'll have to spend a bit extra for those wireless features. Also, this motherboard does have metallic PCI-e slots but doesn't use the same feature on the memory DIMM slots which is something other manufacturers are offering.

At $150 US, these are just minor issues and the price is absolutely well worth for the ASRock Z270 Extreme 4. A solid budget motherboard offering that will help you build a great gaming desktop PC without spending a lot.

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