ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Review: Ultra M.2 x4 Tested With XP941
by Ian Cutress on May 24, 2014 12:00 PM ESTASRock Z97 Extreme6 Conclusion
The big talking point for ASRock’s launch was the inclusion of that “Ultra M.2”, an M.2 x4 slot drawn off the CPU PCIe lanes. This is what I like to characterize as an ‘ASRock Jump’, a characteristic of ASRock to try new and different things. Some work, some do not, and others become part of the ASRock fold. I am glad that they have shown the M.2 x4 is a plausible asset to have, but unfortunately, like SATA Express, the main issue is having the hardware on the market to take advantage of it. The current M.2 drives on the market are mostly SATA based and not PCIe, and if they are to be PCIe they are most likely PCIe x2. Luckily we had an XP941 512GB, an OEM PCIe x4 SSD in to test with our review.
The two M.2 slots on the Z97 Extreme6 showed the effect of the PCIe x4 device when restricted by x2 lanes and allowed to stretch its legs with x4. With peak sequential results pointing to a +50% speed-up rather than a 3.2x that the lane bandwidth suggests, this gives SSD manufacturers more headroom to work with, and users faster drives. Although when the M.2 x4 is in use it brings the PCIe bandwidth of the first two slots down frame rates are not adversely affected at 1080p Max on our small test of a few modern titles. The major downside is that using the M.2 disables SLI, which is more a result of NVIDIA’s restriction for 8 lanes per GPU. So while the lack of drives on the market makes this almost a non-feature until later this year, it does set a very interesting precedent for other motherboard manufacturers (as well as ASRock) when they become more prevalent, or for a series of limited-GPU derived products that can siphon lanes into storage.
The specialist feature aside, the motherboard still has access to 10 SATA ports (some shared), 10 SATA USB 3.0 ports (using a controller and a hub) and enhanced Realtek ALC1150 sound. The vertical USB 2.0 port carries over from last generation and server builds, useful for verification dongles or any device that needs to be in the system permanently and away from small children at the back of the system. Next to this is a new feature called HDD Saver which, by using the cable in the box, can provide power to two SATA devices. These devices can be enabled and disabled via software in the OS, allowing users to create backups, save power or hide data from electronic attacks. The network capabilities stretch to two Ethernet ports, one Intel I218-V and one Realtek 8111GR.
The ASRock BIOS now has a Full HD mode allowing for 1920x1080 resolutions which also work on higher resolution monitors (although not by default). The color scheme of the BIOS has changed to match that of the motherboard, and in my eyes has lost some of the appeal of the last generation as the graphical icons are replaced with text. Much of the feature-set of the BIOS is the same as Z87 except for added options such as HDD Saver and My Favorites, accessible from the Main tab. The OC Tweaker tab is a single list of options that has now got too long, and ASRock should consider partitioning it up into separate menus. The software utilities now include the ASRock App Shop, an interface to download ASRock approved software and games as well as new BIOSes and drivers, and the Disk Monitor to give information about SATA devices installed.
In terms of performance, the ultra-low DPC Latency broke a new record (it has now been broken twice in two reviews) and the ASRock has plenty of automatic overclock options to keep everyone happy. Our overclocking test gave 4.6 GHz with our i7-4770K, limited by the temperature but in line with other motherboards we have tested. The initial POST time is a little long, a characteristic shared between many of the Z97 launch motherboards, however when controllers are disabled this moves down to below seven seconds.
For $170, there are going to be few motherboards that can boast 10 SATA ports and 10 USB 3.0, with access to multi-GPU configurations or an M.2 x4 slot. If we include the dual NICs and enhanced audio in that assessment, then it is plausible that one of the things missing is 802.11ac support, although users can add their own with the mini-PCIe integrated onboard. It makes me wonder why ASRock did not release a WiFi version of this motherboard. As with the other manufacturers, the biggest barrier ASRock has with the Z97 Extreme6 is that it uses storage features that have no products on the market, so users are buying into future possibilities with no guarantee which way the market will shift.
I am glad of the M.2 x4 being here, showing that it can be done and that this is the future. However it is hard to recommend a feature that cannot yet be exploited due to lack of product on the market. Given that ASRock has a history of making crazy storage options with their Extreme11 moniker, and there is no Z97 Extreme11 yet listed, I kind of want them to use a PLX chip and siphon off 16 lanes into a four M.2 x4 drive bay or something equally as ‘extreme’. I hope to see something like that (or this) at Computex. But again, we would have to await the drives to actually come to market.
