ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional Motherboard
On Board Peripherals
Contents
The Intel Z87 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip has six SATA-600 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5). This motherboard has four additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by two ASMedia ASM1061 chips. Unfortunately, the manufacturer didn’t use different colors to indicate which chip controls which SATA ports. The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards won’t block them.
One eSATA-600 port is located on the motherboard’s rear panel. This port shares the SATA3_A4 port (which is controlled by one of the ASMedia chips), so both cannot be used at the same time.
Figure 5: The six SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset and the four SATA-600 ports controlled by the two ASMedia chips
The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard, and eight USB 3.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and four available through two headers. Apparently, the four USB 3.0 ports located on the motherboard’s rear panel are connected to a single USB 3.0 port of the chipset by way of an ASMedia ASM1074 hub chip. We say “apparently” because the manufacturer doesn’t explain how the USB 3.0 ports are configured.
The ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional doesn’t support FireWire ports.
One of the highlights of this motherboard is its audio section, which uses a dedicated controller, a Sound Core3D from Creative, making the on-board audio of this product similar to the Sound Blaster Recon3D PCIe sound card, a product that retails for USD 100.00. This chip provides CrystalVoice technology for improving the audio quality during audio chats, and several other technologies for improving audio. Specifications for this chip include 102 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its outputs and 101 dB signal-to-noise ratio for its inputs, with a 192 kHz sampling rate and 24-bit resolution. This means you are able to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) with this motherboard without adding any background noise.
Additionally, the ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional has a high-end amplifier for analog headphones, using an NE5532 operational amplifier chip.
The audio section of the ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional is physically separated from the rest of the motherboard. This ensures that the theoretical signal-to-noise ratios can be achieved. See Figure 6.
Figure 6: The audio section is separated from the rest of the motherboard
The analog audio outputs are independent if you use a 5.1 analog speaker set. If you use an analog 7.1 speaker set, you must use either the “line in” (blue) or the “mic in” (pink) jacks for the two additional speakers.
The motherboard comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output. It also has a two-pin header labeled “SPDIF_OUT1”, where you can install an adapter to have a coaxial SPDIF output or to connect a cable to older video cards that required a physical connection to have audio on their HDMI outputs.
The portrayed motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one controlled by an Intel I211-AT chip and the other controlled by an Intel I217-V chip.
In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard’s rear panel with four USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 connector for keyboard, external clear CMOS button, DisplayPort output, HDMI output, HDMI input, one eSATA-600 port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 3.0 ports, the optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.
Figure 7: Motherboard’s rear panel
The ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional has an HDMI input.
One of the USB 2.0 ports (the top-most one on the stack containing the eSATA port) is a “Fatal1ty mouse port,” which allows you to manually configure its polling rate between 125 Hz and 1 kHz. As usual, ASRock fails to properly indicate the presence of this port with a label or even to explain this feature in the manual of the product.