ASRock Z87 Extreme9/ac Motherboard

Building a computer around a solid backbone is an extremely important concept. You can have the best graphics card, hard drives, SSDs and other components, but if your motherboard isn’t up to the task, you’re going to run into all kinds of problems, ranging from small annoyances right through to major issues. Sometimes cutting through the hype can be tough, and companies are not above obfuscating things by throwing around appealing catch phrases to sell a few more units. ASRock didn’t do that with the Z87 Extreme9/ac, though… all they did was produce a fantastic multipurpose motherboard, and put it out there for us to find.

The Z87 Extreme9/ac truly is a magnificent motherboard. It leaves behind all the decorative pretensions of other motherboards and delivers the user a black board with brushed sliver trim. But don’t let these plainer looks fool you; like a sleek and understated high performance car, this board has punch in every area that counts.

It starts with very clever technology. From premium gold capacitors through to dual-stacked MOSFETs, the Extreme9/ac manages to not only deliver a lot of power, but to deliver voltage to the CPU extremely smoothly. It is also good for overclocking, and comes complete with a suite of software that allows for easy tweaking of voltages and other overclocking necessities.

Even without extra components, it offers quite a lot. With support for up to three monitors directly from the board’s numerous graphic outputs, through to excellent on-board sound by way of a Purity Sound system, this board is great for media use as well as power computing. In addition, it featured support for four-way SLI and CrossFireX, depending on your flavour of graphics card.

It even features on-board Thunderbolt ports (2 of them) for truly speedy data transfer. The Extreme9/ac is a very feature-rich motherboard, but all those features don’t mean much if the performance isn’t up to scratch. The good news is that it really does deliver – smooth, powerful and reliable operation are the order of the day here. In addition, ASRock have taken numerous steps towards making this board as user-friendly as it is robust and reliable.

It’s not the cheapest motherboard around, but the real joy of it is that you get a lot of bang for your buck. This board doesn’t rely on over-inflated brand reputations or specialised branding to rake in a bit of extra cash. Rather, you get what you pay for with the Extreme9/ac. It is extremely versatile, too, and is a great option for a wide number of applications. It is a solid and dependable backbone for any computer system and, like it’s serious looks imply, it really means business.

Verdict:

This is a serious motherboard, crammed with excellent features and lots of versatility.

Manufacturer: ASRock

Distributer: TVR Computers

Online: www.tvr.co.za

Tech Specs: