ASRock Z370 Extreme4 ATX Review: A Solid Coffee Lake Board for Value-Minded Enthusiasts

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How We Test

We initially upgraded our test bed during the X299 launch to handle the tremendous heat produced by the Core i9-7900X. Our award-winning Fractal Design S24 liquid cooler system sample serves the same purpose for the newer, lower-heat Core i7-8700K.

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SoundIntegrated HD Audio
NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking
Graphics DriverGeForce 382.53

Cooler Master’s HAF-XB provides an optimal layout to blow the Celsius S24’s fans sufficiently over each motherboard’s voltage regulator.

Comparison Products

Overclock settings for the $175 Z370 Extreme4 are very similar to those of the $220 Z370 Taichi, and approximately equaled by both MSI and EVGA boards to produce solid competition in our overclocking comparison.

Benchmark Settings

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Synthetic Benchmarks & Settings
PCMark 8Version 2.7.613Home, Creative, Work, Storage, Applications (Adobe & Microsoft)
3DMark 13Version 4.47.597.0Skydiver, Firestrike, Firestrike Extreme Default Presets
SiSoftware SandraVersion 2016.03.22.21CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth
DiskSPD4k Random Read, 4k Random Write128k Sequential Read, 128k Sequential Write
Cinebench R15Build RC83328DEMOOpenGL Benchmark
CompuBenchVersion 1.5.8Face Detection, Optical Flow, Ocean Surface, Ray Tracing
Application Tests & Settings
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.9.9Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x265 mp4
BlenderVersion 2.68aBMW 27 CPU Render Benchmark, BMW 27 GPU Render Benchmark
7-ZipVersion 16.02THG-Workload (7.6GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=9"
Adobe After Effects CCRelease 2015.3.0, Version 13.8.0.144PCMark-driven routine
Adobe Photoshop CCRelease 2015.5.0. 20160603.r.88 x64PCMark-driven routine (light and heavy)
Adobe InDesign CCRelease 2015.4, Build 11.4.0.90 x64PCMark-driven routine
Adobe IllustratorRelease 2015.3.0, Version 20.0.0 (64-bit)PCMark-driven routine
Game Tests & Settings
Ashes of the SingularityVersion 1.31.21360High Preset - 1920x1080, Mid Shadow Quality, 1x MSAACrazy Preset - 1920x1090, High Shadow Quality, 2x MSAA
F1 20152015 Season, Abu Dhabi Track, RainMedium Preset, No AFxUltra High Preset, 16x AF
Metro Last Light ReduxVersion 3.00 x64High Quality, 1920x1080, High Tesselation, 16x AFVery High Quality, 1920x1080, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF
The Talos PrincipleVersion 267252Medium Preset, High Quality, High Tesselation, 4x AFUltra Preset, Very High Quality, Very High Tesselation, 16x AF


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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    I own this one , best buy per $$$ on the market.
    Reply
  • Shawn Nuocmam
    Umm...not according to this review. The Tomahawk gets "Best Buy".
    Reply
  • Tanyac
    I used to have all ASRock boards, until I had 4 fail within a year.
    If you're in Australia, and your ASRock board fails, you're outta luck. ASRock do not honor their warranties over here! I've even had them send me a faulty second hand board that did not work at all (They said it was "refurbished"), when I pressed them for a warranty claim.

    Now all my boards are MSI (Which has matured a lot recently), and I've never looked back. I will never buy ASRock again. Too many bad experiences.
    Reply
  • chimonow
    Is it just me or is the consistency of your review just going to trash?
    Reply
  • chimonow
    reviews*
    Reply
  • chimonow
    Also thanks to Google Chrome I muted you senseless adds! :)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20803998 said:
    Is it just me or is the consistency of your review just going to trash?
    Whose review?

    Reply