After a long delay and during Last year November 2010, the PCI Special Interest Group officially publishes the finalized PCI Express 3.0 specification to its members to build devices based on this new version of PCI Express.

So, what is PCI Express 3.0 and what's the differ of PCI Express 2.x? take a look below


From the table above, we can see that the bandwidth of PCI-Express 3.0 is doubled compared PCI Express 2.x. Few days ago news of AMD new coming HD7000 series GPU will PCI-E 3.0 compliant; while Intel announce Ivy bridge will be support PCIE3.0 , does that mean it's the new era for computer industry already?

Anyhow, today we're here to preview Malaysia very first PCIE 3.0 motherboard, ASROCK Z68 EXTREME 4 GEN3


The Packaging with handle. Standard packaging size



Rear of the packaging



Opening the box, you'll see the accessories enclosed



Sata 3.0 rated Cables. Well at least you won't need to worry data loss



A High speed USB 3.0 connectors bracket for your 2.5" Floppy drive bay



The overall look of the motherboard. It's full of Black with Gold colors Capacitor. Provided a premium Look

This post has been edited by storm88: Jul 22 2011, 05:50 PM

PCIE 3.0 Slot exits!


The south bridge cooler with a V8 wording on it. Perhaps a V8 Engine inside?



The Cool Gold color capacitors and it's digital PWM 8 + V Phase



Types of features ready inside the product



4 x SATA2; 4 x SATA3

This post has been edited by storm88: Jul 22 2011, 06:46 PM

ASMedia ASM1083 Single Chip Solution to bridge SuperSpeed USB3.0, High Speed USB2.0 and SATA 6.0/3.0 Gbps with integrated CPU and embedded RAM


PLX Chip. It's widely used to distribute PCIe lanes more effectively. attached picture shows the difference "WITH" or "WITHOUT" PLX chip.

VS Motherboard without PLX chip



Rear connectors

This post has been edited by storm88: Jul 22 2011, 06:04 PM

Since this is only a simple product review, so I won't touch about the Bios and other features of the product today.

Oh by the way, the most important part of this review, is the specification of the product. So here we go:

# Premium Gold Caps (2.5 x longer life time), 100% Japan-made high-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors
# Digi Power, Advanced V8 + 4 Power Phase Design
# 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 Slots, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slot, (3-Way CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® SLI™ Ready)
# Supports Intel® HD Graphics Built-in Visuals
# Dr. Debug, Smart Switch Design: Power/Reset/Clear CMOS Switch with LED
# Support Intel® Smart Response, Lucid Virtu Switchable Graphics
# Supports ASRock XFast USB, XFast LAN Technologies
# Supports ASRock On/Off Play, Graphical UEFI, ASRock Extreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
# Combo Cooler Option (C.C.O.)
# 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Supports THX TruStudio™

Thank you for viewing and hope you all have a nice day!

This post has been edited by storm88: Jul 22 2011, 05:59 PM

Waiting for extreme 7 gen 3. Let's start killing Asus shall we?

Price !!!! What the price???? Hope don't over RM700...RM700++ for a mobo is a pain T_T...upgrade my mobo and processor soon... 1 more, PCIE 2.0 graphic card able fix into PCIE 3.0 slot right?

Yes. by referring to PCISIG, PCIE 3 is backward compatible. Btw Pricing of this product is sub RM700

nice review bro...
its time to sell my Ahsus...

Very solid built board. Price efficient also.Using fully polymer also 0.0.


By the way. The panel there is that for BIO code test ?Looks kind of fresh since most Board uses normal speaker.

Pls dont. Asus P67 mobo is at top now so far having da best BIOS, good voltage regulator, auto dram subtimings good for noob OCer, playable skews gives more BCLKs beyond limit, better PCIE slots spacing for custom gc coolers.

Anyway must agree that Asrock does make the best bang for bucks mobos, look at their prices the flagship one is not even close to RM1k. Given great rating by bunches of review websites i would say Asrock is one of the brands which we must give it a try.

The gold/black theme of extreme7 looks attractive!

This post has been edited by owikh84: Jul 23 2011, 10:13 AM

Yup the display LEDs are for BIOS code test. Using the P67 Extreme 4 now
Too bad it doesn't show temperature readings

The gold cap looks very attractive & and back panel connectors are pretty complete. The price isnt really bad at all. I think it is a pretty decent deal.

This post has been edited by billytong: Jul 23 2011, 04:07 PM

Is this for i7 extreme only ? Or suppor 1366 chipset?

I'm likely gonna be a guinea pig.

