ASRock Z87 Extreme4 Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

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 two additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061. 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_A0 port (one of the two controlled by the ASMedia chip), so both cannot be used at the same time.

Figure 4: The six SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset and the two SATA-600 ports controlled by the ASMedia chip

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASRock Z87 Extreme4 offers eight USB 2.0 ports, two located on the motherboard rear panel and six available through three headers located on the motherboard, and nine USB 3.0 ports. The four USB 3.0 ports and the vertical USB 3.0 port located near the memory sockets are controlled by the chipset, but the four USB 3.0 ports available through two headers are connected to a single USB 3.0 port from the chipset, by way of an ASMedia ASM1074 hub chip.

The ASRock Z87 Extreme4 doesn’t support 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 new Realtek ALC1150 codec, which is the best audio codec available today, providing an impressive 115 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.

Besides having a high-end audio codec, the audio section of the ASRock Z87 Extreme4 is physically separated from the rest of the motherboard and there is a metallic shield around the audio section. This ensures that the theoretical signal-to-noise ratios can be achieved.

Additionally, the Z87 Extreme4 has a two-channel amplifier for analog headphones, provided by a Texas Instruments NE5532 chip.

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.

Different from most motherboards, the ASRock Z87 Extreme4 doesn’t have a header with the SPDIF output signal.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel I217-V chip.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with two USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 connector for keyboard, VGA output, DVI-D output, DisplayPort output, HDMI output, HDMI input, one eSATA-600 port, four USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, the optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel

The ASRock Z87 Extreme4 has an HDMI input, and this is the first motherboard we’ve ever seen with such a feature.