The least-expensive of today’s contenders, ASRock leans exclusively on chipset features to provide four I/O panel and two front-panel USB 3.0 ports, along with a slew of USB 2.0 ports spread across internal and external connectors, in addition to 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports shared with M.2 and eSATA.
A CLR_CMOS button on the I/O panel is handy for overclockers, as are the two socket-mounted firmware ROMs along the X99 Extreme4’s bottom edge. Thanks to a selector switch, users who really screw up their firmware can switch, reboot, switch again, and hot-flash the other chip without the risk of removing components on a powered-up system. And if you somehow kill both parts, the sockets allow you to replace them with pre-programmed ICs. Any of those advanced techniques are “at your own risk” operations best left to the most experienced hands.
You’ve probably noticed that the X99 Extreme4 has four PCIe x16 slots. But the forth slot wasn’t mentioned in the introduction. That’s because it’s wired as a two-lane PCIe 2.0 link and located as the motherboard’s second slot. An included three-way SLI bridge bypasses it entirely to connect the first, third, and fourth x16-length slots, since those are the X99 Extreme4’s only SLI-compliant interfaces.
You probably also noticed that Ultra M.2 connector located between the first and second x16-length slots. It supports PCIe 3.0 x4 by robbing the bottom slot of four lanes when you drop in a PCIe-based M.2 SSD. ASRock disables the expansion slot whenever PCIe is enabled over the M.2 interface, knocking the X99 Extreme4 down to two-way SLI or CrossFire support.
Do you want M.2 and three-way SLI? Communication through SATA is also an option for the X99 Extreme4’s M.2 interface. But ASRock only powers the slot using a single 6 Gb/s port, which is shared with the third standard SATA connector so that only one can be used at a time. The eSATA port is similarly shared with the second internal SATA port.
Other three-way SLI exclusions include the use of a 28-lane (Core i7-5820K) CPU. The reduced lane count drops board’s slots to x16/x8/x4 (as opposed to its full x16/x16/x8 configuration), and Nvidia requires at least eight lanes for each card in an SLI array. AMD’s not as fussy, so you’re still able to use three Radeons in CrossFire with your lower-cost CPU.
ASRock knows a good layout, placing its first and third x16-length interfaces with triple-slot spacing to allow extra-large graphics coolers in concert with two-way SLI or CrossFire. And since the third slot is also SLI-capable (whenever you’re not using a PCIe M.2 card), ASRock makes sure that all of the headers along the board’s edge support crush-friendly cables. USB 3.0 is the one cabled interface that can't be bent over, so ASRock puts a header along the X99 Extreme4’s front edge, just above the board’s center line.
Looking harder for layout problems, we find only that the front-panel audio connector is placed in the bottom-rear corner, where Intel thinks it should be. The reason that’s a potential problem is that the cables of some cases are around ½” too short to reach the corner.
We’d have also liked to see an extra fan header near the top edge, since many cases have a pair of top-mounted fans.

Are you still having trouble thinking of any DDR4-supporting three-way SLI motherboard as being mainstream? Then take a look at the X99 Extreme4’s cable kit, which only includes four SATA cables to serve its 10 SATA headers. At least ASRock was kind enough to include a two-drive power cable to connect its HDD Saver power-control software.
- More, Less Or Just Different?
- ASRock X99 Extreme4
- ASRock X99 Extreme4 Software
- ASRock X99 Extreme4 Firmware
- Gigabyte X99-UD4
- Gigabyte X99-UD4 Software
- Gigabyte X99-UD4 Firmware
- MSI X99S Gaming 7
- MSI X99S Gaming 7 Software
- MSI X99S Gaming 7 Firmware
- How We Tested X99 Motherboards
- Results: 3DMark, PCMark And Sandra
- Results: 3D Gaming And Encoding
- Results: Adobe CC, Productivity And File Compression
- Results: Power, Heat And Efficiency
- Results: Overclocking
- Picking A Mid-Priced X99 Winner


Did something change?
12 Phases Six Phases Eight Phases what!
+1
Did something change?
LGA 2011 uses DDR3 while LGA2011-3 uses DDR4 so the sockets are different to prevent people from putting the wrong CPU in the wrong motherboard.
