ASRock Z77 OC Formula Review: Living In The Fast Lane
by Ian Cutress on January 15, 2013 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- ASRock
- Z77
- Overclocking
ASRock Z77 OC Formula In The Box
Top of the range boxes have to have the kit to match in order to make the package complete. When buying something like the Murciélago on the box of the Z77 OC Formula, one might expect carpets, a tank of gas and a welcome pack as part of the deal when spending the big cash. Motherboards by contrast vary wildly in the packaging, depending on bulk deals the manufacturer can obtain for the connectors, price margins, or special one-offs. ASRock in the past have also varied, with some $150 packages containing all the loot, as well as most of the high end, whereas others not so much, especially in our last AMD review. However, the Z77 OC Formula should get a nice bundle.
In the Z77 OC Formula, we get:
Murciélago themed box and User Guide
Driver CD
Rear IO Panel
OC Formula labeled cloth bag
Six SATA cables
Two 4-pin Molex to SATA power cables
3-Slot Rigid SLI Bridge
Front USB 3.0 Panel with integrated SSD holder
Rear USB 3.0 Bracket
10 Plastic Standoffs
I am always a fan of the USB 3.0 front panel put in the box, and having the other cables is an added bonus. The cloth bag is a little odd, but it might help to contain all the extra things if you regularly modify the system, or for overclockers to keep vital things like OSes on USBs in.
The standoffs are a nice addition as well, for overclockers who do not want to cart around a large test bench to events:
If I were to critique one area, ASRock could have oriented the board more towards gamers and overclockers had they included their Game Blaster PCIe x1 module. This would remove the audio codec on board, and offer a separate audio card with Creative Core3D audio and another Ethernet port. Overclockers would not need to use it but gamers would all have at least one PCIe x1 port spare with any GPU combination.
ASRock Z77 OC Formula Overclocking
Note: Ivy Bridge does not overclock like Sandy Bridge. For a detailed report on the effect of voltage on Ivy Bridge (and thus temperatures and power draw), please read Undervolting and Overclocking on Ivy Bridge.
Experience with ASRock Z77 OC Formula
Despite the lack of automatic overclock options for the OS, overall the overclocking using the Z77 OC Formula went really well. The Nick Shih OC Profiles in the BIOS worked a charm up until my cooling limit, and using them as a basis for finding the voltage limits of the manual overclocks let me push an i7-3770K chip higher than I had ever done previously.
Overall, the Z77 OC Formula pushed our retail i7-3770K CPU sample to 4.9 GHz, limited only by the cooling at load, and to 5.2 GHz unloaded. We also pushed a set of 2x4 GB 2666 C11 memory to 2800 C12 with a simple bump on the memory strap after XMP, peaked at an unloaded 2920 C12 and reached a peak BCLK of 110.3 overall.
Methodology:
Our standard overclocking methodology is as follows. We select the automatic overclock options and test for stability with PovRay and OCCT to simulate high-end workloads. These stability tests aim to catch any immediate causes for memory or CPU errors.
For manual overclocks, based on the information gathered from previous testing, starts off at a nominal voltage and CPU multiplier, and the multiplier is increased until the stability tests are failed. The CPU voltage is increased gradually until the stability tests are passed, and the process repeated until the motherboard reduces the multiplier automatically (due to safety protocol) or the CPU temperature reaches a stupidly high level (100ºC+). Our test bed is not in a case, which should push overclocks higher with fresher (cooler) air.
Automatic Overclock:
The automatic overclock options are all found in the BIOS under ‘Nick Shih OC Profile’:
We have options from 3900 MHz to 5000 MHz in 100 MHz jumps. Each option changes the BIOS to the corresponding settings which should account for the majority of processors on the market, though your mileage may vary depending on the quality of your CPU.
The results were as follows:
* Power Limits to 250W and Current Limit to 200A
** Power Limits to 300W and Current Limit to 250A / PWM Switching Frequency to 500 kHz
*** Long Power to 128 seconds and **
Each setting up to 4900 MHz passed both the stability tests, although OCCT reached 103ºC. At that point I was unwilling to take it to 5000 MHz on the auto settings.
Manual Overclock:
Using the progression of the automatic overclock settings, I tailored the manual overclock settings to help push the higher MHz values. As with our previous Z77 testing, I started at 1.100 volts on the CPU and at a 44x multiplier, but based on the Auto OC I placed the PWM Switching Frequency at 500 kHz, the Power Limits to 350W and the Current Limit to 300A.
The manual overclocking adventures follow roughly the same pattern as the automatic overclocking ones, except the biggest difference was at 4800 MHz, where we achieved stability at 1.275 V compared to 1.350 V in the automatic options. 4900 MHz is still our limit, hitting 100ºC at 1.375 V.