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peterfares - Saturday, May 24, 2014 - link
It was stated in the article, using 4 lanes for M.2 from the chipset would leave too little lanes left for controllers and other onboard peripheral devices.SirKnobsworth - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - link
The chipset allows up to 8 PCIe lanes. Maybe having 8 USB 3 ports and 10 SATA ports matters for some, but certainly not everyone. If you use 4 lanes for M.2 you can still have 4 additional lanes going to the NIC/x1 slots/whatever, 4 USB 3.0 ports, and 6 SATA ports, noting that FlexIO allows some flexibility in that arrangement.Galatian - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - link
This! Thousand times this! I mean at least give the option. My PC if only a gaming machine. I have one SSD inside, one mouse, one keyboard and one XBox Controller receiver. I have no need for more ports. At least give me some option: as I said it's either this extreme or the other extreme, but nothing in between.isa - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - link
But the article also said a reason was m.2 cards would mostly or only be offered in 2 channel flavors, and that makes no sense to me since I believe the z97 chipset supports 4 channels of PCIe 2.0 for m.2. I agree many would want 4 channels even if meant sacrificing a few usb ports or whatever, so I'd think the market would provide 4 channel m.2 cards to support those customers.Luke_Higdon - Sunday, April 10, 2016 - link
Question: "Can you explain to me why no mainboard manufacturer is using 4 lanes from the chipsets PCIe 2.0? I mean that would be enough for the Samsung SSD and still has room left."Answer: No It would run at a third the speed.
Question: I mean what do I gain from all those SATA and USB ports? Who is actually using all of them?
Answer: Lots of people including me. I have 6 hard drives a CD player. Plus they are very cheap to make so if you buy an upgraded motherboard this is the least they could do. I understand most people don't need all of that but that is why you would buy a cheaper Motherboard. However most people have 2 hard drives and a DVD player and it is used for adapters and if you are doing RAID it could need double the amount of SATA ports or triple.
Statement: Right now I have to choose between either a slow M.2 slot because they only allocate 2 lanes or I can go with ASRock which feels like overkill and takes away CPU PCIe lanes.
Answer: ASrock doesn't take away PCIe lanes. CPU's are given a fixed amount of PCIe lanes typically 16. If you have a video card it takes 8 and you are left with 8 in which 4 are taken from the 950 pro. If you dont play video games and use integrated graphics from a motherboard then you can buy any motherboard that uses 3.0 PCIe for at least one slot which is most of them.
Marlowe - Saturday, May 24, 2014 - link
All new motherboards should have pcie x4 m.2 slots to be worthwile.. There are really no excuse not to. The x2 version is a too small upgrade from old SATA. Anyone who buys a new fast pcie ssd will need x4 to fully utilize it.I think you can install both Win 7 and Win 8 in UEFI mode.
SirKnobsworth - Sunday, May 25, 2014 - link
A few thoughts:- The SSD only supports PCIe 2.0, not 3.0, so the maximum theoretical bandwidth is 20 rather than 32 gbps. The actual performance is still far below that too though. To my knowledge there are not PCIe SSDs currently available that support gen 3, though I think OCZ will be shipping 2.0x8 SSDs soon.
- Leaked roadmaps show that Intel will be increasing the number of PCIe lanes on the chipset rather than the processor - the chipsets accompanying Skylake should have 20 PCIe 3.0 lanes. If you want more lanes directly from the CPU then there's already an option - Intel's LGA2011 Enthusiast options have 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the CPU.
ShieTar - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
Also, if the x2 port maxes out at 765 MBps of just below 6 Gbps, than we probably should not expect more than roughly 12 Gbps from the x4 port either. So the XP941 would be significantly closer to the interface maximum than the article suggests.Laststop311 - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
A lot of people want to build mini itx form factor. LGA 2011 doesn;t exist and never will it's physically too large a socket. All the people like me have a great need for increased pci-e lanes from the cpu. Controllers degrade performance and add latency.At the same time for mini itx you can only fit one pci-e slot on there but it would be nice if we could keep it at 16x for when gpu's do start needing the extra bandwidth and still have 8x left over for 2 4x m2 slots. 24x pci-e 3.0 cpu lanes needs to be on their mainstream. That still leaves a whole 16x gap to the enthusiast and they can increase those by 8 too to 48 lanes and keep the separation the same. Then everyone can be happy.
romrunning - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - link
I will add my vote to wanting a mini-ITX board. To me, I really don't know anyone who is actually using 3 PCIe slots. However, I do know quite a few who are tired of the big towers.Also, where are these people who want a ton of SATA slots in a home PC?? The only chassis I know where I want that many ports is in a server, and there I'm getting space for 16-24 drives - not this Frankenstein of 10 SATA slots. People at home who need a lot of space (for work or pleasure) are getting a NAS, not trying to load out a machine with 6-10 drives.
My picture of a great mini-ITX board - Z or H 9-series chipset, 4 x 6Gbps SATA ports supporting RAID 0/1/5/6, 2 x m.2 (x4) supporting RAID 0/1, no SATA Express (waste of space), 1x eSATA, 4-6 USB 3.0 ports, optional mSATA/PCIe slot for wireless add-on, and a single x16 PCIe 3.0 slot. Price it at $110-150, and I'd buy it in a heartbeat!