I think there were other changes but this is the big obvious one.
12 Phases Six Phases Eight Phases what!
I see what you did there Intel
It has the features you need because your keyboard and mouse are USB 2.0, not "USB3".
The Firmware-Downgrade-Bug is present since P55 boards and I saw it on EVERY generation, be it 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 series boards. Not necesserilly on every version of the chipset, e.g. I saw it on a P65 but not on a G61 chipset. But if you have the bug then rest assured they will NEVER fix it.
The P65 was especially nasty, it downgraded the bios even when actually nothing went wrong and all BIOS settings were "default". EG I once pressed Reset and voila, back to F3. Also happens if I disconnect from power, even if the system is actually already shut down. Only way to avoid this is to power down the system safely by the OS. But then you have to switch the system on at least every couple of days or it will downgrade to F3 immediatly after power on.
Gigabyte? No thanks.
(writing this from my old P35 gigabyte system, my last gigabyte in private use)
The Firmware-Downgrade-Bug is present since P55 boards and I saw it on EVERY generation, be it 50, 60, 70, 80 or 90 series boards. Not necesserilly on every version of the chipset, e.g. I saw it on a P65 but not on a G61 chipset. But if you have the bug then rest assured they will NEVER fix it.
The P65 was especially nasty, it downgraded the bios even when actually nothing went wrong and all BIOS settings were "default". EG I once pressed Reset and voila, back to F3. Also happens if I disconnect from power, even if the system is actually already shut down. Only way to avoid this is to power down the system safely by the OS. But then you have to switch the system on at least every couple of days or it will downgrade to F3 immediatly after power on.
Gigabyte? No thanks.
(writing this from my old P35 gigabyte system, my last gigabyte in private use)
Gigabyte also has true dual-BIOS motherboards at the high-end, where the forced downgrade can be disabled. You've probably just missed that little tidbit if you think all Gigabyte boards are like this one.
This is the worst board Gigabyte has sent in a long time, and the first one that I've had to recommend against buying. It's been a few years since I've had a Gigabyte board fail after continuous forced-downgrades.
Gigabyte also has true dual-BIOS motherboards at the high-end, where the forced downgrade can be disabled. You've probably just missed that little tidbit if you think all Gigabyte boards are like this one.
This is the worst board Gigabyte has sent in a long time, and the first one that I've had to recommend against buying. It's been a few years since I've had a Gigabyte board fail after continuous forced-downgrades.
Gigabyte obviously doesn't like that we told you any of this. But to not tell you would be to lie. Its PR are nice people, but I can't lie for them, so it looks like they'll probably pack up their toys and go home.
Gigabyte PR people might be nice people, but there's only so much one can do about pumping up poor hardware design.
I've had four Gigabyte motherboards, and I've had hardware compatibility issues with them all. I've had bios issues with three, where I've needed a new bios to support a new generation of processors, but the new version doesn't work well. The latest one was my x79-UP4 board, where it didn't like my EVGA GTX 680 with the F2 bios, and the F4 bios caused the screen saver and power saver features to never turn on, and it took their support nearly two weeks to get me a program that would allow back dating the bios to the F3, which finally worked. The audio plugs never detected when speakers were plugged in, so I couldn't use the on-board audio. Finally, after 9 months of annoyances, it stopped giving power to the USB ports and the PCIe x1 slots, so I lost access to pretty much everything. It was a slow, horrible death for a bad motherboard. I'm not buying a Gigabyte product again.
They don't need PR. They need to get their heads on straight and engineer their boards better, and test better. Testing is a basic necessity for any technology design. I am a systems admin for three test labs for enterprise level hardware and software. I have seen how many bugs we find and exterminate through our testing, and I have seen how it has affected the quality of our products as management decided to reduce the complexity of our testing. Above all, I have seen how it has affected our sales. Gigabyte has never been very good at their testing. If they want to compete, they need to get off their high horse and confront the criticisms for what they are: a chance to change. If they're pulling their products from being reviewed on this site because of these criticisms, then they have shown their attitude, and nobody should be buying from them anyway.
The response from APC on the power strip teardown shows how a successful company reacts to criticism. Gigabyte's reaction will show if they're up to the task of staying in business.