Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Firmware
Like the other ASRock boards, the ITX Lightning starts in Easy Mode, which is primarily informative, but it lets you change a few options (XMP, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The black background and red accent colors match the Phantom Gaming theme and are easy to read. Advanced mode displays headings across the top, with details below.
Here, you can tweak everything that can be tweaked, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, although some power options are in a different section. It’s a logical layout. The movement is smooth and easy to read. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware.
Software
ASRock provides several different software options. It has the App Shop to install drivers and software, the Nahimic 3 audio control panel, the A-Tuning/PG-Tuning application that overclocks your system, control fans, the Polychrome RGB software, and more. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their system.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of mid-October 2023. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but have updated the driver to the latest, keeping our games, F1 22 and Far Cry 6, the same. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public using ‘optimized default’ settings except for the memory (XMP). The hardware and drivers we used are as follows:
Test System Components
| CPU | Intel Core i9-14900K |
| Memory | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Teamgroup T-Force Delta RGB DDR5- 7200 CL34 (FF3D516G7200HC34ABK) |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Klevv CRAS XR5 RGB (KD5AGUA80-80R380S) |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 3070 |
| Cooling | Coolermaster MasterLiquid PL360 Flux |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 |
| Software | Windows 11 64-bit (23H2) |
| Graphics Driver | NVIDIA Driver 537.42 |
| Sound | Integrated HD audio |
| Network | Integrated Networking (GbE or 2.5 GbE) |
Benchmark Settings
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | Row 0 - Cell 1 |
| Procyon | Version 2.6.848 64 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 23.6), Photo Editing (Photoshop 25.0, Lightroom Classic 12.5) |
| 3DMark | Version 2.27.8177 64 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Firestrike Extreme (v1.1) and Time Spy (v1.2) Default Presets |
| Cinebench R24 | Version ‘build unknown’ |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded |
| Blender | Full benchmark (all 3 tests) |
| Application Tests and Settings | Row 8 - Cell 1 |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Row 10 - Cell 0 | Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Row 12 - Cell 0 | Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Row 14 - Cell 0 | Custom benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Row 16 - Cell 0 | Integrated benchmark (Command Line) |
| Game Tests and Settings | Row 17 - Cell 1 |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON |
MORE: Best Motherboards
MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard
MORE: All Motherboard Content
Retro-style gaming monitor will hit the market for $200 — the display features a 1080p VA panel with a 180 Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support
TSMC posts strong year-on-year revenue growth of 34% despite month-to-month slowdown — foundry pulls in $8.5B in revenue for November 2024
Microsoft allows Windows 11 to be installed on older, unsupported hardware but specifically nixes official support — minimum requirements for full compatibility remain unchanged