For memory overclocking, we used a G.Skill 2x4 GB 2666 C11 kit to push the limits. For normal usage, we were able to boost the kit to 2800 C12 by applying XMP and adjusting the memory strap, nothing more. Moving up to 2933 MHz though resulted in BIOS code 55 and no POST.
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kmmatney - Thursday, January 17, 2013 - link
In the gaming benchmarks the ASRock Extreme4, $100 cheaper, gets the same result, even after the massive overclock on this board. While the overclocking is impressive, you can get a decent overclock with any cheap Z77 motherboard, and spend the difference in price on a better on a better video card, or the next grade of processor.Onus - Thursday, January 17, 2013 - link
I'd like to pass along my own experience with ASRock Customer Support. Cutting to the chase, it was entirely positive. I had obtained the review sample of an ASRock board from another site, which meant there was no warranty coverage. Unfortunately, the board died in the middle of a game. CPU temps were good, and I'd not [yet] had any reason to OC. Although I'd kept it at stock, it was a mini-ITX in a PC-Q08R, and the presence of a HD7870 in the build may have allowed something on the board to overheat, despite the pair of case fans. Anyway, I initiated an RMA request, fully explaining this situation, not trying to avoid their $50 service fee for out-of-warranty products. All correspondence was by email, and was handled quickly, with same or next day (if late) responses. I did pay the fee, but the RMA was handled quickly, and the new board is now just waiting for a brain (I used the original i5-3570K CPU in another build).watersb - Thursday, January 17, 2013 - link
Ian, you are a MOTHERBOARD MADMAN!!! I can't keep up, but I try anyway.Sincere THANKS for these recent reviews. Wow.
The Magpie - Friday, January 18, 2013 - link
I like this board. In fact I like ASRock more and more. I remember the old days when their entire lineup was silly looking, bad performing boards. Those days are gone now and that is great. But that is not the point of this comment.The point is to say that I'm feeling a bit offended by having to read through the same bloody lines, once at the very beginning, and again at the very end of the article. Great technical knowledge Ian, but have some kind of respect for yourself and your work, and don't copy\paste the same lines from the first to the last page. What happened, ran out of things to say? Embarrassing and outrageous for someone who takes the time to read through your entire piece.
waldojim42 - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
I see that you are finally testing for some idea of sound quality, and I am quite grateful, but why aren't we hammering on these companies over missing features here? I care about one thing and one thing only; Dolby Digital Live encoding. I don't see why I should be forced to by a $150 Creative labs POS just so I can use the fiber connection for my 5.1 audio.This is a feature that was available as far back as the Nvidia Nforce 2 for crying out loud! Why is this not standard on $200+ motherboards? It cannot be that difficult, and I am sure there are more than a few gamers out there that would be happy to see this.
As of right now, the ONLY motherboard on my radar is the Gigabyte Sniper 3. Sadly, they used a Creative chipset to get the job done, but at least it is built into the board.
Anand, could you possibly reach out to these manufacturers and get them to understand people want this? The worst part, is that it is quite obvious there is very little in licensing costs involved, if Creative is anything to go by ($5 to get DDL on your current product!) and that is money well spent.
IanCutress - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
Would you be interested in B75 with a Creative chip? Drop me an email with specifics. I'm not an audio nut (tone deaf too), but I can pass on some info :)Ian
jimmyzaas - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I was very close to picking up the Z77 OC Formula. The only thing that I didn't like was that tiny fan for the VRM. I've had an Abit board before with the southbridge fan and about 2 years in, it started to get louder and louder until all you hear is grinding noise. Issue was that whole assembly was proprietary and replacing the fan means replacing the entire heatsink. Since then, I've vowed not to get any mobo that needed a fan of any kind.My question is.. do the VRMs get that hot that they require active cooling? I mean no other boards, including that monster Gigabyte UD7 needed fans? Or is it just for show.. if so, it is a retarded move. Second question, is it like a standard 40mm fan that can be replaced easily? If not, is the board still stable with NO fan attached.
To the poster above wondering about the Sniper board.. I have it and that audio is the best I've ever had from a motherboard. I have a Gigabyte board with Realtek 889 audio and the Core3D just crushes it in every way. Now I haven't heard Realtek 898 on my sound system, so I can't compare.. but I'm really blown away by the sound. Not really impressed by Killer NIC though.
IanCutress - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
The VRM fan is predominantly there in case (a) low air flow situation, like a closed-loop liquid cooler, or (b) hot ambient climate. You are perfectly justified in taking the connector out if neither of those apply to you. VRMs during normal stock usage are easily cooled by cross air flow, but as you start hitting 4.8 GHz+, they might start kicking out some heat if you are constantly hammering the CPU with loads. A small 40mm fan probably doesn't do much in that case, but it does something.With regard to the UP7, they use IR3550s, which are designed to pump out less heat for the same power - and there's 32 of them, so the heat generated is spread around such that the long extended heatsink can take care of everything.
Ian