This is for LGA 1155 socket

i dun understand.. how it is called pcie 3.0?

iirc, intel ark shows SB processors as pcie 2.0 onli

or its onli offers pcie3 when IB is used?

This post has been edited by jinaun: Jul 23 2011, 11:21 PM

Yes you are right. Intel announced PCI-E 3.0 will be supported only by IB atm.

So does it mean this mobo will be based on new socket?

nah, IB will still use the same socket but differ chipset.
These mobo custom build PCI-E 3.0 into it.

According to VR-Zone, the extreme 7 will be expensive.

Same socket but SB can't used rite? Too bad for SB owner, need to replace the whole things if want to upgrade

so how to utilize the pci-e 3.0 features on this board?

Sorry I'm confused just now. Just found out that SB can be use on this mobo, so the pci-e 3.0 slot will be operate only at 2.0..

It need IB to utilize the pci-e 3.0

Correct me if I'm wrong, thanks

Graphic card with pci-e3.0 compliant can utilize it.

huh these board for sandybridge lar.
not sure IB can use these board a not. perhaps with bios flash in the future who know time will tell.
Graphic card with pci-e3.0 compliant can utilize it. nothing to do with proc.

This post has been edited by yinchet: Jul 25 2011, 07:01 AM

Edit: IB procs will work on LGA1155.

This post has been edited by owikh84: Jul 25 2011, 01:36 PM

"Ivy Bridge processors will be backward compatible with the Sandy Bridge platform". Does it mean the IB will reduce the performance when IB installed in SB platform?

i tot IB & SB is the same platform as they are 1155 socket..n nothing to do with the backward compatible thing..hmmm

Yes, I know now, just confuse bcoz I thought they mean this mobo is for IB only..

From the source I read, this features depend on the processor bro

Besides of PCI-E 3.0 features in this Gen 3 motherboard, it does has other features as well

it's just the overall specifications of the pci-e have been improved, as you can see in the first page. The slot didnt change, so it should be backward compatible with older pci-e 1.0 and 2.0 cards.

U rite, just like pcie 2.0 1st introduce b4, all pcie 1.0 card still can be use on pcie 2.0 slot.

Is it on the market already? I want to pick up one tomorrow.

ffuuu.
nice mobo..
i wonder how much it cost.

lingloong's thread stated coming soon only fatality version available now.
can try PM lingloong or Cex for pricing of this mobo, maybe close to RM600 perhaps?
Z68 Extreme 4 now about RM589.

This board is estimated at RM660+/-

Is it worth choosing this board over ASUS P8Z68-V PRO?

haha looks like i cannot upgrade from my hd5850 anymore bcoz next gen 7000 series will b using pcie 3 n my mobo only pcie 2 aiya

Purchased 1 of this from lowyat yesterday, price RM630, comparing this board with other asus board at the same price range, asus build quality is better, need to do some testing with this board b4 using it in a project, my boss worry about the build quality of asrock as he said he encounter more defect in asrock board compare to asus/intel.

I want to know something the pci express 2 can give 75w power so much does pci e 3 gives?

When any pice devices need to use extra power than normal, they should have extra 6/8 pin power input for itself, imagine when 1 pice slot draw 75w and the mobo got 7 pcie x16 slots, plus all other devices on board and USB devices, you might kill the board as so much power pump into the board. You have to know a 6/8 pin power output uses fat cable, and mobo links can't take that.

abit curious, how do you really know the quality is better by just looking at it?

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Added on November 13, 2011, 9:30 amDon't know what you try to describe here...

bro Riddhy asks if PCIE 3.0 able to provide 75watts as PCIE 2.x does...

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Added on November 13, 2011, 9:31 amSo far i know it does provide 75Watts. But need to be double confirm with HD7000 cards when released

This post has been edited by storm88: Nov 13 2011, 09:31 AM

Not just looking at it, its the feeling, ie when you plug the CPU heat sink/VGA in, how much the board bend, it bends more compare to asus board perhaps asus uses thicker PCB

and the PCIE3.0, simple answer is i dont know, and sorry that my answer is complex, i said u shouldnt take too much power draw from mobo, when more current flow through a cable, the cable need to be thicker, and mobo isnt designed to transfer huge amount of power, u can fry the board. suppose to pump in additional power direct from PSU not from mobo.

This post has been edited by narf03: Nov 13 2011, 02:48 PM

next gen gc will be backward compatible with pcie 2.0. Don't worry too much. Both GC and motherboard manufacturer will make win-win situation to gain more profit.

This post has been edited by letze: Nov 13 2011, 03:31 PM