ASRock X79 Extreme4 Review

Written by Antony Leather

January 11, 2012 | 09:00

Tags: #lga2011 #overclocking #sandy-bridge-e #x79

Companies: #asrock

Media Benchmarks

Download from: bit-tech.net

We've developed our own suite of benchmarks using real-world and open-source applications to simulate how PCs are actually used. The suite comprises an image editing test using Gimp, a video encoding test using Handbrake, and a multi-tasking test using 7-Zip to archive and encrypt a large batch of files while an HD movie plays in mplayer.

A score of 1,000 means that the test system is as fast as our reference PC, which used a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 at stock speed, 2GB of Corsair 1,066MHz DDR2 memory, a 250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S hard disk and an Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. The scoring system is linear, so a system scoring 1,200 points is 20 per cent faster than our reference system. Equally, a system scoring 1,200 is 4 per cent faster than a system scoring 1,150.

GIMP Image Editing

Website: GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)

Far from being some kind of pr0n-filtering tool, Gimp is an open source image editing application - Gimp is an acronym of GNU Image Manipulation Program. Our test simulates how well a PC can manipulate a collection of large digital photos. Achieving a low time requires a PC with a powerful CPU, plenty of quick memory and efficient hard disk drive access.

Image Editing

Gimp

  • Intel DX79SI
  • ASRock X79 Extreme4-M
  • Asus Rampage IV Extreme
  • Asus Sabertooth X79
  • MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)
  • ASRock X79 Extreme4
    • 1735
    • 2077
    • 1719
    • 2127
    • 1715
    • 2168
    • 1697
    • 2136
    • 1688
    • 2155
    • 1677
    • 2091
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Points, higher is better
  • Stock
  • Overclocked

Read our performance analysis.

Handbrake H.264 Encoding

Website: HandBrake

We use the open-source, GPL-licensed, multi-platform, multi-threaded video encoder Handbrake to encode an HD video using the H.264 codec. This primarily tests multi-threaded CPU and memory subsystem performance.

Video Encoding

Handbrake

  • ASRock X79 Extreme 4
  • ASRock X79 Extreme 4-M
  • Asus Rampage IV Extreme
  • Asus Sabertooth X79
  • MSI X79A-GD65 (8D)
  • Intel DX79SI
    • 3702
    • 4773
    • 3698
    • 4805
    • 3693
    • 4771
    • 3688
    • 4763
    • 3687
    • 4810
    • 3530
    • 4670
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
Points, higher is better
  • Stock
  • Overclocked

Read our performance analysis.
Discuss this in the forums

Posted by Paradigm Shifter - Wed Jan 11 2012 14:37

I was so glad when motherboards stepped away from whiny fans on the sourthbridge, and now they're making a comeback. Pity. :(

I doubt I'll want more than 16GB of RAM on a board like this; so four DIMM slots is hardly a killer - if the quad core SB-E chips are a reasonable price, this might make a good alternative to the 'downgrade' from triple to dual channel presented by LGA1155...

Posted by Valinor - Wed Jan 11 2012 19:06

Paradigm Shifter
I was so glad when motherboards stepped away from whiny fans on the sourthbridge, and now they're making a comeback. Pity. :(
I think that the choice was whiny fan or overheating motherboard, and so the fan was probably the best solution.

Posted by technogiant - Wed Jan 11 2012 20:12

When I first saw info on overclocking of the X79 platform with non unlocked cpus there was mention that there would be several cpu straps, one at 1.25 and another at 1.65 or something similar.....since then all the mobos I've seen reviews of only have the 1.25 strap......are there any that have the higher strap multiplier to go above 4.5Ghz or there abouts on the locked 3820...I've seen unlocked cpus have been able to go over 5GHz on the X79 mobo's. Would be nice if the 3820 could be pushed to that level with adequate cooling by using the 1.65 cpu strap and dropping the cpu multiplier as required.

Posted by Paradigm Shifter - Thu Jan 12 2012 21:12

Valinor
I think that the choice was whiny fan or overheating motherboard, and so the fan was probably the best solution.
There are a few boards that don't have fans on the southbridge - Rampage IV Formula, P9X79 Pro, X79A-GD45, G1-Assassin2, P9X79 WS among them. So it's perfectly feasible to have the board passive. In fact having had another look, quite a lot of them are passive. But I was eying this board as I'd rather pay £170 than £300. ;)
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