ASRock Z87 Extreme6 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 four additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by two ASMedia ASM1061 chips. Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not 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 will not 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 Z87 Extreme6 offers seven USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel, two available through a header located on the motherboard, and one USB 2.0 soldered vertically near the POST diagnostics display. There are eight USB 3.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and four available through two headers. 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.

The motherboard comes with an adapter with two USB 3.0 ports for you to use one of the motherboard’s USB 3.0 headers.

The ASRock Z87 Extreme6 does not 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 Extreme6 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. See Figure 6.

Additionally, the Z87 Extreme6 has a two-channel amplifier for analog headphones, provided by two Texas Instruments NE5532 chips.

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. Differently from most motherboards, there is no SPDIF header for you to install a coaxial SPDIF output.

The portrayed motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one controlled by an Intel I211-AT chip and the other controlled by an Intel I127-V chip.

In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard’s rear panel with two USB 2.0 ports, PS/2 connector for keyboard, DVI-I output, external “clear CMOS” button, eSATA-600 port, DisplayPort output, HDMI output, HDMI input, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, four USB 3.0 ports, optical SPDIF output, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 7: Motherboard’s rear panel

The ASRock Z87 Extreme6 has an HDMI input.