ASRock Z77 OC Formula Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

The Intel Z77 chipset is a single-chip solution that is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip supports two SATA-600 ports and four SATA-300 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5).

The ASRock Z77 OC Formula has four additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by two Marvell 88SE9172 chips. Each chip supports RAID 0 and 1, so you can setup a RAID system at each pair of SATA-600 ports.

One drawback is that the manufacturer used only two colors to identify the SATA ports: black for the SATA-300 and yellow for the SATA-600. The manufacturer should have used different colors to identify to where each port is connected. The yellow ports closer to the black ports are the two SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset.

All SATA ports are located at the motherboard’s edge and rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them. See Figure 7.

Figure 7: SATA-600 (yellow) and SATA-300 (black) ports

This motherboard doesn’t have eSATA-600 ports.

The Intel Z77 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and four USB 3.0 ports. The ASRock Z77 OC Formula offers 10 USB 2.0 ports, four soldered on the rear panel and six available through three headers located on the motherboard; and eight USB 3.0 ports, six located on the motherboard rear panel and two available on a header located on the motherboard, near the main power supply connector. The four additional USB 3.0 ports are controlled by one EtronTech EJ188H chip. The
motherboard comes with a 3.5” panel containing two USB 3.0 ports for you to use if your computer case doesn’t have USB 3.0 ports. The motherboard also comes with a bracket for you to install the internal USB 3.0 ports on an expansion slot from your case instead.

The ASRock Z77 OC Formula doesn’t have FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Realtek ALC898 codec, which is an outstanding solution, providing an impressive 110 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 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.

The motherboard has on-board optical SPDIF output. A header labeled “HDMI_SPDIF1” also provides SPDIF output for you to install a coaxial SPDIF output or to route digital audio to older video cards that require this physical connection in order to have digital audio output in their HDMI connectors.

The analog audio outputs are independent only if you use a 5.1 analog speaker set. If you install a 7.1 analog speaker set, you will need to use either the “mic in” or the “line in” jacks.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port controlled by a Broadcom BCM57781 chip.

In Figure 8, you can see the motherboard rear panel with a shared PS/2 keyboard/mouse connector, six USB 3.0 ports, clear CMOS button, HDMI output, Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, one optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 8: Motherboard rear panel