Please critique my build Kaby Lake ~1600$ build.

With regards to the power delivery system, you can count the number of the square things (called a choke) in the immediate vicinity of the CPU socket to get the number of power phase available on the board. As for the more detail however:



You can count on the Extreme4 12 power phase, but ASROCK only advertise it as 10 phase board; tear down img show that it's 6+4 with 6 for the CPU and 4 for the iGPU. The extra 2 phase nearby is wired for something else.

The -A is advertised by ASUS as 8 phase, but you can count 10 of them on the board and without a tear-down, there's no way to know for sure the actual CPU/iGPU distribution is.

So, in all likelihood, between the Extreme4 and the -A, they should have pretty similar overclocking capabilities (and are much better equip for that than the -P), and it'd come down to the extra features or the little fine details like for example:

The Extreme4 has two BIOS chips while the -A has a power on button and one more fan header.

The Extreme4 has an M2 Key E for M2 Wifi card (that isn't included), the -A has an extra Fan extension header (that you can purchase to connect more fans for the MB, so that it can control them automatically, or with a fan-curve) and it also support customized 3D printing cover plate.

In addition to the HDMI and DVI, the -A has a DisplayPort port for the iGPU while the Extreme4 has a VGA port. Which may matter in the event that you need to diagnose to find-out which component has failed you. The Extreme4 has one less PCIe x1 slot, but the extra slot on the -A is right next to the first PCIe x16 where your graphic card should reside and therefore blocking that slot anyway.

The Extreme4 come with an ASMedia chip to provide 2 more SATA ports, but it's because using its M2 port/ports will disable 2/4 of the SATA ports controlled by the Z270 chipset. While the -A would only disable up to 3 SATA ports when a SATA M2 and a PCIe x4 M2 device is in use.;

i.e. the storage device configuration for the Extreme4 could be either: eight SATA devices, or one M2 device + 6 SATA devices or two M2 devices + 4 SATA devices;
while the -A would be six SATA devices, or one M2 PCIe x4 + 6 SATA devices, or two M2 PCIe x4 devices + 4 SATA devices or one M2 PCIe x4 device + one M2 SATA device + 3 SATA devices and a specific configuration M2 PCIex4 on slot M2_1 + M2 SATA on slot M2_2 and you retain all six SATA ports for SATA devices.

Otherwise, they both have the same LAN, the same audio chip, the exact same number and type of USB ports at the back, etc...

And finally, pricing, which the Extreme4 is slightly cheaper than the -A.


In term of the case and its airflow, you should be putting that extra fan to the front intake instead of exhaust. Because your config would actually end-up become one 140mm intake + two 140mm exhaust; while the fan on the PSU would be doing its own thing, pulling air into the PSU container and out the exhaust grille at the back (assuming the PSU fan facing downward).