ASRock X58 Extreme - $169.99 is not too Extreme

General Performance – PCMark Vantage

Futuremark's PCMark Vantage x64 is probably the single most diverse set of standardized benchmarks one can run on a system to mimic real world usage scenarios. The TV and Movies, Gaming, and Music Suites can be frighteningly difficult to pass when a system is not set up correctly. We've had boards in the labs that will pass hours of Prime95 torture testing or OCCT that fail even the basic 30 minute run of PCMark Vantage, let alone the full 1 hour and 30 minute test run that we loop five times.

The X58 Extreme performed admirably in this benchmark with overall results slightly trailing the MSI and ASUS boards. However, the user will never notice the minimal performance differences in actual usage between all three boards. We fired up our application benchmarks from the full review test suite and in each case, the ASRock board trailed slightly (never more than 1%) in applications ranging from Sony Vegas Pro 9.0 to AutoCAD 2009. Obviously, price to performance ratios with the board are very good, but just under the MSI offering.

Gaming Performance – FarCry 2

This title has beautiful graphics, an open ended environment, and is fun to play. If you dial up the graphics options, the game rewards with you some fantastic visuals courtesy of the Dunia Engine. The game also features the most impressive benchmark tool we have seen in a PC game. We set the performance feature set to Very High, graphics to High, and enable DX10 with AA set to 2x. The in-game benchmark tool is utilized with the Ranch Small level and we report an average of three test runs.

The press information from ASRock indicated excellent graphics performance with this board and in this particular game title, it does not disappoint. We have noticed the same pattern at 1680x1050 and in other games in early testing.

First Thoughts –

ASRock went back to the X58 drawing board and it shows. At a $169.99 price tag, we expected a motherboard lacking in features or performance. However, ASRock added features ranging from handy rest/power/CMOS switches to a very good 8-phase power supply along with just about every standard option a user expects on higher-end boards. Performance is very solid and even overclocking does not disappoint, certainly not for users on air or self-contained water cooling solutions.

The board tends to have higher Vdroop (.04~.05V) than the MSI or Gigabyte (.02~.03V) boards in this price sector, you can disable Vdroop although we recommend against it. There are some inconsistencies in the BIOS feature descriptions in the voltage section. We would have preferred better memory performance above DDR3-1600 speeds, not so much for application performance improvements as they are minimal, but we tended to use slightly higher VDimm/VTT voltages than we did on the MSI board at like settings. S3 resume works properly and ASRock now offers basic fan speed control on each header although temperature based control is still missing.

At this point in testing, we have found no obvious reasons not to recommend the X58 Extreme for users seeking balanced performance and features at a very reasonable price point, well, for X58 products. The board does not have the overclocking prowess of more expensive boards but it will not embarrass you either. We tend to look at the overall aspects of a product and the company building it instead of focusing on Super Pi or 3DMark numbers. As such, it appears that ASRock has delivered another outstanding product for the budget hunter in all of us.